back to index2019-02-17 Jesus is better than the Angels Part 1
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Please turn with me to Hebrews chapter 1. I'll be reading from 4 to all the way to 14, even though 00:00:10.120 |
I'm not gonna be addressing all of it today. This is gonna be part 1 of possibly 3 parts. We want 00:00:16.560 |
to take our time, really comb through what the author is saying here about Jesus and in his 00:00:22.640 |
relationship with the angels. And so today's gonna be the first part. We're gonna be addressing two 00:00:28.680 |
of the things that he says and then possibly two or three next week. And then if we don't finish, 00:00:32.440 |
we'll do that the third part. Okay. Starting from verse 4, again reading out of the NASB. "Having 00:00:39.560 |
become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to 00:00:44.840 |
which of the angels did he ever say, 'You are my son, today I have begotten you.' And again, 'I will 00:00:49.920 |
be a father to him and he will be a son to me.' And when he again brings the firstborn into the 00:00:54.840 |
world, he says, 'And let all the angels of God worship him.' And of the angels he says, 'Who 00:01:00.560 |
makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire?' But of the Son he says, 'Your throne, 00:01:06.200 |
O God, is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is a scepter of his kingdom. You have 00:01:11.000 |
loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with 00:01:15.080 |
the oil of gladness above your companions. And you Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation 00:01:20.320 |
of the earth and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish but you remain. And they 00:01:25.760 |
will be... and they all will become old like a garment. And like a mantle you will roll them up. 00:01:30.640 |
Like a garment they will also be changed. But you are the same. And your years will not come to an 00:01:36.080 |
end. But to which of the angels has he ever said, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a 00:01:41.240 |
footstool for your feet.' Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake 00:01:46.400 |
of those who will inherit salvation? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless this 00:01:53.480 |
time. That you would open our ears, often our hearts. Help us to be obedient to all that you 00:01:59.040 |
have to teach. That we would not simply be mere hearers, but to be doers of your word. We pray 00:02:05.960 |
that you would be blessed as we are blessed to be in your presence. In Jesus name we pray, amen. 00:02:10.760 |
Okay, I'm gonna ask you a question and I don't want anybody to answer. Just kind of think about it. 00:02:16.960 |
Okay, which is a more important question? Who is Jesus or who is Jesus to you? Again, don't, don't 00:02:25.720 |
answer. I just want you to think about it. Which is a more important question? Who is Jesus or who 00:02:31.360 |
is Jesus to you? The answer to that question is simple. It's yes. It's both. It's not one or the 00:02:42.360 |
other. So if you're not careful, you can be a part of a camp where who Jesus is, in object of truth, 00:02:50.560 |
isn't, doesn't really matter because it only matters what he means to me. So whether he is the 00:02:55.800 |
Son of God or whether he's the Messiah, it doesn't matter because this is what he means to me. Now 00:03:01.000 |
obviously that is completely false. You can't create a God that of your desire and then say, 00:03:07.680 |
well you know that's what he means to me so it doesn't matter. That's good for you, it's good 00:03:10.600 |
for me. It has nothing to do with objective truth. Obviously if you're a member in this church, we 00:03:17.600 |
don't emphasize that and it is absolutely essential that you know who he is objectively. What is the 00:03:23.000 |
truth about who Jesus is? But for whatever the reason, if you belong to a church where the Bible 00:03:30.120 |
is being taught, there has, there's a tendency for us to gravitate toward truth and begin to 00:03:37.200 |
ignore the subjective truth of what does that mean to you. So we know who Jesus is. He's the 00:03:44.680 |
second person of the Trinity. We know that he's the Messiah. We know he's the Savior. We know he 00:03:50.600 |
is God. But what does that mean to you? The purpose of the book of Hebrews is not to simply get 00:03:58.240 |
Christology correct. It's not simply so that at the end of the study of the book of Hebrews and 00:04:03.360 |
say, you know what, you know I spent so much time in understanding who Jesus is and how he fulfilled 00:04:08.480 |
all the things that God was doing in the Old Testament and I can answer these questions. The 00:04:12.640 |
goal of the book of Hebrews is not simply get the Christology right. He says again in chapter 2 verse 00:04:19.880 |
1, as he concludes this section, he says, for this reason, because Jesus is greater than the prophets 00:04:26.160 |
and greater than the angels, for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have 00:04:32.040 |
heard so that we do not drift away from it. When he says drifting away from it, he's not simply 00:04:37.160 |
talking about theology. That at one point you believe that he was God and then you kind of 00:04:41.840 |
drifted and you started saying that he's not God. He's saying because you believe that he is God, 00:04:48.480 |
what does that mean? What does that look like in your life? The goal of our study is not simply 00:04:56.840 |
Christology. It's by understanding his true identity. Again, this is, I would say, Hebrews chapter 1 and 00:05:04.280 |
2 in particular, I've probably spent more time in these two texts in evangelism, talking to Jehovah 00:05:09.960 |
Witnesses and about the Trinity than any other text. Because to me, and people may disagree 00:05:16.160 |
with me, and some people may have different opinion, it is the clearest text that teaches 00:05:21.720 |
about the Trinity, about who Jesus is in his identity, in his relationship with the Father, 00:05:26.560 |
and to the rest of creation. And so oftentimes I find myself, if I'm talking to Jehovah Witnesses, 00:05:33.080 |
this is the text I end up going to. And you'll see that if you, especially with the Jehovah 00:05:38.400 |
Witnesses, because we have a very different view of who Jesus is, even though the language sounds 00:05:42.720 |
the same, that this is the text I usually come to. And you'll find out that their translation is 00:05:48.000 |
deliberately mistranslated because they can't interpret and understand what he is saying here. 00:05:54.080 |
And so I've had many discussions with Jehovah Witnesses in this text. And so I hope that through 00:06:01.160 |
this study that you'll get a firmer grasp of who Jesus is. But again, the ultimate goal of this 00:06:07.360 |
study is not so that at the end of it say, "Oh, I can now have a discussion with the Jehovah 00:06:11.880 |
Witnesses and I can refute false doctrines." Because that is not the goal of the writer. 00:06:17.240 |
The goal of the writer is if you know that, if you believe that, and if you can confess that, 00:06:23.520 |
if you can argue that, then what does that mean to you? Who does Jesus mean to you? Last week we 00:06:32.080 |
talked about how Jesus is greater than the prophets and all of that was a setup to pay attention. And 00:06:36.320 |
so now he begins this week in this text to talk about how Jesus is greater than the angels. And 00:06:43.240 |
I've already stated that the angels were believed to be the greatest or the highest created beings. 00:06:48.760 |
So it was God and then the angels. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 2, 9, talking about Jesus's 00:06:56.080 |
incarnation, he says, "For a little while Jesus was made a little lower than the angels." So it 00:07:03.560 |
clearly states that even though man was the center of creation in Genesis chapter 1, 2, 00:07:08.640 |
it says that in God's total plan of creation that we were actually made a little bit lower. So they 00:07:16.080 |
were higher than us. When we typically think of angels, you know, we have exaggerated versions 00:07:24.560 |
of good angels and bad angels, right? And a lot of it, if not most of what I hear about angels, 00:07:30.120 |
usually come from television or movies. And that's why, you know, again, this is my personal thing, 00:07:35.680 |
that horror movies are horrible because it gives you bad theology. It gives you really horrible 00:07:42.400 |
theology. Because the horror movies, usually the superpower in horror movies is usually Satan. And 00:07:48.800 |
nobody can do anything. And that's why it's so scary because there's nothing that they can do. 00:07:53.160 |
And like it or not, even though, no matter how strong you think you are mentally, if you sit in 00:07:59.560 |
front of that and you're entertained by that, it's gonna affect your theology in your head, 00:08:03.520 |
at least emotionally. Again, so that's my opinion. That's not a fact, but you know, 00:08:08.680 |
like I would encourage you to stay away from it if you can, okay? And I know you can. All right? 00:08:14.480 |
So most of what we think about angels are usually exaggerated. So you typically, you know, you have 00:08:22.280 |
angels, the good angels are the white angels with wings, right? And they can fly and they're 00:08:28.480 |
benevolent. They're always caring, looking out for you. And that's the angels. And then you have 00:08:32.040 |
the bad angels who are demonic and they're usually in dark colors. They have horns, right? And they're 00:08:37.320 |
bad and they're ugly, right? They're either in red, some cape, and so they're ugly. According 00:08:42.920 |
to scripture, in their nature, it's the same. So if you were to take a bunch of people who committed 00:08:48.840 |
crime and maybe straight-A students and you put them in the same line, you're not gonna simply say, 00:08:53.560 |
"Criminal, not criminal. Criminal, not criminal." Because the only distinction may be their moral 00:08:59.240 |
nature. And that's exactly how the Bible describes angels. They, on the surface, probably look exactly 00:09:05.320 |
the same. And the reason why demonic angels have so much power to lure people into the world is 00:09:15.120 |
because they're just as attractive. In fact, the greatest and the highest, most attractive angel 00:09:19.800 |
is Lucifer. So he doesn't scare us into chasing after the world. He lures us, much like Babylon. 00:09:29.960 |
But what he's referring to here is not the demons. What he's referring here are the angels who are 00:09:37.280 |
still in service. In fact, just to understand the context before we even get into what Paul says, 00:09:42.320 |
we need to know what they understood, what the Jewish community understood about the angels. 00:09:47.360 |
They were considered holy, powerful, above human beings. The Bible describes the numbers of angels 00:09:58.520 |
as myriads of myriads. Now, the term "myriads of myriads" literally just means tens of thousands. 00:10:04.040 |
Now, tens of thousands doesn't sound like a lot, right? I remember when we were younger, 00:10:09.800 |
when somebody said, "Oh, he's a millionaire." And that meant a lot. It's like, "Oh, you know, 00:10:15.120 |
by the time I'm 30, I'm gonna be a millionaire." Now, if somebody says, "I'm a millionaire," it's 00:10:19.120 |
like, "What? That's your goal?" Now people say "billionaire" because the devaluing of money and 00:10:26.640 |
that you have to make a lot more. So tens of thousands, the way they use it, literally means 00:10:31.320 |
tens of thousands, but the way the Bible uses it as numbers that you can't count. Like today, 00:10:37.840 |
if you want to have a high number, you don't just say "million," you say "billions" or "gazillion" 00:10:41.880 |
or "google." Or if you want to go even beyond that, you say "infinity times infinity." Basically, 00:10:46.720 |
what that means is you can't count. And so when the Bible says that there are myriads upon myriads 00:10:53.520 |
of angels, they're numberless. That's how many there are. So nobody knows exactly how many angels 00:10:59.800 |
were created, but they were created in large numbers to the point where we couldn't count. 00:11:05.400 |
The Bible says that the angels actually have their own language. In Corinthians, it says it's 00:11:11.800 |
speaking of tongues of men and of angels. So they're a community. They're not just random 00:11:18.560 |
beings just roaming around. The Bible also says that they have emotion. And so scripture describes 00:11:27.240 |
that when a sinner repents, he says all the angels in heaven rejoices. They are highly organized. The 00:11:35.040 |
Bible says that there's Archangel Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer was the highest of the angels before 00:11:41.520 |
he fell. So it sounds like the way that the angels are described, like a military. So you have 00:11:47.840 |
commanding officers, you have the archangel, and you have various angels who are subordinate, 00:11:51.800 |
following, and so the community of angels is highly organized. In fact, the Jewish community 00:11:58.760 |
had such high regard for the angels. Paul says in Colossians 2 18 to watch out for people who 00:12:05.240 |
lead you into worship of angels. Colossians 2 18, "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by 00:12:11.920 |
delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels." To say that Jesus is superior to angels 00:12:18.960 |
is basically saying Jesus is God, because there was nothing between the angels and God. And so again, 00:12:27.920 |
some of the things that I'm gonna say this morning is gonna sound a bit technical, but this 00:12:32.920 |
technicality is very important in understanding Jesus's identity. So again, I say this every 00:12:39.960 |
once in a while because I'm afraid I'm gonna lose some of you. Okay, so I'm trying to gain some of 00:12:43.800 |
you to pay a little bit more attention than normal. Okay, he begins by saying, verse 4, "Having become 00:12:52.120 |
as much better than the angels, he has inherited a more excellent name, for to which of the sons you 00:12:59.160 |
are my son, today I have begotten you." So when he says he became and he has begotten, the first 00:13:07.480 |
thing that someone would ask was, Jesus is clearly a created being. That's what he says. He was begotten. 00:13:14.760 |
He became. The typical word for making something out of nothing is the word in Greek, "poieo." So if 00:13:25.440 |
that's what the author meant, it would have been much more clear for him to use the word "poieos," 00:13:30.240 |
to make something out of nothing. But the word he uses here is not "poieo," but "ginomai." And the 00:13:37.680 |
word "ginomai" basically means that to be transformed from one to another. It's not creation from nothing 00:13:44.080 |
to something. The theologians call that "ex nihilo," something out of nothing, and only God has the 00:13:49.640 |
ability to do that. He's not saying that Jesus was nothing and then he became something, but he was 00:13:54.280 |
being transformed from one form to another. In 1st Corinthians 4 15, that same word is used this way, 00:14:00.920 |
"For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers. For in 00:14:06.720 |
Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." So here he's not saying that the Corinthians 00:14:13.720 |
didn't exist and all of a sudden they came into existence because of Paul. He's saying that they 00:14:18.400 |
weren't Christians, they became Christians. Again, Philemon verse 10, "I appeal to you for my child 00:14:24.960 |
Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment." He's not saying that he didn't exist and then he 00:14:31.720 |
gave birth and all of a sudden he came to being. Obviously he's saying that he's using the word 00:14:36.400 |
"begotten" in the same way, that he transformed from one to another. Now I think the best illustration 00:14:43.880 |
of that is found in Philippians chapter 2 6 through 11, where Jesus humbles himself and then he is 00:14:49.480 |
exalted and then he he receives a name that is greater than any other. So Philippians 2 6 through 11, 00:14:54.960 |
"Who although he existed in form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 00:15:01.880 |
but he emptied himself." So let me stop right there. So God, Jesus didn't all of a sudden appear out of 00:15:08.880 |
nowhere in his humanity. He said he was God and he was pre-existent. But what he emptied himself was 00:15:15.920 |
the glory. He said he emptied himself of his glory, he took on a form of a servant, being made in 00:15:21.400 |
likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself becoming obedient to the 00:15:26.200 |
point of death and even death on a cross. And for this reason, because he emptied himself, became 00:15:31.760 |
nothing, for this reason God highly exalted him, bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 00:15:37.760 |
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 00:15:42.280 |
So we clearly see here that Christ wasn't created. He was God. He veiled his glory in 00:15:52.240 |
humanity and he humbled himself. And this humility is permanent. His union, his 100% God, 100% man, 00:16:02.840 |
is a permanent union where he veils his glory and as a result of what he has done, he says, 00:16:08.200 |
God the Father exalts him and causes him to be exalted in his name to be honored. Now all of 00:16:17.120 |
that may or may not be going over your head, but it is a clear teaching of Jesus's deity. It's a 00:16:24.120 |
clear teaching that he is equal with God and yet he is also distinct. And I'm going to continue to 00:16:29.000 |
go forward. So he begins by declaring that and then he goes even further than that and he says, 00:16:35.700 |
Jesus inherited a better name than the angels. Now I've already shared that the angels were 00:16:42.720 |
considered the highest of beings and they were considered so highly that many of them were 00:16:49.440 |
tempted to worship the angels. In fact, oftentimes you'll see, and I'll mention this later, where you 00:16:55.480 |
have encounters with the saints of the Old Testament and New Testament and their immediate 00:16:59.480 |
reaction is to bow down and worship. And then angels stop them. And I'll mention a little bit 00:17:04.200 |
more later. That's how they regarded the angels. But here the author says he inherited a better 00:17:12.640 |
name. He was made a little bit lower in his humanity, but as a result he is exalted. He was 00:17:18.600 |
placed higher than the angels, better than the angels. Now again, in our culture when we say 00:17:24.000 |
your name is better than his name, we just mean it sounds better, right? You meet a guy named Dorcas, 00:17:31.040 |
right? That's the actual name in the Bible. His name is Dorcas and then you meet another guy named 00:17:36.680 |
Roman, right? I told Roman so many times, I don't know if he's in the room, like he's my, that's my 00:17:41.400 |
favorite name, okay? Centurion, Roman, right? So today when we say, you know, Roman, you have a 00:17:47.920 |
better name than Dorcas. We just mean that it sounds better, right? In context, in culture, 00:17:53.440 |
you have to understand what they mean by better name. Because we don't use names in that way. 00:18:00.560 |
It's kind of like if we were to use nicknames to describe that person, like, oh Michael Jordan is 00:18:05.840 |
the goat, right? Or he is this type of person, that type of person. Well the name in the Bibles were 00:18:12.720 |
directly related to their character or God's purpose in their life. We see that with Abram, 00:18:20.280 |
which means exalted father. He doesn't have a child until his his senior year and then God 00:18:28.360 |
says, I'm gonna make you a great nation and changes his name to Abraham, which means father of many, 00:18:35.600 |
multitudes. Can you imagine Abraham saying like, you know, my name is bad as it is, the exalted 00:18:43.120 |
father when he's not a father, and then now he's gonna make him go around, introduce himself to 00:18:48.720 |
his friends and his family and say, I'm father of many, right? But that was clearly linked to 00:18:56.720 |
God's purpose in his life because God chose Abraham to bear many children and he prophesied 00:19:01.840 |
that it was going to be numerous and through that many other nations are going to be blessed. And 00:19:06.240 |
so his name is directly linked to God's purpose in his life. Isaac, his name literally means laughter, 00:19:14.280 |
and they named him laughter for two reasons. One, because God said you're gonna have a child 00:19:19.240 |
and they said at this age? And so in unbelief they laughed. But also they named him laughter 00:19:25.560 |
because from that unbelief God was gracious and they gave him Isaac and they rejoice. And so he 00:19:32.400 |
was named laughter. Again, it points to just by studying their name you can see the redemptive 00:19:37.440 |
history and what God is doing. Jacob, his name literally means grasper of heel. Can you imagine that? He 00:19:46.200 |
came out and grasper of heels is like, oh Jacob, right? And that's what he was named all his life 00:19:50.960 |
to remind him you're the guy who usurped your older brother of his birthright. Later on as he 00:19:57.720 |
matures and his faith begins to grow and God blesses his life, he wrestles with God. You know 00:20:03.000 |
that scene where Jacob is wrestling and as a result of wrestling he said I'm not gonna go until you 00:20:07.160 |
bless me and he changes his name from Jacob to Israel. And the name Israel literally means one 00:20:13.280 |
who wrestles with God. David, David is a man that God hand chooses and he says he's a man who's after 00:20:21.760 |
my own heart. His name means beloved because that's exactly who he was. God hand-picked him because 00:20:28.440 |
God favored him. Simon, Jesus changes his name to Peter which means the rock and he confesses who 00:20:36.480 |
Jesus says. He says upon this confession, upon this rock I will build my church. So Peter becomes the 00:20:41.600 |
first leader of the New Testament Church. Apostle Paul, before he starts ministry, he had two names. 00:20:48.000 |
He had a Hebrew name and he had a Gentile name. He was called Saul and then when he's called 00:20:55.320 |
into ministry he begins to call himself Paul and then so after Acts chapter 13 we only hear him as 00:21:01.040 |
Apostle Paul because Acts chapter 13 is when he begins his missionary journeys. So he begins to 00:21:06.480 |
use his Gentile name to convey that he's an apostle to the Gentiles. So in the Bible, in the 00:21:13.320 |
Old Testament and the New Testament, when they talk about name, it has much more significance 00:21:18.760 |
than what you and I typically think. It is directly linked to their character, God's calling, redemptive 00:21:25.880 |
history, and their very nature. So when the Bible says, Philippians 2 10, so that at the name of 00:21:35.400 |
Jesus every knee will bow. They're not simply talking about when they hear his name. They're 00:21:41.600 |
talking about in his essence, in his presence. Every knee will bow. It's not should bow. When they are 00:21:51.400 |
in the presence of who is essence of who Jesus is, they will bow. Of those who are in heaven and 00:21:56.640 |
on earth and under the earth. That's how high he is exalted. Ephesians 1 21, far above all rule and 00:22:02.640 |
authority and power and dominion. Again, the emphasis here is all. Not most, not a lot, all rule and all 00:22:13.440 |
authority and power and dominion. Every name that is named, not only in the age, but also in the one 00:22:18.840 |
to come. Again, the question is not, you know, you probably knew God is exalted. Jesus Christ is God. 00:22:29.440 |
I mean, you believe in the Trinity. I mean, that's taught in our membership class. But to the degree 00:22:35.560 |
that he is emphasizing and making us sure that we know the details. There's over 500 different names 00:22:42.720 |
and titles that are given to Jesus in the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testament. I want to 00:22:46.760 |
highlight a few to you. Jesus is almighty one, Alpha and Omega. He's the advocate, author and 00:22:53.920 |
perfect of our faith. He is the final authority. He's the bread of life, beloved son of God, bridegroom, 00:23:00.160 |
chief cornerstone, deliverer, faithful and true, good shepherd, great high priest. He's the head of 00:23:07.480 |
the church. He's a holy servant. He's a great I am. He's Emmanuel, judge, king of kings, lamb of God, light 00:23:15.680 |
of the world, lion of the tribe of Judah, Lord of all, mediator, Messiah, mighty one, redeemer. He's 00:23:23.400 |
the rock, Savior, son of man, son of the Most High, creator, resurrection and the life, the good shepherd, 00:23:31.040 |
the way and the truth, the word, the true vine, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, 00:23:38.120 |
Prince of Peace. We can hear all of these things as separate titles, but again, if you hear this as a 00:23:45.400 |
Jew who understood what these title means, every single one of these things are a clear description 00:23:52.240 |
of who he is, his nature and what he does. And he is saying, when he says he is above the angels, see 00:24:01.440 |
there is nothing above the angels but God. And that's why this passage is so clear about Jesus' 00:24:09.520 |
identity. He's not creating God, the Son and the angels. You're gonna see that the Bible clearly 00:24:17.920 |
teaches that God the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and I'm not gonna get into the Holy Spirit 00:24:23.200 |
today, but the Holy Spirit are the same. He's not creating a space between God and the angels. And 00:24:29.680 |
that's why the second thing that he says, once he establishes that Jesus is above all that, he's above 00:24:37.680 |
the angels, he has a name given above all the rest of creation. Second thing he says, the angels 00:24:46.080 |
worship Jesus and not the other way around. Verse 6, "And let all the angels of God worship him." In 00:24:55.280 |
every instance where the angels are in service and men realize that these powerful holy creatures are 00:25:04.560 |
in their presence, their natural inclination is to worship. Because that's who we are. Whenever we're 00:25:12.640 |
in the presence of something magnificent, we tend to worship. That may be you may go to some beautiful 00:25:17.920 |
place and you're just awed. You didn't sing songs like, you know, "Grand Canyon, you're so beautiful." 00:25:24.240 |
You may not have written poems, but in your heart there was a sense of reverence. You might have 00:25:32.480 |
seen a fantastic game or somebody, you know, had the dunk contest yesterday and it's like, "Whoa!" 00:25:38.560 |
Natural reaction is reverence. We're in the presence of something much more magnificent than you and I. 00:25:45.120 |
So when we see men of the Bible, men and women of the Bible, in the presence of these creatures, 00:25:52.480 |
of these angels, their natural inclination was to bow down and worship because we were created 00:25:58.160 |
to worship. Not to be worshipped, but to worship. We see in Revelation chapter 19, 10. 00:26:07.520 |
A great angel is guiding John through and he's showing all the different revelations and things 00:26:13.040 |
that are happening at the end. And John couldn't help himself but to be awed. And this is what it 00:26:20.080 |
says, Revelation 19, 10, "Then I fell at his feet to worship him, the angel, but he said to me, the angel, 00:26:26.640 |
'Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus 00:26:33.040 |
and worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'" All of a sudden he, he 00:26:40.080 |
stops him and he puts a brake on it. He's like, "Stop that!" Because he would get into trouble. 00:26:46.560 |
If the angel just sat there and allowed him to worship him, he might have felt good. 00:26:51.520 |
But he said, "Do not do that because that's a breaking of the first and most important 00:26:55.520 |
commandment. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. You are to worship no other gods but me." 00:27:01.360 |
So it might have felt good for the angels and that was the problem with Lucifer. 00:27:05.920 |
Lucifer fell because he wanted that glory that was going to God. And he is fighting all through 00:27:13.600 |
his existence to touch some of that glory. And do you think that the angels are not aware of that? 00:27:18.320 |
You think this angel who sees John before him, he doesn't just say, "Hey, you know, thanks for 00:27:25.200 |
your compliment." He says, "No, stop. Do not do that. I am like you. I'm just a servant." 00:27:32.640 |
Again in Revelation chapter 22 verse 8 through 9, "I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. 00:27:40.080 |
And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 00:27:45.680 |
But he said to me, 'Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets 00:27:53.200 |
and those who heed the words of the book. Worship God.'" It would be blasphemy for the angel to stand 00:28:02.720 |
there and allow that worship to happen. See, but it naturally tells us that the angels were highly 00:28:11.040 |
regarded, that the natural reaction of man in the presence of something so much more 00:28:15.760 |
magnificent than him was to bow down and worship. And to the author of Hebrew to say 00:28:23.200 |
that Jesus is greater than the angels, basically in essence he was saying that Jesus is God. 00:28:31.600 |
He's not a God. He's not a form of God. He's not a presentation of God. But he is God himself. 00:28:40.880 |
Because there is nothing in between. And I want to show you a passage in John chapter 5, 22 to 23 00:28:47.360 |
that makes that crystal clear. I remember, again I shared this years ago, but you know, 00:28:53.600 |
years ago when I was on campus, you know, when I was a youth pastor and took a bunch of our students 00:28:58.160 |
out there to share the gospel, you know, I was I think a first or second year Bible student at Biola. 00:29:03.360 |
And I was sharing the gospel and this professor at UCI saw me witnessing. And he went out of his 00:29:10.080 |
way to come track me down and he said, "I can't believe you guys are still doing this." And then 00:29:14.800 |
he just started going off. And so I was standing there and I had about four or five other students 00:29:19.200 |
with me. And he just kind of tore into me. The Bible never says that Jesus never claimed to be 00:29:25.680 |
God. You guys, you know, first century started saying this and now you're repeating this lie. 00:29:30.480 |
Look at the Bible. And then he started quoting scripture. He started quoting the creek. 00:29:34.560 |
And I was like, "Oh my gosh, I'm getting rocked." Right? And one of the students that was with me, 00:29:41.520 |
that's exactly what he said. After that professor was done, he walked away and he said, "Dude, 00:29:44.800 |
you got rocked." You know, so I said, "You know, I better find out." So I went back to my professor 00:29:51.520 |
and I basically jotted down all these questions that came up and I asked him. They were very 00:29:55.360 |
simple answers to all of it. He was twisting certain passages to say what he wanted to say. 00:30:01.280 |
Since then, obviously, you know, I've studied the scriptures and it's, you know, the passage that he 00:30:07.600 |
looked at and other passages and it is crystal clear what Jesus says. And I think one of the 00:30:13.680 |
clearest passages what Jesus says of himself is found in this passage, in my opinion. John chapter 00:30:18.640 |
5, 22 to 23. Listen to what he says. This is a small portion of a larger context of Jesus declaring 00:30:26.400 |
to be God himself. Verse 22, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment 00:30:35.280 |
to the Son." Let me stop right there. Did you just hear what he said? He didn't simply say, "Me and 00:30:43.120 |
God are equal." He didn't simply just say that. I mean, he says that in all these other places. He 00:30:46.880 |
says, "Even the Father does not judge, but I do." Think about that. To even say that you're near God, 00:30:58.560 |
they would have stoned you for that. To enter into the Holy of Holies and you're not a high priest, 00:31:05.920 |
they would have stoned you for that. How dare you show that kind of irreverence for God? Jesus said 00:31:11.840 |
out of his own mouth, "Even the Father does not judge, but I do." I mean, you can't go beyond that. 00:31:20.560 |
Jesus did not simply say he was a God, or he's below God, he's a son of God. He says he does 00:31:28.160 |
things that even the Father does not do. He is co-equal with God. He is the second person of the 00:31:36.400 |
Trinity. And then he explains, "So that all will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." 00:31:46.320 |
The angels were trembling because John bowed down to worship. They said, "Stop that. Don't do that. 00:31:53.600 |
Don't get me in trouble. I'm just like you." But Jesus says, "I do what even the Father does not do 00:32:02.400 |
in order to be what? To be honored." It's another way of saying to be worshiped like the Father. 00:32:08.400 |
How can anybody read that and say Jesus did not say that he's God? 00:32:13.600 |
Jesus is clearly declaring his deity. All throughout scripture, he's saying he is God, 00:32:22.640 |
he is God, he is God, he is God. He's not a God. He's not a form of God. He's not a presentation 00:32:28.960 |
of God. But he is God himself. Now, let me stop right here and declare what is obvious, 00:32:35.040 |
because you all know that. Most of you already confessed that and you believe that. 00:32:41.200 |
But the problem with whatever theology that is so fundamental to our faith, 00:32:47.440 |
and we hear it often enough, it becomes mundane. 00:32:52.720 |
Take a step back and think about that. The God who created your inner being walked among us. 00:33:01.680 |
He was here. He tasted our food. He struggled the same struggle that we struggle. He took on human 00:33:13.520 |
flesh and then he was crucified. All in order to be a sympathetic high priest, to be a perfect 00:33:23.520 |
mediator between God and us. That's what we celebrate. That's what we sing about when we 00:33:31.520 |
talk about the Trinity. The whole purpose of creation is that everything was made by him, 00:33:36.800 |
everything is held together because of him, and everything is ultimately for him. 00:33:43.120 |
Revelation chapter 5, 11 through 14, it gives us a glimpse of heaven. John sees this vision, 00:33:50.000 |
and this is what he sees in heaven. "Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels 00:33:54.640 |
around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the numbers of them was myriads 00:33:58.960 |
upon myriads, thousands upon thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was 00:34:04.320 |
slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.'" 00:34:09.280 |
Who are the angels worshiping? Jesus. Who are the elders worshiping? Jesus. 00:34:16.800 |
The Lamb of God. Jesus is not standing on the side declaring glory to the Father. He is the object 00:34:23.760 |
of their worship. "Thirteen, and every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under 00:34:28.480 |
the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and 00:34:34.480 |
to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.' And the four living 00:34:41.440 |
creatures kept saying, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshipped." Jesus is not a god. He's not 00:34:50.720 |
simply a presentation of God. He is God himself. And the Bible repeatedly over and over says again, 00:34:58.240 |
"This God loved us. This God walked among us. This God counts the hairs on our head and he cares." 00:35:11.280 |
Believing this is what changes us. When we are in the presence of this glory that we could not get 00:35:21.520 |
to, we could not simply make up our mind, "You know what? I'm going to go to go Holy of Holies. I'm 00:35:26.400 |
going to have a conversation with this God because I need his help." We couldn't do that. 00:35:29.680 |
And because we couldn't go to him, Scripture says, "He veiled his glory and came to us." 00:35:37.040 |
That's what the Trinity is. He didn't simply send his messenger. 00:35:44.400 |
He didn't send a servant. He didn't send his angels. He came off of his throne and came to us. 00:35:53.760 |
The angels, the elders, the four living creatures, everything in heaven and on earth, 00:36:00.640 |
forever and ever and ever, said, "We'll be worshipping Jesus, the Lamb of God." 00:36:06.720 |
The Bible has many different words, especially in the New Testament, to describe the word "worship." 00:36:14.320 |
The three of them are the most prominent. The first one is the word "serv" — "le truo." 00:36:20.720 |
So oftentimes, you'll see in some of your translations that the priest went in and they 00:36:25.680 |
worshiped God, and a lot of times that word in the Greek is "le truo." So the word "le truo," 00:36:30.400 |
it means to physically serve. So we use that word in our churches to say, "Throwing out trash can 00:36:37.440 |
could be an act of worship to God." Babysitting, teaching, giving, all of that we do for the 00:36:43.840 |
purpose of building up his kingdom is an act of worship. It's not investing. It's worship. 00:36:50.880 |
So that's the word "le truo." The second word is "sabomai." It means to have reverence. 00:36:56.320 |
So you know that you can sit here with no reverence. You can regurgitate words and go 00:37:01.520 |
through the action, but there's no sense of reverence toward God. But the second word for 00:37:05.760 |
worship is internal, something going on internally, reverence. But the most prominent word, 00:37:12.240 |
majority of the words in the New Testament that is translated for worship is "proskuneo." 00:37:18.880 |
And the word "proskuneo" literally means to fall down and worship. Literally, it means to go 00:37:26.160 |
toward to kiss somebody's feet. The word "feet" is not there, but that's just assumed. 00:37:31.840 |
It's to bow down, go toward to kiss. In other words, you are so enamored, you are so awed 00:37:39.040 |
that it causes you to be prostrated. And so in our generation, when we think of worship, 00:37:48.080 |
we think of Sunday morning, we think of service, maybe even a reverence in our heart and spirit 00:37:52.960 |
and in truth. But the idea of being prostrated before the Almighty God has been lost, 00:38:00.720 |
or we're beginning to lose it. Everything has become casual. We've become so concerned 00:38:09.600 |
about getting more people into the church that we've made God into a lesser God. 00:38:15.840 |
The scripture describes Him when they're in the presence of His glory every single time, 00:38:21.200 |
not because they were discipled, not because they were taught, not because of years of training, 00:38:26.320 |
but simply in the presence of this God, they prostrate themselves in surrender. That's why 00:38:33.920 |
in our culture, when people like, let's say, again, at dunk contest, somebody does a great job 00:38:38.880 |
and we act out, it's like, "Oh, we're not worthy, we're not worthy." Even the secular world understands 00:38:45.840 |
when they're in the presence of something spectacular that they surrender, and that is 00:38:50.640 |
the act of worship, is to surrender. So a man who has not surrendered, no matter how reverent you 00:38:58.000 |
feel in your heart, no matter how much activity that you are engaged in, until you see and you're 00:39:06.800 |
in the presence of the glory of who He is, and it causes us to be prostrated and go toward Him 00:39:17.200 |
to kiss His feet in adoration, because that's how the Bible has described worship. You know 00:39:26.080 |
you can come to church every single Sunday and learn all the right things and say the right things, 00:39:32.960 |
and you know when your heart is far from God, because proskuneo causes us to surrender. 00:39:39.840 |
The goal of the study of the book of Hebrews is not simply Christology. It's to get us to 00:39:48.640 |
proskuneo. It's to get us to see the glory of who He is, that everything else in this world becomes 00:39:55.120 |
rubbish. Those of you who've tasted the goodness of God, those of you who've seen even a glimpse 00:40:03.840 |
of His glory, this world is ruined for you. It's ruined for you. And that's why there's so much 00:40:13.120 |
turmoil in your heart, because nothing that you are tapping into from this world ever comes any 00:40:20.640 |
close to what you have already experienced in Christ. And so even through trials and tribulation, 00:40:27.680 |
why you keep coming. All my life I've only tasted sizzler's steak. I had Ruth Chris one day. 00:40:38.480 |
I never ordered sizzler's steak again, because it just wouldn't do it. 00:40:46.160 |
If you've ever tasted the goodness of God, the world is ruined for you. 00:40:51.280 |
You can make the money, you can gain the fame, you can gain the adoration, you can gain the 00:40:58.240 |
friendship, but it will never come close to the glory of Christ. So the goal of the author of 00:41:05.760 |
Hebrews is not simply to get them to get the right theology. It's so that in revealing 00:41:13.360 |
the majesty of Christ, that they would join the angels in worshiping the Son. And that's my prayer. 00:41:20.880 |
That's my prayer as we start the book of Hebrews, that each one of these things that we see about 00:41:25.760 |
Christ will cause you to see a greater and greater glimpse of who He is, which will lead us to 00:41:31.920 |
surrender our lives. Let's take our time to pray as we again invite our worship team to come up. 00:41:39.200 |
So I ask you again, take some time to pray for Elder Philip as he will be having surgery, 00:41:45.280 |
but at the same time, not just for today, ask the Lord to soften your heart and let the Word of God 00:41:52.080 |
truly bear fruit in your heart, and that we may see a greater, greater glimpse of Christ 00:41:56.320 |
through all of it. Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.