Last week we began the book of Hebrews (if you missed that first introductory message you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts). 

The big idea from last week was the Supremacy of Jesus Christ.  Let me read you those few verses again as a refresher…   

Hebrews 1:1–14 (ESV): 1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.  After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

We saw in these verses that Jesus is the full and final revelation of God to humanity.  If you want to know exactly what God is like, look no further than Jesus, God the Son.  

Now, in order to demonstrate that Jesus is Supreme, the author of Hebrews is going to carefully show us that He is Superior to every other being.  

In order to make sense of our passage today it’s key here to remember the audience: these are Jewish Christians during the first century who were under tremendous pressure to abandon Jesus as their Messiah and revert back to full-fledged Judaism.  

• They were being excluded from the Synagogue by their Jewish countrymen, they were being persecuted under Nero Caesar… 

• And it would have been very convenient for them to abandon their faith in Christ.  

Then again, to abandon Christ altogether would be extreme, and most of them weren’t prepared to go that far. 

But… maybe they didn’t have to. Maybe (they thought) they could simply demote Jesus to being merely a divine messenger, rather than being fully divine.  

• Maybe they could honor Him as a representative of God without worshipping Him as God.  That way they could sort of have one foot in and one foot out, and they could avoid some of the social stigmas and fallout from being a follower of Jesus.   

Some of us try to do that today, don’t we?  We try to be in with Jesus, but not ALL in, because the social cost is too great.  People might think we’re fanatical; it might cost us valuable relationships; we might get labeled, or whatever.  

So we try to keep Jesus in our safely constructed compartment, where He won’t be too disruptive to our lives the way we like them. 

The answer for the Hebrews is the same answer for us. 

They needed to know (just like we do) that Christ is worth risking everything for, and that to abandon the divinity of Christ would be absolute foolishness.   

Since he’s writing to Jews, he builds his argument systematically from Old Testament quotations, which we will see in the following verses. 

And his agenda in this section is to demonstrate that Jesus is superior to angels.  

Why does the author need to show that Christ is superior to angels?  

Why not show Him as superior to Satan? Or to false gods?  

Were the Hebrews elevating angels? Did they think Christ might be merely an angel Himself?  Had they suddenly become overly fascinated with angelology? 

Why angels?

The most probable answer is, because angels were the mediators of the Mosaic law.  

Remember, the author wants to dissuade them from going back to the Old Covenant as laid out in the Mosaic law. 

As it turns out, Angels were instrumental in getting the law of God to humanity.   

• Acts 7:53 (ESV): 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

• Hebrews 2:2 (ESV): 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,

• Galatians 3:19 (ESV): 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.

So… The chain of command would be something like this: God, angels (as His messengers - the name angel in the Greek literally means messenger), Moses (as the human intermediary), and Israel (as the recipients). 

The readers would have understood this.  

So the author needed them to remember that Jesus was not just another messenger in the chain of command.  

Jesus was not just an intermediary like an angel or Moses.  

Jesus is the Source, and the Giver of a New Covenant.  

And that’s why he says back in verse 3, After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 

Angels don’t sit in the place of divine authority with the Father.  Jesus does.  And when we see Jesus as superior, we understand that the covenant He calls us into cannot be abandoned.   

So, beginning in verse 4, we see a series of ways in which Christ is shown to be superior to angels.  I’m going to break it into five main reasons, but I’ve seen it divided into as many as 10 subcategories, it just depends on how specific you want to get.    

The five reasons (or ways in which) Jesus is Superior to Angels are: 

His superior Name

His superior Recognition

His superior Honor

His superior Existence

His superior Role 

Beginning in verse 4 we see that Christ is superior to angels because He has a superior NAME. 

4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

What does the author mean by the ‘name’ Jesus ‘inherited’?  

Some have speculated that the ‘name’ here refers to Yahweh, the eternal name of God. 

But we have already established that Jesus is God, and it wouldn’t make sense for him to ‘inherit’ that title if He has already possessed it from eternity past. 

It’s more likely that the ‘name’ Jesus inherited is the title, “Son”, or “Son of God” that was bestowed on Him by God the Father.   

As we look at passages related to Jesus gaining that title, it becomes clear that even though He was always God’s Son, there was a certain vindication of His Sonship through His earthly life of obedience.

If you remember, when Jesus was baptized… 

• Matthew 3:17 (ESV): 17 …a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus’ name and status was especially vindicated in His resurrection from the dead. 

For example: 

• Romans 1:4 (ESV): 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,

• In Acts 2:32, 36, when Peter proclaims Jesus raised from the dead, he says, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses…Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ…” 

• James Montgomery Boice: “The resurrection of Jesus Christ establishes the doctrine of our Lord’s deity. When he lived upon earth Jesus claimed to be equal with God and that God would raise him from the dead three days after his execution by the Jewish and Roman authorities… The resurrection is God’s seal on Christ’s claim to divinity.” 

Now, just to be clear, it’s not that Jesus became God’s Son by the resurrection; it’s that He was formally vindicated as God’s Son by the resurrection.  As Boice implied: When Jesus lived, He claimed to be God’s Son and predicted that He would be crucified and raised three days later… when He finally was raised, it proved He was who He claimed to be. 

Here we could point back to verse 2 from last week, where it says God appointed Jesus the heir of all things.  

• In our day, an heir is just someone who inherits a fortune, perhaps from a wealthy relative, that they didn’t earn in any way.  It is just an advantage of their birth––not something they earned––and now we see them living like a hippy on a trust fund.  

• In ancient Hebrew culture, this was not the case.  In that culture, when a son came of age, if he was seen as worthy by his father, he would be ceremonially blessed and receive his name; he would be established as a worthy heir.  

• In keeping with this tradition, Jesus is shown to be honored by His Heavenly Father as the ultimate heir. 

So that’s the first proof that Jesus is superior to angels; His name is superior.  

The second proof given is that JESUS has Superior RECOGNITION 

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, 

      “You are my Son, 

      today I have begotten you”? 

Or again, 

      “I will be to him a father, 

      and he shall be to me a son”? 

These are quotations from the Psalms and 2 Samuel.  

And the author is framing them as rhetorical questions. 

Which of the angels did God ever address this way? 

Answer? None of them. God never says that to angelic beings. 

Now, to be clear, angels are very important in God’s plan.  

• Angels continuously worship God

• Think of all the scenes in scripture of angels surrounding the throne of God in worship and praise. 

• Angels communicate God’s message, as we’ve already established.

• Angels minister to believers. 

• Think of the way they’ve delivered believers from prison and such, like in the book of Acts. 

• In the final scenes of God’s plan of redemption, we see that angels will do things like call the elect with a loud trumpet, separate the wheat from the chaff (believers from unbelievers), open the seals of God’s judgment on the earth, and execute judgment on Satan and his fallen angels. 

Angels are immensely important in God’s plan, and amazingly powerful and frankly terrifying to human eyes.  

• Whenever an angel appears in glory to humans, what’s the first thing they have to say? “Don’t be afraid!”

• CS Lewis points out that we tend to misrepresent angels in much of our Christian art. In the Bible angels are so powerful and terrifying that they need to say, “fear not”. In art, he says, angels look as though they are going to say, “there, there…”  

But as awesome as angels are… they do not receive the recognition Christ does from God the Father.  

They may be referred to in a generic sense throughout scripture as sons of God, but they are not THE Son of God.   

That sort of recognition is unique to Christ. 

Another reason Jesus is superior to angels is because of His Superior HONOR 

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, 

…and by the way, the title firstborn in verse 6 is a title denoting superiority and status, not just chronology…

• FF Bruce: He is called firstborn because he exists before all creation and because all creation is his heritage. 

he says, 

      “Let all God’s angels worship him.” 

(quoted from Deut. 32:43; Ps 97:7) 

Remember when Jesus was born? What were the angels doing?  

• According to Luke 2:13-14 a whole multitude of them appeared praising God saying, “glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

In the book of Revelation, when we are given a depiction of the throneroom of God, what are the angels doing? 

• Revelation 5:11–12 (ESV): 11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 

Think of it this way: Angels worship. Jesus IS worshipped! 

7 Of the angels he says, 

      “He makes his angels winds, 

      and his ministers a flame of fire.” 

This is a quote of Ps. 104:4. 

The idea is that angels are part of the created order and help serve God’s purposes… 

But Jesus is on a whole ‘nother level… 

8 But of the Son he says, 

      “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, 

Notice, that’s God the Father calling God the Son, God. 

      the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 

(from Psalm 45:6, 7) 

   9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; 

      therefore God, your God, has anointed you 

      with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 

(from Isaiah 61) 

By the way, it shouldn’t surprise us to see the author of Hebrews using so many Old Testament passages to refer to Jesus because Jesus made it clear that the scriptures all point to Him. 

• John 5:39 (ESV): 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,

Road to Emmaus with His disciples: 

• Luke 24:27 (ESV): 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The point is, Jesus has superior HONOR… He is to be worshipped… angels are not. 

Next, the author speaks of His Superior EXISTENCE 

10 And, 

      “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, 

      and the heavens are the work of your hands; 

      11 they will perish, but you remain; 

      they will all wear out like a garment, 

      12 like a robe you will roll them up, 

      like a garment they will be changed. 

      But you are the same, 

      and your years will have no end.” 

Last week we talked at length about the eternality of Jesus. Jesus eternally existed with the Father, and was the agent of creation. 

• John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word… All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 

• John 17:5 Father, glorify me… with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. 

• Revelation 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 

• Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

Angels, by contrast, are created beings.  They aren’t human… they’re a different kind of spiritual being than us, but they nevertheless are one of God’s creations.  Not Jesus. Jesus had no beginning, because He is eternally One with the Father. 

And finally, we see that Jesus is superior to angels because of His Superior ROLE 

13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, 

      “Sit at my right hand 

      until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 

Answer: none of them.  That is said only to the Son, not to angels.  

Jesus was given the task of redeeming creation by His obedient life and sacrificial death… which He did perfectly.  Now He is seated at the right hand of God, signifying His supreme authority and the fact that His work is finished. 

Angels don’t get to relax before God!  

Verse 14 tells us what they do, while Jesus is sitting in the position of all power and authority: 

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Praise God for angels. 

• They are administering and serving and carrying out the plans of God. They are worshipping almighty God. By their work, we who hope in Christ are greatly helped. 

But don’t worship the angels. 

• Revelation 19:10 (ESV): 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Angels serve… Christ rules.

Angels are the King’s special servants; Christ is the King.   

This message written to the Hebrews back then is still relevant for us today.  

For several important reasons… 

First, because, believe it or not, there are some religious groups today who think Jesus was an angel.  Most notably (and the ones you’re most likely to encounter) are Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe Jesus is Michael the Archangel… that he existed as Michael before becoming the human Jesus, and that after his resurrection he returned to heaven as Michael. 

Mormons believe that Jesus is the spirit brother of Michael the Archangel, and incidentally the spirit brother of Lucifer as well. 

• Cults don’t worship Jesus as God! Only Christians do. 

So it’s not as though we don’t still need this doctrine today in order to clarify who Jesus really is, and who He is not.  

But… My guess is, most of us didn’t come here today absolutely vexed about whether or not Jesus was more important than the angels… that wasn’t what was keeping most of us up last night.  Is there some direct application beyond this?  

As we understand how Jesus is greater than the angels, it helps us know how He is far greater than anything or anyone in our lives, and how worthy He is to receive our worship.

He is greater than the problems we face.
He is greater than the enticements of the world that threaten to steal our attention and our affection.    

Jesus is Superior––and we must honor Him as Superior in our hearts. 

• God has declared Jesus to have the Superior Name… the Name above all names… Do we declare the same about Him, through our words and actions?  Do our lives exalt the name of Jesus? Or are we busy exalting another name… maybe even our own name and status… over his? 

• God has declared Jesus to have superior Recognition… Have we recognized Him as the Supreme Sustainer and Sufficient Savior?  

• God has declared Jesus to have superior Honor… Have we honored Him and worshipped Him through our whole lives?  

• God has declared Jesus to have superior Existence… Have we fully comprehended that the Jesus we claim to know is the Eternally Existent One? 

• God has given Jesus the Superior Role… He is Savior and Lord… He is the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world.  Have we embraced Him as such in our hearts? 

The call today is to bring our hearts into alignment with what is absolutely true: Jesus is superior and He is to be worshipped as such. 

Think of it this way: If it is necessary for the angels to worship Jesus… how much more is it necessary for US to worship Him! We who are marred by sin and broken… who have rebelled against our Creator… and yet, who Christ has given His very life to redeem… how much more should we fall at His feet in reverence?