Return to

Main Idea: Hebrews 1:5-14 exalts the supremacy of Christ and makes it clear that there is no Son like this Son. To accomplish this, the passage teaches us about two subjects.

Satan is sly. He hates God and especially hates His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s why he works in the world to get the focus off of Christ. That’s his aim, to detract from Christ, to get people to stop thinking about Christ. He uses more than one strategy to accomplish that deadly agenda. His more obvious tactic is outright assault.

Last week the Shawnee State Park Lodge, in response to someone’s complaint, removed a nativity scene from their Christmas display. That’s certainly nothing new. The outright assault to get rid of Christ is becoming more and more a reality.

Also this past week The Golden Compass hit the big screen. This major motion picture poses quite a challenge for Christians, for several reasons as Southern Seminary president Albert Mohler explains. For starters, the movie is well done in terms of production. Like the book on which it is based, the movie has an intriguing plot line. In addition, the casting was excellent and the special effects rival The Lord of the Rings.

The challenge? Al Mohler comments, “This is not just any fantasy trilogy or film project. Philip Pullman has an agenda -- an agenda about as subtle as an army tank. His agenda is nothing less than to expose what he believes is the tyranny of the Christian faith and the Christian church. His hatred of the biblical storyline is clear. He is an atheist whose most important literary project is intended to offer a moral narrative that will reverse the biblical account of the fall and provide a liberating mythology for a new secular age.”

Mohler adds, “ Pullman 's attack on biblical Christianity is direct and undeniable. He once questioned why his books attracted little controversy even as the Harry Potter books attracted so much. He told an Australian newspaper that what he is ‘saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God.’”

Another concern is that the movie includes surprisingly graphic and explicit sex. This isn’t merely because “sex sells.” The writer has a more blatant agenda, as Mohler explains, “ Pullman believes that the Christian church is horribly repressive about sex and that this is rooted in the idea of the Fall. As he told Hanna Rosin of the Atlantic Monthly, "Why the Christian Church has spent 2,000 years condemning this glorious moment, well, that's a mystery. I want to confront that, I suppose, by telling a story that the so-called original sin is anything but. It's the thing that makes us fully human."”[1]

Should Christians beware of The Golden Compass? For sure. It’s an outright assault on biblical Christianity.

But I have a greater concern. Satan uses another strategy to take the focus off of Christ, and we often miss it. Yes, he uses outright assault, and that’s dangerous, but a far more subtle approach is distraction. Satan can’t eliminate Christ, so he does all he can to distract attention from Him, not necessarily by bad things either. What’s Christmas all about for many today? Family, office parties, Santa Claus, gift giving, light displays, sending cards, cantatas, new clothes, and more. Again, nothing wrong with those things, yet the combined effect of them is that Christ is lost in the clutter.

Fighting for the right to put Jesus in a community nativity display a few weeks a year is fine, but the real issue is, what place do we give Jesus in our lives the rest of the year? Does He take center stage in our family life, our work life, and our community life, or do we delegate Him to some lesser role?

God has given us a book that can help us in this battle, a book which defends the supremacy of Christ and calls for absolute allegiance to Him. It’s the book of Hebrews. As we saw last week, Hebrews was written about thirty-some years after Messiah Jesus conquered the grave and returned to heaven. We don’t know who wrote the book, nor are the recipients identified. Based on the content of Hebrews, the recipients were from a Jewish background and were experiencing intense persecution such that they were wavering and considering defection and a return to Judaism. Like a motivational coach, the author of Hebrews seeks to motivate his readers to stay in the game.

He begins the letter by showing in the first four verses the supremacy of the person of Jesus Christ. Who is the Son? Verse 2 says He’s the heir of all things and the creator of all things; verse 3 states that He is the perfect expression of glory, the exact representation of God, the sustainer of all things, the one who took care of our sin problem, and who took a seat in heaven; and verse 4 indicates He is superior to the angels.

The author uses the rest of chapter one to build on the contrast in verse 4, to show unmistakably the supremacy of the Son over the angels. Hebrews 1:5-14 makes it clear that there is no Son like this Son, that no one (including the angels) compares to Him. In this great passage we learn about two vital subjects.

In fact, we learn more about angels from Hebrews 1 than perhaps any other biblical text. Keep in mind the reason. Apparently, these first century readers were fascinated by angels. Paul ran into this as his warning in Colossians 2:18 indicates, “Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize.”

When that happens it suits the evil one just fine. Remember his agenda? He wants to turn people’s attention away from Christ. To do that he’ll use outright assault, but he’ll also use distraction. He knows that if we develop a preoccupation with something—even something good like angels—then he’s won a victory for he’s distracted us from the best of subjects, namely Christ Himself.

In order to exalt Christ, the writer of Hebrews puts angels in their proper place by emphasizing two important facts regarding angels.[2]

A. They are God’s creatures (7). Notice verse 6, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” And verse 7, “In speaking of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.’” The author stresses that angels belong to God. That’s because they are His creatures. He made them. Indeed, to be precise the Son made the angels as He did everything else that exists, as we saw last time in verse 2, and as we’ll see again momentarily in verse 10.

Sometimes we forget this. Angels are creatures. Yes, they’re different from us in intriguing ways, but they are nonetheless creatures. They did not always exist, but came into being, just like we did, because the Sovereign God chose to create them.

B. They are God’s servants (14). We see this in verse 14, which, you’ll note is a question, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” In asking this rhetorical question, the writer is stating what he assumes his readers should already know about angels, namely that they are servants.

Notice the words carefully. They are ministering spirits (from the Greek term leiturgika, from which we get the word ‘liturgy’). Angels exist to fulfill the desire of their Maker. They are not rivals to God, but ministers of God.

They are ministering spirits. That indicates that unlike human beings, angels are not restricted by space. They are spirit beings. They do not have bodies although they can appear in bodily form as they fulfill their ministry (see Heb. 13:2).

They are sent, says verse 14. The passive verb indicates that angels were not created to “do their own thing,” but to do the bidding of their Maker. God sends them.

He sends them to serve. This Greek term is the familiar diakonian. Angels are spiritual ‘deacons,’ if you will, servants.

And who do they serve? The text states they serve those who will inherit salvation. Angels, then, serve two subjects. First…

1. They serve Christ. Think back to Christ’s earthly ministry. Who do we see at His birth? Angels (Luke 2:13). And after His forty days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness, who do we see attending to His needs. Again, angels (Matt. 4:11). We see an angel ministering to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane , too (Luke 22:43). And it’s not surprising that we see angels at His tomb (Matt. 28:2).

And it’s not just that angels served Christ in the past either. The book of Revelation makes it clear that right now angelic beings are serving Him in heaven (Rev. 5:11), as they will in the future when He sends them to gather His elect (Matt. 24:31), when He returns to earth in glory (Matt. 25:31), and when He judges mankind (Rev. 16:1; 17:1).

But Hebrews 1 reveals something quite staggering. Angels serve a second subject…

2. They serve Christ’s people. They are “sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” What salvation is he talking about? The salvation that the Son came to earth to accomplish, the “purification for sins” mentioned in verse 3. The Son came to save sinners. That’s why He died on the cross, to pay sin’s penalty and thereby provide salvation for those who would repent and believe on Him. But the Son doesn’t just offer future salvation. He also offers a present guarantee. He will lose none that He saves. He sends His angels to serve His people, to make sure they will inherit the salvation He merited in their behalf.

There’s much more we could say about angels and their ministry, but to do so would be unwise at this point for two reasons. One, our time doesn’t allow. And two, our text doesn’t allow. The purpose of this text isn’t to arouse our interest in angels. There’s a loftier subject at hand, and to that subject we now turn.

At times in the Old Testament angels are referred to as “sons of God” (e.g. Job 1:6; 2:1), but no angel nor any other creature holds the status of The Son. To prove that point, the writer of Hebrews uses the Old Testament, since his readers are Jewish, and demonstrates the superiority of the Son by citing seven Old Testament passages in verses 5-14. In so doing he shows that the Son possesses five attributes that make Him superior to angels.

A. The Son possesses a special relationship with the Father (5). “For to which of the angels did God ever say [a quotation from Psalm 2:7], ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’? Or again [a quotation from 2 Samuel 7:14], ‘I will be his Father, and he will be my Son’?”

The first quotation comes from Psalm 2, a psalm frequently cited in the New Testament. According to the first part of Psalm 2:7 (which isn’t included in Hebrews 1:5), what follows is “the decree of the LORD.” It’s a decree about the Person referred to as “the Anointed One” in Psalm 2:2, “my King” in 2:6, and the One who will “rule” the nations “with an iron scepter” in 2:9, and whose “wrath can flare up” according to 2:12. It’s to that person that the LORD proclaims this decree: “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”

The second quotation comes from 2 Samuel 7:14. In 2 Samuel 7, one thousand years B.C., God gave King David a promise. The LORD declared that He would establish David’s kingdom forever (verse 12) and that He would give David an offspring, a son to build a house for God’s honor (verse 13). Verse 14 states, “I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.” In the context, that “son” is Solomon. God is telling David that He will work through Solomon to build the Davidic dynasty.

But the writer to the Hebrews, as he does with many Old Testament passages in this book, says that this points beyond David’s son, Solomon. This promise point to and is fulfilled by the ultimate Son, God’s Son. I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.

Jesus Christ claimed to be the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17). He said all the Hebrews Scriptures pointed to Him (John 5:39, 46). And the New Testament record over and over shows that Jesus is indeed The Son.

For instance, do you remember what the angel told the virgin Mary? Luke 1:31-32 records, “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

And what do we hear at Jesus’ baptism? The Father announces in Matthew 3:17, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” It’s the same announcement we hear on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew 17:5, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

Let’s take another look at Hebrews 1:5 and we’ll see something quite revealing. The statement, “Today I have become your Father” literally reads, “Today I have begotten you” (from the Greek gegennaka which means “to give birth, become father of, procreate, or cause to happen). That raises the question, “In what sense did the Father beget the Son?” And, “What does He mean by the word today when He says, ‘Today I have begotten you’? What day is today?”

We can be sure it does not mean that there was a time when the Son did not exist, for He is eternal (John 1:1-3; Col. 1:16-17). As we’ll see later in Hebrews 1, the second person of the Trinity has always existed (verses 10-12).

The Nicene Creed, written in A.D. 325, helps us. It states that Christ is “the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made.” Robert Gromacki explains, “In that choice of words, the early church fathers wanted to point out the unique eternal relationship between the Father and the Son without implying that the Son had a beginning in time. There could be no Father without the Son and there could be no Son without the Father. The decree, therefore, is as eternal as the relationship.”[3]

The begetting of the Son seems to be referring to His incarnation, that is, to the point in time (the ‘today’) when the eternal Son took on flesh and become a man. Philip Hughes comments, “The ‘begetting,’ then, is the begetting of the incarnate Son—not the eternal begetting of the divine Son ‘before all worlds’—and it marks the completion and the acceptance of his redeeming mission to our world.[4]

Some, like Wiersbe, believe the begetting pertains specifically to Christ’s resurrection, based on Paul’s statement in Acts 13:33, “He has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’”

Of this we can be sure. God the Son possesses a unique, one of a kind relationship with the Father, which the angels do not possess. His unique identity is under constant attack and is that which we must diligently defend.

I mentioned the Nicene Creed. Let me take you back to the setting of the creed. Al Mohler explains what happened:

“In the early fourth century there arose a presbyter in the church of Alexandria by the name of Arius, who began to teach that Jesus Christ was not the pre-existent Son of God, but that there once was a time when the Son was not. On the other side of the controversy was a bishop named Athanasius. Here was a man who understood the truth, and who also understood that his responsibility as a shepherd of the sheep to warn his people about this false teaching. At one point, one of Athanasius's advisers said to him, "Athanasius, the entire world is against you." In reply, Athanasius said, "Well, if the entire world is against Athanasius, then Athanasius will be against the entire world." In Latin, Athanasius' phrase has been summarized as "contra mundum," "against the world." Surely that is one of the greatest statements in the history of Christianity, and Christians should feel invigorated by the courage of Athanasius. If necessary, contra mundum, against the world! If the world is against the Gospel, then the world will have to understand that we must be against the world.”[5]

B. The Son possesses inherent worth (6). “And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’”

The writer of Hebrews quotes here from Deuteronomy 32:43, but if you looked at it in your Bible, you’d conclude that’s the wrong reference. That’s because the writer isn’t quoting from the Hebrew Bible (from which we get our English Old Testament), but apparently from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible which was made two centuries B.C.).[6] The LXX adds this phrase, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

Deuteronomy 32 is a song of Moses in which he praises God for bringing

Israel

into the Promised Land. The “him” refers to God. Here Hebrews 1 says it points to the Son, thus stressing the deity of Christ. We’re told two things regarding the Son here.

1. He is God’s firstborn. In verse 6, just before the quote, the writer refers to the Son as God’s “firstborn” whom God brought into the world. The Greek term translated “firstborn” is prototokos from proto (which means “first, chief, first in rank”) combined with tikto (which means “to bring forth”). The Son is referred to in several other texts as “firstborn” (such as Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation”; also Rom. 8:29).

Again, please realize the term does not mean the Son had a beginning, for the second person of the Triune Godhead has always existed. But God has not always existed as a man. That took place some 2,000 years ago when God brought His firstborn into the world in the person of Jesus Christ, of whom Colossians 1:19 declares, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.”

2. He is the object of angels’ worship. Notice the instruction given, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” Since it’s wrong for any creature to worship another creature, the fact that God commanded angels to worship His Son is yet another indication of His Son’s deity and inherent worth.

And that’s what the angels did at the first Christmas. They worshipped the Firstborn (Luke 2:13-14), just like God commanded them to do. Their worship was a clear admission that the Son is greater than they are.

By the way, many today, especially at Christmas time, are enamored by angels. They decorate the tree with angels. They wear angel pins. They put angel figurines around the house. And there’s nothing wrong with any of that necessarily. As long as what? As long as they do what the angels did, and that is worship the Son!

C. The Son possesses royalty (7-9). “In speaking of the angels he says [in a quotation of Psalm 104:4], “He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.” But about the Son he says [a quotation of Psalm 45:6-7], “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”

1. God says that angels serve (7). If you examined Psalm 104 you’d see it speaks of Yahweh’s majesty over His creation. It shows that the LORD is over the heavens (2), the clouds (3), the earth (5), the birds, donkeys, and cattle (10-14), over trees, mountains, and birds (16-18), and makes this declaration in Psalm 104:24, “How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” One of these creatures, mentioned in verse 4, are angels.

And that’s the point of the Hebrews’ quotation. Angels are creatures, God’s creatures. God created them to serve and likens them to wind and fire, “He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.”[7] What’s true of wind and fire? They’re powerful, yes, but they’re also temporary. They come and go, a vivid illustration of the work of angels.

But the person and work of the Son isn’t temporary. It’s permanent. And unlike angels that God created to serve…

2. God says that His Son rules (8-9). Psalm 45 that’s quoted here was written by the sons of Korah. It was a wedding song used to praise Israel ’s king on his wedding day. In verses 6-7 of the psalm the sons of Korah break into praise and acknowledge that God sent this king in place, and that this king will rule eternally and justly.

Please note in Hebrews 1:8 that the Father addresses the Son as “O God.” The Son of God is the ultimate king spoken of in Psalm 45.

D. The Son possesses unchanging eternality (10-12). “He also says, “In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.”

Here Hebrews quotes Psalm 102:25-27. The heading to Psalm 102 says it is a prayer of an afflicted man who poured out his lament to God. “Hear my prayer!” he begins the psalm in verse 1. “My enemies taunt me,” He tells the Lord in verse 8. “You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever,” he acknowledges in verse 12. The psalm ends by contrasting God’s greatness with His enemies, and it’s that section that Hebrews 1 quotes, and from that quotation we learn the following about the Son.

1. He made everything. Verse 10—“In the beginning, O LORD, you laid the foundations of the earth.” The world exists because the Lord made it. The Son made it (remember verse 2).

Answer this. What should be our attitude towards what the Lord made? Should Christians be concerned about the environment? Yes. It’s tragic the way greedy individuals abuse and misuse God’s earth. But please realize that man will not ultimately terminate this universe. This text says the Son of God Himself will do that. The One who made the universe will one day “roll up” the earth like a useless garment. At that time He will burn up the heavens and the earth by fire in order to create a new heaven and new earth (Matt. 24:35; 2 Pet. 3:7; Rev. 21:1).

2. He is forever the same. Verse 12 teaches the sameness of the Son of God, stating, “But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” The Son possesses unchanging eternality.

E. The Son possesses unrivaled supremacy (13-14). “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’? Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”

That’s a quotation of Psalm 110:1, a psalm that the Jews viewed as messianic even before Messiah Jesus came. It’s not surprising that Psalm 110 is cited or echoed a dozen times in Hebrews (1:3; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:3, 11, 17, 21; 8:1; 10:12, 13; 12:2).[8]

Here the writer cites Psalm 110 to point out something angels have never heard. No angel has ever heard God say to him, “Sit at my right hand.” But God did say that to one person, His matchless Son.

Where is the Son of God right now? The last book of the Bible tells us. In His letter to the church at Laodicea , Jesus Christ comments about His current position in Revelation 3:21, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” Where is Christ right now? He’s sitting with His Father on His throne. What does that tell us? The same two realities emphasized in Psalm 110:1 and in Hebrews 1:13…

And that takes us back to where we began. At the beginning of this message I commented about the tactics of the enemy. The evil one hates Christ and does whatever he can to take the focus off of Christ. He uses outright assault as well as distraction. The result is the same. Christ fails to receive what He deserves.

Beloved, this is the truth about God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone possesses a special relationship with the Father. He alone possesses inherent worth. He alone possesses royalty, unchanging eternality, and unrivaled supremacy.

In case you’re thinking, “Do I really need to know all this? As long as a person loves Jesus, that’s what matters, isn’t it?” The question is, “What Jesus?” Only the real Jesus can save a sinner from his sins. If you want real salvation, you need to know the real Jesus.

Is theological precision necessary? When it comes to the identity of Christ, yes! Al Mohler uses an illustration from the fourth century to show just how vital it is that we know the Bible well: “At crucial points in the history of Christian theology, the difference between orthodoxy and heresy has often hung on a single word, or even a syllable. When Arius argued that the Son was to be understood as being of a similar substance as the Father, Athanasius correctly understood that the entirety of the Gospel was at risk. As Athanasius faithfully led the church to understand, the New Testament clearly teaches that the Son is of the same substance as the Father. In the Greek language, the distinction between the word offered by Arius and the correction offered by Athanasius was a single syllable. Looking back, we can now see that when the Council of Nicaea met in A.D. 325, the Gospel was defended and defined at this very point. Without the role of Athanasius as both pastor and theologian, the heresy of Arius might have spread unchecked, leading to disaster for the young church.”[9]

1. Make sure He is supreme in your life. The Son came to earth, died for sinners, conquered the grave, returned to heaven, and is exalted on His throne right now. The question is, is He exalted on the throne of your life? Put your trust in Him and you will be saved. But don’t just trust Him. Live, by His grace, for the supremacy of His name!

2. Make Him known to others. Many don’t know about the Son. Let’s tell them!

**Note: This is an unedited manuscript of a message preached at Wheelersburg Baptist Church . It is provided to prompt your continued reflection on the practical truths of the Word of God.

[1] Albert Mohler, The Golden Compass -- A Briefing for Concerned Christians, www.albertmohler.com

[2] There are 108 references to angels in the OT and 165 references in the NT.

[3] Robert Gromacki, p. 32.

[4] Philip Hughes, p. 55.

[5] http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2006-05-19

[6] This also follows the variant Hebrew manuscript discovered in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[7] Gromack comments, “In such service they may use the winds (another translation of pneumata) and fire as the channels for their manifestation.” p. 33.

[8] Observation by Hughes, p. 69.

[9] http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2006-04-19