[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Last week we began our study of the book of Hebrews, and if you missed that, you’re going to want to go back and catch that one. Today we continue along in chapter 1. We find ourselves in verse 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”?” (Hebrews 1:5, ESV).

       Why do we find the contrast between the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and with that of angels, those powerful beings created by God for service? What point is the author trying to make? One problem for us seems to be the time and position that we find ourselves in. And what is meant is this being twenty-first century America, we are already greatly familiar with the image of Jesus as the Son of God—the all powerful God—the One who sits at the right hand of God the Father. We have no problem with that; we understand that’s who Jesus is. But if we rewind back to the first century, back to those early, early Christians, these people to whom the writer of Hebrews is addressing, these early Hebrew Christians, for them it wasn’t near as apparent. To say that Jesus was greater than an angelic being was a big deal to their minds. They held angels in high esteem, and to say that something was higher would be reaching to the level of God himself. Yet, that is exactly what the author is trying to do.

       Catching our interest is the fact that the text goes straight to the heart of the matter with the Old Testament verses that it quotes. Indeed, we see a quote from Psalm 2:7, which is a prophecy for the coming of the Messiah into the world. Closely related to this is a foundational passage from 2 Samuel, and namely chapter 7 and verse 14 where it says, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (ESV). 2 Samuel 7 is foundational because it is the chapter where God promises to King David an everlasting kingdom for the Israelites. As a matter of fact, that was right in the preceding verse, in verse 13 which states: “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (ESV). We could also bring to our attention Psalm 89, and verses 36 and 37, where it says, “His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” These verses take things one step further and show the implication that the inhabitants of the kingdom will also be forever. If you search the Scriptures, however, no where will it be found that an angel of the Lord has such promises made to himself.

       Verse 6: “And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.” Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire” (ESV).

       Our minds have the tendency when seeing this term firstborn to immediately go to the picture of Jesus in contrast with all the brothers and sisters who are going to believe in him within the church. We think of Jesus as firstborn among many brothers. Yet, in this text, that is not the argument that the author is trying to make. The idea of firstborn in this section, speaking to the Jewish audience, is referring to Jesus as firstborn among all the Hebraic Kings that have ever been, even over King David himself. How do we know this? Well, if we go back to Psalm 89, and trickle back to verse 27, we read, “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (ESV). Seems pretty clear, doesn’t it? And we recall from the Christmas story, as we call it, that angels did come and worship the infant child. Love resides in our minds as relates to the scene in the Gospel of Luke where the angels appear to the shepherds in the field. Remember, there the text says, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us” (Luke 2:13-15, ESV). Yes, we love this scene, and it is paramount in its significance.

       Interesting imagery presents itself in second part of the verse about God’s angels being “winds” and “flames of fire.” This figurative language seems to show some of the activity they are engaged in. Of course, the author is quoting Psalm 104:4. The difference is understood, then, for Jesus in that the angels do the bidding of God and carry out missions, whether those be missions or duties of regularity or whether those are special missions. The Son, on the contrary, is ruler, and is the One who would give the orders to the angelic beings. The angels, while they may make their own free choices at times, would always be acting in accordance with the will of God—what God says is right (see Acts 12:23). The angels may carry out missions of wrath (as they will in the future). In fact, it is possible that if we view God the Father as non-violent, that it is actually the angels (servants) who carry out that violence (instead of God directly) as at least one theologian has thought. Recall, Jesus told Pilate right before his guilty verdict and crucifixion, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews” (John 18:36). Another example would be in Zechariah 14, particularly verse 13, where it states, “And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other” (ESV). This would explain what the Apostle John summarizes in Revelation 19 and particularly both verses 15 and 21, as pertains to the sword and wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ.

       Verse 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. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

       The writer points out, in quoting Psalm 45:6, 7, “Your throne, O God, is forever.” “[I]s forever.” As the Son rules now, so he will rule for all eternity. It’s a great thing. It’s interesting how the writer basically says, in so many words, that the truth of the world is God’s truth. Or, we could say that all truth proceeds from God. That’s important; that’s important. The alignment with truth by God is significant, because, if he wasn’t aligned with it, he wouldn’t be worthy of our appreciation. We understand that. We understand that there is something about this concept of truth that’s really significant. The searching for the ‘truth’ is prevalent, and what ‘true’ ‘truth’ really is. Just like God himself, we, as humans, in our individual characters, are supposed to seek to love righteousness, to love that which is good. It doesn’t always come natural for us as a consequence of our inner sin-natures, that drive, that tendency, to entertain certain thoughts, certain feelings, certain actions and words that God calls sin. An attitude of hate, on the other hand, for wickedness (wicked actions) makes it so we are like the Son. Hate just doesn’t mean a strong disdain for it. It means actually distancing ourselves from it practically. It means getting away from it and not being like those in the world who love it, accept it, and cling to it. Just as the Son of God is the only Person who has lived a perfect life in human flesh, so that he is ranked above the rest of us, so we should seek to be righteous in our thoughts, words, and behaviors so that we can have a higher ranking ourselves.

       Verse 10: “And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

       Mentioned last time was how the Son was with the Father at the Creation of the Universe. The author still has the ‘Son’ in focus, as is denoted by the conjunction “And.” The picture is that God the Son is even greater than the Creation itself. The passage quoted is Psalm 102:25-27. We understand that our current world is going to come to an end. We believe that event will occur after the 1,000 Reign of Christ, the Millennial Kingdom, where the Son will reign on earth as promised to David. After all that, the current earth and likely the Universe will meet its destruction. This has been the plan of God for a long time. Yet, that’s not the end of the story, of course. The belief is present that God is going to create a New Heavens and a New Earth. So, a new outer-space and new earth. Then there will be a ‘New Jerusalem’ coming down out of Heaven. This means that the City of Jerusalem, or the spirit of it, is transferred to the new world. And, and this would likely be a subject of great debate, we could say that the spirit of other nations could be transferred as well (see Revelation 21:24-26). That means the New World will have an element of similarity with the current world.

       Yet, in variance to all of this, to all that is going to come to pass, the Son, the Son remains the same. The world will change, but the Son stays the same. Interestingly enough, we do know that the Son did go through a change, if you will, when he became a man in human flesh. A permanent change took place. God the Son now bears humans flesh, and always will. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato setup the idea in the West that God must be outside of time. Of course, this whole line of thinking was adopted by the Western church through the last couple thousand years. It boggles the mind at times how the church so highly holds Plato in view, wherein certain of his thought processes have been adopted and implemented into theology without question. It’s almost as if Plato is sometimes viewed like an ancient pre-Christ saint. In all fairness, it’s probably that a lot of pastors and debaters of theology don’t even realize that Plato is behind of some of our thinking about God. Anyhow, the whole time of church history it has been basically assumed that God is ‘outside of time.’ However, we recognize, as just mentioned, that the Son went through a permanent change, showing a sequence then for the Son. We also are aware, for instance, in Genesis chapter 6 that the Lord God regretted making mankind right before the Flood which killed most of them. Again, this shows ‘sequence’ in God.

       Nevertheless, while we might say God lives in sequence, at the same time we know that God does not change when it comes to his moral character, and so the Son does not change either in this regard. God states of himself famously in Malachi, “For I the LORD do not change”(3:6, ESV). In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that morality stands for all time—for those things which were sins in the past remain sins. Responsibility in humans, then, matters. Thus, presented is the importance of not sinning. It’s not that what we do is inevitable as if everything is predetermined anyway, but we actually have real choices. In the same way, by the way, this whole subject of God in sequence shows how prayer works, and why prayer is important. Prayer can actually ‘change’ what would have happened in contrast to ‘something else’ happening. God’s actions are often dependent on our prayers as God hears them in sequence. Anyway, not to get too off track, we have a firm foundation in the character of the Son of God, knowing that what he thinks he regard to what is righteous will not change. God is not inconsistent in this area. Now, we can persuade God in matters of prayer, but the principles remain the same. God wants us to explain what we would desire to see happen, and he wants us to intercede for people. Christ intercedes for us, and it makes a difference. And, so, as we try to be like him, we do the same thing.

       Verse 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”? (ESV).

       Angelic beings are limited in power, limited in power. Indeed, that was the whole problem behind what Lucifer, now Satan, wanted. He not only wanted to sit by God’s right hand, he wanted the whole thing. The desire was present within himself to sit on the throne. Remember, Ezekiel tells us in chapter 28 of Satan, the following: “You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground” (Ezekiel 28:14-17, ESV). That’s what happened when an angel of the Lord desired the top spot. For sure, God has never given any angel such a place. In contrast, the Son of God does receive such a place. No angel was ever promised to have his enemies taken care of. Why, truth be told, they don’t even think like that when they are righteous. Recall, it is written in Jude 9: [W]hen the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you” (ESV). True angels are humble in their characters.

       Verse 14: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (ESV).

       Feelings of familiarity are present within us for this verse. When thinking of angels and what they do, it is likely one of our most favorites. The writer of Hebrews notes that in contrast to angels ruling with God, they actually are servants to those who are ‘saved’ down on the earth—to those who belong to God. That’s quite a difference, quite a difference. That’s nothing like Satan ended up being. Of course, we understand that angels do a vast variety of things. Angels can deliver messages, as we are aware, and that’s probably one of the greatest workings they are known for. They can also fight or unleash God’s wrath (as they are going to do in the future—in the times The Book of the Revelation speaks of). The writer of Hebrews will also reveal later that we can interact with angels without even being aware of it. That is, they can take on human form and we don’t even know that a particular person is an angel. Probably the most famous things we know them for is for their protection and general help for us as Christians. That’s likely what we think of the most when we thinking about angels serving us. Obviously, this would be in the invisible realm.

       One difficult thing for us to understand, it would seem, is that God helps us more than we probably realize through the work of angels. This is because we tend to judge and evaluate events and circumstances by what we ‘see’ with our eyes. Of course, if we stop and think about it, a lot likely goes on behind the scene of which we do not see. Nobel Prize Winner, psychologist, and author Daniel Kahneman came up with the famous phrase “What you see is all there is” in his famous book, ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ (2011). To be sure, this has become one of the speaker’s most favorite books of all time, and the last half year has been spent reading it over and over. It’s probably been read about 15 to 20 times now, or at least, good portions of it. The book is indeed profound and can be used to help think ‘better’ in life. At any rate, since we as humans have a tendency to only consider what we ‘see’ with our eyes, and to not have any consideration for what we do not ‘see,’ we are prone to making errors. This is perhaps especially true when it comes to understanding, in our discussion today, how God helps us. In not ‘seeing’ any help, there is the tendency to believe that God has chosen not to help us in a particular situation. Actually, the truth of the matter is more likely that he did, we just didn’t ‘see’ (or observe) that help.

       If circumstances don’t go the way God wants, or Satan has a victory (however we want to frame it), it’s easy to think that God was never involved in the first place. Perhaps we pray for something good, or what we think is good, and that item prayed for doesn’t come to pass, doesn’t come into manifestation. The common conclusion in this type of situation is to say, “Well, it must not of been God’s will since what I prayed for didn’t happen.” Actually, truly it may of been God’s will to do whatever it was, but due to things in the ‘unseen’ realm, due to this, that, or the other (we really aren’t aware of the details), what you wanted and what God wanted didn’t happen. The angels weren’t able to accomplish whatever it was. In looking at Scripture, we are familiar with things like this happening (see the famous Daniel chapter 10), yet, we often don’t believe that for us. Too often there is a tendency to take a more Calvinistic approach to circumstances and say, “I prayed for it and it didn’t happen. So God must not have desired for it to happen.” That’s usually, perhaps more often, not the case. Satan has power, and the other fallen angels have power. They can make choices that interfere with what we ourselves, as well as God, wants.

       Another note of significance that should be pointed out quickly is that it seems also that both, it is okay for us to pray for God to use angels to help non-Christians, and God does indeed do that. Jesus said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” (Matthew 5:46, ESV). God wants and desires to help even those who don’t have a personal relationship with him yet. Take, for instance, Jewish persons who don’t know him. Due to God’s promises in the Old Testament, we recognize that God is constantly bringing help and support to Israel. As a matter of fact, we might say that God spends a great deal of his energy and resources toward that end. Some of his most important angels might actually be stationed in Jerusalem, in Israel. This is because Satan hates the Jews, and God likely has to take a lot of concern in protecting them from the attacks of Satan and his forces. So, bottom line, it’s totally fine to pray that God will use his angels to help others outside the Christian faith. Even Paul said, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10, ESV).

- Daniel Litton