HEBREWS: “A Greater Heavenly Being (Hebrews 1:4 - 2:9)" | 8/27/23
Hebrews 1:4 - 2:9 | 8/27/23 | Will DuVal
This morning we’re talking about ANGELS… which we don’t do as often anymore, do we? They used to be EVERYWHERE, growing up in the 90s: angels in the HOSPITAL, falling in love with Meg Ryan (“City of Angels”), angels in SCHOOL, giving the bully WEDGIES (“Teen Angel”), angels in the OUTFIELD, making miraculous catches (“Angels in the Outfield”); we even got TOUCHED by them every Wednesday night on CBS. (how many of you got ALL those references?!)
While Americans’ belief in angels is down 10% over the last 2 decades, it still remains high, at 69%. And regardless of whether we believe in them, or make MOVIES about them anymore, or even spare a THOUGHT about them - cuz be honest: how many of you have spent ANY time thinking about ANGELS in the past week? (hopefully those of you who did your homework and read Hebrews 1 & 2 beforehand!) - but regardless, the Bible is clear: angels are REAL, they are IMPORTANT (mentioned over 250x in Scripture!), and they are PRESENT with us, even here right now (see 1 Tim 5:21).
Angels are SPIRITUAL beings, that’s why we can’t SEE them all around us, unless of course, you’ve given the spiritual eyes to see them, like Elisha’s servant in 2 Kings 6. If SO, according to the Bible, you’d be TERRIFIED! Almost ALWAYS, the first thing angels have to say to humans when they DO appear is “Fear NOT!” Apparently they are DISTRESSING in their GLORY. Angels possess superhuman knowledge, 1 Pet 1:12 says, and superhuman power, 2 Pet 2:11 says. A single angel can shut the mouths of lions (Dan 6), wipe out 185,000 troops of the mighty Assyrian army in 2 Kings 19(v35). According to Jesus, angels can’t even DIE (Lk 20:36)!
But the reason we’re TALKING about them this morning is that the angels’ greatest accomplishment of ALL, at least in the eyes of the 1st century Jewish Christians to whom the book of Hebrews was written, is that angels delivered God’s LAW to Moses, according to Deuteronomy 33. That’s confirmed in the NT, in Acts ch7 (vv38,53). So apparently, many of these 1st c Jewish converts, had taken up a fascination, perhaps even an OBSESSION, with ANGELS.
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What is BEHIND such a fascination, even our OWN recent fascination? Commentator Richard Phillips speculates (23, 26): “[We want] someone to open a doorway to heaven and to the blessing and power of God. [We want] supernatural help for our otherwise insurmountable problems. People in the first-century church, just as in our own time, found in angels an appealing and non-demanding form of spiritual hope and comfort… [T]hey seem to offer us access to heavenly blessings without having to deal directly with heaven’s GOD himself”.
That’s pretty convicting. Because I suspect FEW of us today feel particularly tempted to worship the angels, like these 1st century Christians apparently did; Paul had to explicitly warn the Colossian church: “Don’t let anyone condemn you by insisting on… the worship of angels” (2:18). Apparently false teachers were INSISTING on it, CONDEMNING Christians who wouldn’t BOW to the angels. Not so much today. But let me ask you: aren’t we still tempted by the prospect of “heavenly blessings without having to [submit to] GOD”... “an appealing and non-demanding form of spiritual hope and comfort”...?
Friends: this sermon is for YOU. Because we may not worship ANGELS, but we are STILL tempted to put our trust in something LESS THAN God’s all-sufficient GIFT of His Son for our SALVATION, aren’t we? And the author’s message this morning, in Hebrews 1 & 2, is simply gonna be this: DON’T DO IT! Don’t trust in angels, don’t trust in your good deeds, or your church attendance, or your orthodox theology… Trust in JESUS! HE ALONE can save you, because He ALONE is “superior to the angels”, v4 will say, and the ANGELS’ greatness - and they really ARE great: superhuman power, knowledge, holiness - but THEIR greatness only serves to magnify the even GREATER greatness of JESUS; Jesus is GREATER.
And specifically, the author is gonna argue that Jesus is greater than the angels in FIVE ways here.
[SCRIPTURE]: Would you STAND… Hebrews 1:4 - 2:9:
[context: remember- talking about JESUS…]
4 “...having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God's angels worship him.”
7 Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”
8 But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”
13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
2:1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
#1 - Jesus is greater than the angels, v4, because he has “inherited” a greater NAME (1:4-6).
And what IS that name, according to v5? “SON”! “to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son”? Answer: NONE of them! Angels are God’s creatures; Jesus is God’s CHILD.
And the author PROVES it by quoting THREE OT texts here, in vv5 & 6. And he will cite an additional FIVE OT passages here. I told you last week: this author knew his Bible - the Hebrew Scriptures - backwards and forwards. But he doesn’t quote it to show off; rather, he is demonstrating for us the importance of GROUNDING our theology - our view of God - in His WORD. We said last week: Jesus is God’s final, most authoritative, ULTIMATE Word; the way in which God has revealed himself to us. God spoke through CREATION, through our consciences, through the PROPHETS… And Jesus CORROBORATED God’s self-revelation to the prophets, by quoting them some 78x throughout the gospels; one-tenth of the words that came out of Jesus’ mouth during his earthly ministry were direct quotes from the OT. What does that tell us? That God’s word - his written word, recorded by the prophets, both OT and New - is REALLY important. It tells us, as 2nd Peter 1 puts it: “that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy [of Scripture] was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (vv20-21)
So when the author of Hebrews quotes the OT 8 times here, or any of the other 40x TOTAL in Hebrews - Hebrews quotes the OT more per chapter than ANY other book of the NT; 15% of the words found in Hebrews are quoted straight out of the OT (Voorwinde, “Hebrews’ Use…”, https://rtc.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/Hebrews-Use-of-the-Old-Testament-SV-73-2008.pdf ) - and when he DOES, we need to LISTEN UP. Cuz this isn’t just MOSES talking, or DAVID talking; this is GOD talking!
And what did God SAY? V5: ““You are my Son, today I have begotten you”?”
This first citation is from Psalm 2, v7; it’s a messianic psalm, pointing us ahead to the arrival of God’s “anointed one”, His SON.
Do you remember what God announced at Jesus’ baptism? “This is my… {beloved Son], with whom I am well pleased.”” (Matt 3:17)
Now we need to pause here and touch on this word “begotten”. Hebrews 1:5 is one of the proof text verses that Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses and the like will try and use to refute Jesus’ divinity and his eternality. Daniel Mann (“Jesus: The “Begotten” of the Father”) offers the best explanation I could find:
““Begotten” must be understood in the way it was originally intended [in Psalm 2:7]... In this context, “begotten” can’t possibly mean, “to physically birth.” The One who is “begotten” is being addressed. He therefore already exists, even before He is “begotten.” The verse therefore can’t mean, “‘Today, I am giving birth to you.’” …Besides, Hebrews quotes Psalm 2:7 to prove the superiority of Christ over the angels. Reference to a physical human birth could hardly demonstrate His superiority… Instead, “begotten” must… be understood in a figurative sense… to indicate that the Messiah will be exalted as king and given dominion… [Later in ch5] Hebrews leads us back to Psalm 2:7 AGAIN [when we read] “Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was [God] who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You’” (Heb. 5:5)... This verse gives us what comes close to a definition of “begotten”- exalted... the Father had “begotten” (exalted) the “Son” to the glorious position of “High Priest.”” [END QUOTE]
So that is the “HOW” of Jesus’s “begotten”-ness: Christ the Son was FIGURATIVELY “exalted” by God the Father.
But WHEN? Because in v5 God says “TODAY” I have begotten you… exalted you? Which day was THAT?
The apostle Paul tells us, in Acts 13:33 - “[God] has fulfilled [the good news] to us by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’”. Paul quotes the SAME PSALM to prove that Jesus was “EXALTED” AS the Son, on the day of his RESURRECTION. Paul confirms this interpretation in Romans 1:4 - “[Jesus] was declared to BE the Son of God… by his resurrection from the dead”.
Richard Phillips notes (29): “The idea of begetting here is that of declaring or manifesting to the full... In Roman society, when a son came of age, and if he was approved as a man by his father, he would be ceremonially received and bestowed with his name. So it was in Christ’s resurrection: by raising him from the dead, God gave final approval to him who had perfectly fulfilled the law and obediently endured the cross, bestowing on him the name ‘Son of God’ with the Father’s… supernatural signature.”
So ontologically, Jesus was and is ETERNALLY God’s Son (eternally “begotten, not made”, as the Nicene Creed states), but evidentially, Jesus was REVEALED AS God’s Son at His RESURRECTION. Got it?
V5: “Or again [OT CITATION #2 NOW…], “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?”
This one comes from 2 Samuel 7:14, where God promised King David an heir to his throne, who would build God’s TEMPLE, namely, SOLOMON. Yet read in context, it becomes clear that this covenant can’t apply ONLY to Solomon, because God promised “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (v13). Solomon’s kingdom didn’t LAST forever; as a matter of fact, the kingdom was torn in TWO just after his DEATH. So God’s promise of an ETERNAL kingdom must find its fulfillment in a LATER heir to the throne. And when Jesus was conceived, the angel announced to Mary: “you will… bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David… and of his kingdom there will be no end.”” (Lk 1:31-33)
Last quote, for point #1… v6:
“And again, when [God] brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.””
Like the word “begotten”, the term “FIRSTBORN” here must be understood FIGURATIVELY. “In the NT, ‘firstborn’ refers to Christ’s preeminence as the [HEIR] of the universe” (Dennis Johnson, ESV: Hebrews, 38). In Psalm 89, God promised David “I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (v27). God’s obviously not talking about giving BIRTH to David; he’s already born… already KING. But God is promising to EXALT David as the GREATEST king.
So too here in Hebrews 1:6 with JESUS. God exalted him ABOVE the angels, such that ALL God’s angels “worship” him. This quote comes from the Septuagint - the Greek translation of the Hebrew OT - from Deut 32 (v43), and it was FULFILLED at Jesus’ BIRTH: “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest…” (Lk 2:13-14). Moreover, according to Revelation 5, Jesus is NOW worshiped FOREVERMORE by “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!”” (vv11-12). AMEN?!
To summarize: Jesus is greater than the angels because he is God’s SON; he inherited a better NAME (1:4-6).
But #2 - He’s ALSO greater because He possesses a greater AUTHORITY (1:7-14).
Remember: angels are POWERFUL. V7 here - quoting Psalm 104 (v4) - reiterates that: “Of the angels [God] says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.””
How powerful is FIRE… WIND? Just ask the survivors in Maui. Like wind and fire, ANGELS are POWERFUL.
But how powerful is JESUS? V8 quotes Psalm 45 now (vv6-7) to ANSWER: “But of the Son [God] says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever…”.
Did you CATCH that? God the FATHER… just addressed JESUS, “the Son”, as “O GOD”. If there was ANY lingering doubt in your mind about whether or not Jesus is truly DIVINE, fully GOD, Hebrews 1:8 ought to clear it up: Jesus is God ENOUGH for God the FATHER to CALL Him “GOD”!
And AS God, God in the FLESH, Jesus was given BY God the Father an EVERLASTING throne - v8 - and “ANOINTED… beyond [His] companions,” v9. In other words, Jesus reigns SUPREME, in his kingly authority.
Why? Because v10 - quoting Psalm 102 now (vv25-27):
“[JESUS] laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, the heavens are the work of [HIS] hands” - Jesus is CREATOR.
V11: “they will perish, but [JESUS] remains…
[His] years will have no end.” - Jesus is ETERNAL.
And v12: “like a garment they [the heavens and earth] will be changed.
But you [Jesus] are the same” - Jesus is UNCHANGING. “Immutable” is the fancy, theological word.
Jesus has more authority than the angels because unlike them, He is CREATOR (they are crea-TED), He is ETERNAL (angels are “immortal”, but as created beings they’re not eternal), and Jesus is UNCHANGING (one third of the angels changed their minds about worshiping God and were cast down as DEMONS! But as God, Jesus NEVER changes - later in ch13, v8, the author will declare: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”).
Again, HOW much authority does Jesus possess? We really only needed to read the first 2 words of v10 to find out: “You, LORD”. Once again, here is God the Father addressing JESUS as “LORD”; in the context of the quote - in Psalm 102 - that is God’s sacred, covenantal name - YAHWEH. As God the SON, JESUS enjoys all the authority that God the FATHER does, which is to say: ALL authority! Matthew 28:18 “Jesus… said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Last quote, for point #2, v13: “And to which of the angels has [God] ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?”
This one comes from Psalm 110 (v1), the most quoted chapter from the OLD Testament in all of the NEW Testament. It’s another messianic psalm, foreshadowing Jesus’ eschatological REIGN over ALL the kings of ALL the nations, in the last days. When “He will execute judgment among the nations… he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath” - Putin… and XI… and Ali Khamenei.. and Biden AND Trump - will ALL be nothing but an ottoman for King JESUS on that day. And the throne belongs NOT to the angels, but to JESUS alone.
The ANGELS, v14 tells us, are merely SERVANTS - “ministering spirits sent out to serve”. And not only THAT - check out who God sends them to SERVE: “those who are to inherit salvation”; who’s that?
That’s US! At least I HOPE it’s you - I PRAY you are numbered among “those who are to inherit salvation”. You can have your very own guardian angel - better YET, friend: you can have eternal life with your loving heavenly Father - and all you have to do to GET it… all you CAN do… is simply TRUST IN JESUS by faith. And you will inherit SALVATION today!
But friends: if you REJECT him - or more precisely: if you NEGLECT him, ch2 now warns us - there will be ETERNAL consequences, because…
#3 - Jesus brings a greater MESSAGE (2:1-4), than the angels.
V2: “since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”
In other words: the OT LAW that the ANGELS delivered to Israel proved TRUE, when it promised blessings for obedience but CURSES for disobedience - God made GOOD on that promise by REPAYING His people with “a just retribution” for their sins, their violation of His Law.
But NOW the author of Hebrews warns US: “If THEY - the Israelites - were punished so severely for neglecting God’s LAW, how much MORE do you think God will now punish US, if WE neglect His SON!?”
This is the exact OPPOSITE of what a lot of folks believe to be true about the God of the Bible. They think God USED to be all “fire and brimstone” back in the OLD Testament, but then He had a change of HEART and sent “hippy Jesus” to just hug and comfort everybody. And they completely OVERLOOK all the parts of the OT where God says and PROVES that He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love… and forgiveness”, like we saw all throughout Exodus (esp 34:6-7)... and they ALSO overlook all the parts of the NEW Testament where God fills entire CITIES with the BLOOD of His ENEMIES (Rev 14:20). Or the fact that JESUS warned us about HELL more than anyone else in the BIBLE. Jesus said, “WOE to you, Capernaum (you NEW Testament rebels); it’s gonna be worse for y’all on Judgment Day than it will be for SODOM AND GOMORRAH (the OLD Testament apostates)” (Matt 11:21-24).
Why? Because at least THEY didn’t reject ME… JESUS… God’s GREATEST revelation.
Who brought us a greater MESSAGE, a greater SALVATION, v3 says. The angels’ message - the LAW - didn’t BRING salvation; Romans 8:3 says the Law, “weakened by the flesh”, could NEVER save us. But Jesus did what the Law COULDN’T: JESUS SAVED US!
Which is GREAT news - the BEST message! - for those who will receive it. And we SHOULD; vv3 & 4 give us lots of REASONS to believe this amazing news: Jesus’ death and resurrection were first “declared… by the Lord” himself (Jesus predicted it); it was “attested… by those who heard” (corroborated by first-hand witnesses; who were already at the time of the writing of Hebrews being MARTYRED for their faith, rather than recant their eyewitness testimonies of having personally seen the resurrected Jesus); and finally, even if you don’t believe THEM, v4: “God [HIMSELF] also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit”. Read the book of ACTS - even the skeptics who didn’t WANT to believe JESUS, didn’t WANT to believe the testimony of HIS FOLLOWERS’ - they couldn’t argue with the supernatural MIRACLES that God was performing to authenticate the spread of His gospel within the 1st c. Church.
And this little church in Rome - to whom Hebrews was written - had presumably SEEN some of those miracles for themselves, they had certainly HEARD the first hand testimonies of the apostles, v3 says, so NOW, the author exhorts them in v1: “we must pay much closer attention to what we’ve heard” - even more closely than you used to listen to God’s LAW, delivered by the ANGELS - you need to MIND THE GOSPEL… “lest we drift away from it.”
That is the fear: not so much that they would REJECT Christ’s salvation; but that they would NEGLECT it. Not so much that we would intentionally go dock our boats in an entirely different PORT; but that we would simply “drift AWAY” from Jesus. Richard Phillips explains (47-49): “The Greek word here is a nautical term, pararreo, describing a ship at sail that has drifted off course, or a ship in harbor that has slipped its moorings… The Greek word for ‘pay attention’, prosecho, is another nautical term… used to denote holding to a course or securing an anchor”.
And we see it all the TIME today, don’t we? Sure, there are a few folks out there who genuinely HATE God. But for every one militant atheist out there; heck I’d estimate for every one bona fide BELIEVER out there, who is truly following Christ, there are AT LEAST 2 or 3 “DRIFTERS”. Who aren’t speeding as fast as they can in the opposite DIRECTION - they don’t HATE God; they don’t REJECT Him; they just… NEGLECT Him. They are apathetic. The fastest growing religion in America, at least over the last 4 decades, ever since I’VE been alive anyway, is “APA-THEISM” - it’s not that they don’t BELIEVE in God… so much as they just don’t CARE. They’re apathetic. This is MOST of your friends and family: you trying to convince them that a guy named Jesus died on a cross and rose from the dead 2,000 years ago MATTERS to them about as much as who won the big battle at the end of Homer’s ILIAD. Maybe it’s kinda history… but it’s also mostly fictional… and MOST of all, it’s just really OLD and inconsequential to them: “What DIFFERENCE does it make, to ME, if Jesus died and rose again?”
So they DRIFT, perhaps trying out OTHER anchors over time - THIS boyfriend, THAT job, or family, or politics, or health, or sports… But then eventually the boyfriend dumps them, or they get bored at work, or the kids grow up and move away, or their candidate gets outvoted, or they get old and fat, or the Cardinals STINK this season… those other anchors FAIL them, so they go back to DRIFTING again.
But let’s make this even MORE personal now, cuz the fact of the matter is: this warning wasn’t intended for your already apathetic friends and family members; remember: it’s written to a CHURCH… like US! To try and keep BELIEVERS from drifting away. And how do we DO it?
Well, for starters: we need to recognize that the drifting away part is VERY easy to do; all you’ve gotta do to drift is NOTHING! The current of our surrounding culture - and let’s not just blame the culture; let’s be honest: the current of your HEART, your sin-sick HEART, will NATURALLY sweep you AWAY from the Lord, if you do nothing.
So how do we PREVENT the drift? Hebrews 2:1 tells us: by “pay[ing] close attention to what we have heard”; by MINDING the GOSPEL. You and I need to “RE-mind” ourselves - literally: “bring to mind all OVER again” - the GOOD NEWS about Jesus… every single DAY. We need to remember that every day we spend HERE is a day we SHOULD be in HELL. Do you really believe that? That “The wages of sin is DEATH”. That because you’ve sinned against an infinitely holy God, you deserve an infinitely severe punishment. “BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace [we] have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5).
This is the GOSPEL, friends. And if we can just re-MIND ourselves - bring it back to MIND, every day - TRY IT, this week. I want to CHALLENGE you, right now: change your recurring ALARM, on your phone, whenever you have it set to wake you up in the morning - you know how you can “NAME” the alarm: pull out your phone right now, and rename your wake-up alarm: “I SHOULD BE IN HELL!” That will be your FIRST thought, every morning this week: “Ughh… I’m TIRED… I wanna go back to BED… but wait a minute: I SHOULD be in HELL. It’s true. And YET, because God LOVES me, I get to wake up HERE instead… next to this BEAUTIFUL woman… in this BEAUTIFUL home… in a beautiful WORLD… and ONE day, I’m gonna get to wake up in an INFINITELY MORE beautiful world to come, when I finally make it to my infinitely more beautiful HOME that Jesus went to prepare for me… and spend ETERNITY with HIM… and I don’t deserve ANY of it! I deserve HELL!”
Friends: if you don’t want to DRIFT, you’ve got to ANCHOR yourself to the GOSPEL; the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom [YOU… and] I [are] the foremost” (1 Tim 1:15). May we never forget it.
#4 - And BRIEFLY I promise: Jesus is greater than the angels, because he has received a greater EXALTATION (2:5-9a)
V5: “it was not to the angels that God subjected the world to come”.
We’ve already discussed Jesus’s greater AUTHORITY, but now the author quotes Psalm 8 (vv4-6) - “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; [But NOW] you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”” - and applies it to JESUS, to prove both his SOVEREIGNTY - “Now in putting everything in subjection to him [to JESUS], [God] left nothing outside his control”, v8 says - as well as Christ’s GLORIFICATION - v9: “Jesus [is] crowned with glory and honor”. Why?
Because he was WILLING to stoop even lower than the angels, and take on human flesh, and not only THAT, but to suffer DEATH for us, v9 reminds us. And it was precisely BECAUSE OF this humility, this obedience, this self-SACRIFICE on Jesus’ part, according to Philippians ch2 (vv6-11), that God the Father has now exalted Him:
“though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be [CLUNG to], 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant… And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore [FOR THIS REASON] God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”.
Sometimes it gets HARD to see it NOW, v8 admits: “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” It still LOOKS like the Putin’s and the Xi’s and the Biden’s and the Trump’s are RULING this world, for now. It still LOOKS like WAR and wildfires and school shootings and CHAOS reigns, for now.
V8 acknowledges: “Yeah, we still SEE all that.”
But then v9 reassures us: “But God ALSO gives us SPIRITUAL eyes, to see PAST the passing things of this world… and see JESUS, “crowned with glory and honor”, already reigning supreme, over it ALL, at the Father’s right hand, working ALL of it together for GOOD, for those who LOVE Him (Rom 8:28).
And how does He DO it… ANY of it??
How does Jesus INHERIT his greater name?
Why does He POSSESS a greater authority?
How does He CONVEY a greater message?
Why does Jesus RECEIVE this greater EXALTATION?
It’s because #5 - Jesus OFFERS us a greater GRACE (2:9b): “by the grace of God he… taste[d] death for everyone”.
Grace is a free gift you don’t deserve. It’s JESUS, dying on a cross that YOU AND I deserved to hang on instead. But He gave us his LIFE… His DEATH… as a GIFT.
[CONCLUSION]: Let me end with this: how do we APPLY this passage? This is a recurring “problem” we’re gonna see, throughout our study of Hebrews: we’ll get to the end of a passage, filled with GLORIOUS truths about JESUS - “He’s BETTER… He’s GREATER…” - but in “Preaching 101”, they taught us to always END by answering the “SO WHAT?” question. “What am I supposed to DO with these truths?” “How am I supposed to RESPOND?” I told you last week: this is another reason a lot of folks find Hebrews so DIFFICULT; the other epistles are FILLED with “to do” lists for us, and we secretly LOVE it, don’t we? Paul managed to squeeze almost TWICE as many imperatives - “Do this, don’t do that” - into his letter to the Ephesians as we get here in Hebrews, despite the fact that Ephesians is only half as long. And we LOVE it - “just tell me what to DO… how to RESPOND…”
But the author of Hebrews wants to say: what if it’s not all ABOUT you? I mean, if Jesus is truly GREATER - even greater than the ANGELS, not to mention greater than US, mere MORTALS, who are even “LOWER than the angels” - then why not write a book that’s all about HIM. That’s less about what WE do - sure, we’ll get some “application” along the way: “MIND THE GOSPEL… DON’T DRIFT AWAY…” - but by and large, Hebrews is all about JESUS.
But if you really INSIST on a practical application point, to end with, how about THIS: if what makes Jesus GREATER is his offering us a greater GRACE, a greater GIFT - His life, His death, His SALVATION - then what do you DO, with a GIFT?
Two things, right: Step 1 - You… [OPEN it]; and Step 2 - You… [ENJOY it!]
There’s your application for this morning, and REALLY all of HEBREWS: Jesus is God’s greatest gift of ALL; now OPEN and ENJOY. Trust and Treasure. You can start a relationship with Jesus TODAY, if you haven’t already - simply turn from your sin, and trust in Him by faith. And once you have, TREASURE Him above all else. Enjoy the gift. Jesus is greater.