Jesus--Greater Than the Angels

Have your Bibles with you today. Turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 1 and we're going to be looking at verses 8 through 14. And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the works 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. 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? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve for the sake of those or to inherit salvation? Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we lift up our sick to you this morning. We pray for Don Carols in the hospital with congestive heart failure.

We strengthen him and heal him. I pray for Chris Williams and Jeremy Carrick or Jim Belk and Renda Torrance. I pray for John Key who will have a pacemaker put in tomorrow. I pray for Nicole Lowes who has heart surgery coming up next week. I pray for Jan Beecham's recovery. I pray for my wife Cindy's upcoming surgery. Lord, I pray for Bernie Lowes as his mother passed away yesterday. Give him that peace that passes all understanding.

Please have mercy on all of these, Lord, and bring healing. Heavenly Father, today's message is a continuation of last week's message. We saw the greatness of Christ that points us to his deity.

It is not enough that we should be impressed. It is here that we should be wowed. Isaiah saw Jesus high and lifted up on his throne. He cried out. He said, woe is me for I am undone for I am unclean, a man of unclean lips. Isaiah was overwhelmed at the holiness and goodness of Jesus. May this passage do that same thing to our hearts today for it is in the precious and holy name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. If somebody were to come to me today and say, Doug, could you give me scripture to back up the doctrine of the deity of Christ, where would I go? I think I would go to John chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 where the scripture says, In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him.

Without him was not anything made that was made. I think I would go to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 16. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or authorities or power.

All things were created by him and for him. Then I might go to John chapter 10 and verse 30 where Jesus said, I and the Father are one. Then I might go to John chapter 8 verse 58 where Jesus said, Before Abraham was, I am. Those are great verses, great passages that would point us to the deity of Christ.

But I tell you, if I would leave out Hebrews chapter 1, I would be dead wrong to do that. For in Hebrews chapter 1 we are told that Jesus is the heir of all things, that he's the creator of all things. We are told that he is the radiance of the glory of God and that he is the exact imprint of God's nature. Go back to verse 6 that we looked at last week and we saw there the angels are worshiping Jesus. You might remember from Revelation chapter 19 when the angel came and appeared before the apostle John. John was so wailed by the angel's glory that he fell down as if to worship him right at his feet.

And the angel said, Get up, John. You worship God and worship God alone. The angels know there's only one to be worshiped and that is God. And who are the angels worshiping? They are worshiping Jesus.

And what does that tell us? It teaches us that Jesus is God. Today I have five points that I want to share with you as we continue our study on Jesus being greater than the angels.

My point number one is the deity of Christ. Look with me again at verses 8 and 9. 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. These are great verses to back up the doctrine of the Trinity. That we serve one God who manifests himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance and in essence.

They are different in office and in function. Here in this verse, we are told that the Son, the Son of God, is proclaimed to be God himself. And then the scepter teaches us that God, the Father, has exalted God the Son. You want a verse that just shouts at you that Jesus is God, this is a great verse to do it. Alright, look at verses 10 through 12.

And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning. And the heavens are the works 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. You see what the writer of Hebrews is doing? He is drawing from three different psalms here. Psalm 2, Psalm 45, and Psalm 102.

And listen to what he says. He shows how God the Father is speaking to God the Son. And he says, you laid the foundation of the earth from the beginning. The heavens are the works of your hands. God the Father is saying to God the Son, you are the creator. You created all things. You created the earth, you created the sun, the moon, the stars, the galaxy, you created it all.

Then he goes on to say this. But one day it will wear out. The creation will wear out. Just like a garment. But your years have no end. You don't change.

Jesus, you don't wear out. The writer of Hebrews is proving to us, the deity of Christ, by sharing with us the incommunicable attributes of Jesus himself. Now, you and I have communicable attributes and those are things that we understand that we have and God has. Things like love and mercy and joy. God has those things.

We understand those things. But then there are incommunicable attributes that we can't understand. And the Scripture is telling us that Jesus has those incommunicable attributes. Omniscience, that he knows all things. Omnipotence, that he is all powerful. Immutability, that he never changes. Eternity, that he's been here forever and will be here forever.

Folks, incommunicable attributes show us who Jesus Christ really is. And the psalmist and the writer of Hebrews point this out to us by comparing the Creator to his creation. Now, the creation had a beginning. It will also have an end.

I want you to listen to what Richard Phillips said. We also observe here a striking contrast between the creation and the Son of God. Heaven and earth, we are told, will perish. The great works of God in creation will come to an end. The majesty of the mountains, the roaring of the waterfall, the beauty of the valley, all these will run their course and ultimately perish.

Indeed, like an old set of clothes, they're even now wearing out. Stars are using up their hydrogen. Matter is converted to energy and there is loss. Ours is a dying universe with its end in sight.

If this is true of God's creation, how much more of man's work. The tallest skyscraper will fall. The dams will burst. The greatest achievements will be forgotten. All this will happen, not merely in the long-running course of time with its decay, but suddenly by God's Son when he comes to end history and judge the world.

He will roll it up like a robe, exchanging it as his desire for a new garment. The apostle Peter writes of this, that the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. As Paul writes, the present form of this world is passing away, but of God's Son, we read the opposite. They will perish, but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment, but you are the same, and your years will have no end. It is hard to imagine a more emphatic portrayal of Christ's divinity, a mighty Lord and God who is worthy of our faith. All right, my point, too, is wisdom from Psalm 102. When a New Testament writer quotes an Old Testament passage, he expects us to go back and to look at that passage that it came from in its context. And if you do that with Psalm 102, there's a subtitle for that Psalm.

Let me read that subtitle to you. A prayer of one who is afflicted when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord. In the first half of Psalm 102, the writer laments the decaying nature of this world. He is sad, and he's in tears about how the things of this world pass away and are soon forgotten. My granddad on my dad's side was born in 1879. That's just 14 years after the Civil War. He had my dad when he was about 50, so he lived through World War I. He lived through the Great Depression, World War II, Korea, Vietnam.

He died in 1967. My grandmother on my dad's side was one of the strongest Christians that I've ever known. She loved the Lord with all of her heart. She was a great witness.

She died in 1976. Well, just several years ago, Cindy and I were in Greenville, South Carolina, and I said to Cindy, Cindy, I want to show you where my grandmom and granddad lived. We rode down to East Ferris Road, and we rode up to their house, and I got real bold, and I said, I'm going to pull in the driveway. So I pulled in the driveway, and I said, I'm going to go knock on the door. And I went with Cindy with me, and we went and we knocked at the door, and the people came to the door, and I said, listen, my grandmother and my granddad lived here, and when I was a little boy, I was here all the time. I wondered if we could just look at your house, and they very graciously just gave us a tour.

And as they gave us that tour, all these memories just came flooding back to my mind. I saw my papa sitting there with a Bible open, reading the scripture to us. And then I saw my grandmother and remembered her at Christmastime. When I was four years old, I walked into the house at Christmas, and she had all the Christmas cards displayed up on top of a piano. And I saw one that had a picture of a little boy dragging a Christmas tree through the snow.

He has his axe up on his shoulder. He had a little dog that was jumping around him. I just loved it, and she saw how much I loved it. So she took it, she put it in a frame, and on the next Christmas, she gave it to me as a Christmas present. It was so precious. I put it on my wall at home, and I've kept it on my wall since I was five years old. It meant so much to me that I gave it to Martha Ferris. I said, Martha, is there any way that you could paint a picture of this?

And she did and did a beautiful job. So I duplicated it. And then I put it in frames, and then we gave it to all my children and my brother and my sister at Christmas.

Now it hangs on their wall as well. But I asked the owner of the house while we were there. I said, let me ask you something. I said, did you know Arthur and Annie Agnew? And they said, no. I said, have you ever heard of them?

And they said, no. And I felt some sadness in my heart. It was 60 years ago, and they had been a very powerful witness in that neighborhood, a light to that neighborhood.

And now all of a sudden, they were gone, and nobody really cared. Psalm 102, verses three through nine. For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and is withered. I forget to eat my bread because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my flesh. I'm like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I'm like a lonely sparrow on the housetop.

All the days my enemies taunt me. Those who deride me use my name for a curse, for I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink. Folks, these are cries that will find themselves on the lips of everyone who lives for a long period of time. Our days do pass away like smoke. Our bones do give way. Death awaits us.

We wither like the grass, don't we? But it's like the psalmist all of a sudden just stops on a dime, and he makes a big U-turn. And all of a sudden, he completely changes the direction in which he was going. And all of a sudden, he begins to turn from sadness to joy, from tears to shouts. And what does he say? He says, remember, this is not all there is to it. We serve God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And that great, glorious God had no beginning, and he has no end. The bones of my grandmother are decaying in a cemetery in Greenville, South Carolina. But that's not her, brothers and sisters.

That's a shell. Where she is right now is in glory. And she is with the Lord Jesus Christ, and she will be with Him forever. My grandfather lived through the Great Depression.

He wondered where the next meal was going to come from. There's no more of that, for he is in glory with Jesus and will be with Him forever and ever. Psalm 102 verses 12 through 16 says, But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. You are remembered throughout all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion.

It is the time to favor her. The appointed time has come, for your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust. Nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. For the Lord builds up Zion.

He appears in His glory. Remember here who the writer of Hebrews is writing to? He's writing to Hebrew Christians who are going through a horrible, terrible, hard persecution.

I want you for just a minute to put yourself in the shoes of one of those Hebrew Christians. Your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, the rabbi at the synagogue that you used to go to, they are slapped, just laying you out. They are telling you that they are mad at you. They are telling you that you need to turn away from this Christianity stuff, that you need to throw that away, that you need to come back to the faith. They are rejecting you. They're persecuting you.

They are canceling you. And the words that they speak are not just words of anger, they are words of hatred. So you read this section of the letter.

Think about you doing that now in their place. And all of a sudden, the author quotes Psalm 102. In this Psalm, he reminds you that this life is fragile and it's temporary. This life, James said, is like a little vapor.

It's like a little puff of steam. It's here and then before we realize it, that life is up and it's gone and it's gone. But then he leads you to the second half of the Psalm and he reminds you that Jesus is God and God is eternal. This is what Jesus did for the disciples in John 14, 19. This is what he said, A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live. You will live also. Verse 12 of Psalm 102, the scripture says this, But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever.

The world crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, but God the Father enthroned Him. For how long? Forever.

Forever. The things of this world come and go, don't they? The last 2,000 years, we've had statesmen and politicians.

We've had kings and presidents and princes and rulers and they have come, they've served for a period of time and then they've died and they're gone. Jesus came, He died, but let me tell you something, He's not dead. He is more alive.

He is so much alive, it's unbelievable. The scripture says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And if you know and love the Lord, then because He lives, you too shall live. Can you imagine that truth that was brought to the hearts of these persecuted Hebrew Christians? Brothers and sisters, we need to remember that the Word of God is timeless. We in this country are getting ready to go through persecution like we have never experienced before as Christians.

It's going to be tough, it's going to be hard, it's not going to be easy whatsoever, but we need to remember this. Jesus Christ is on the throne. These verses tell us to quit thinking in the temporary and begin looking into eternity.

That's what's important because He lives, you too shall live. Point three, seated at God's right hand, look at 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? This is a quote from Psalm 110.

Did you not realize that Psalm 110 is the most quoted psalm in the entire New Testament? Because it tells us where Jesus is going when He ascends, where He is going to be seated at the right hand of God and He will be there forever. It's a picture of authority, supremacy and power. Revelation chapter 7 gives us a beautiful picture of this. The elders are around the throne and the elders represent all of Christianity. The angels are there, myriads and myriads of angels.

The living creatures are there with Jesus and they're worshiping Him with a readiness to obey Him. You remember what Stephen said as Stephen was standing before the bloody mob that was going to stone him to death. And as the rocks begin to fly at Stephen to kill him, to put him to death, he looks up into heaven and he says this, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

Man, you talk about something getting much easier than it would have been. Stephen went through a terrible stoning, but it was much easier when he could see Jesus standing there at the throne of God. Folks, Jesus is usually seated on the throne, but at that point in time, He's standing. It was like He was giving Stephen a standing ovation.

It was like He was saying to Stephen, here's my open arms to you, come to me, a welcome home hug. Now, Jesus stood up when Stephen was martyred, but don't think for a minute that when He is seated on the throne, He is inactive because He's certainly not. Psalm 121 4 says that He who keeps Israel will never slumber nor sleep. Folks, one of the ministries that Jesus has now on this earth is a ministry of intercession. Share with you a couple of verses.

Romans 8 34, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. Hebrews 7 25, Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Folks, how does Jesus intercede for us? Sometimes He does it by sending an angel to minister on our behalf. Sometimes He does it by sending the Holy Spirit to minister to us.

I think of Peter. Right before he denied Jesus three times, he was kind of brash and thought he had everything in control. And Jesus spoke to Peter. He said, Simon, Simon, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail. Brothers, sisters, I don't know about you, but it does something to my heart when I realize that the Creator of heaven and earth will send the Holy Spirit for my protection, for my guidance, and for my direction.

Point four, defeating the enemy. Look at verse 13 again. But to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool? Think about that.

It's quite a picture, isn't it? Jesus is seated on His throne. His enemies are becoming His footstool. We are told about how that works out in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 24 through 26. It says, Then comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule, all authority and power, for He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. The curse of the law, sin, Satan, the flesh, the world, death, the grave, all those are His enemies. And think about how over the last 2,000 years He has defeated those enemies.

Think about how He defeated them when He was here on this earth. He cast out demons. He cleansed the leper. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He opposed false teaching.

He ran the money changers out of the temple. He humbled the proud. He caused sinners to faith and repentance. And we still see those victories today, but I want you to know what we are seeing today is incomplete.

We have not seen it all. Brothers, sisters, the day is coming when Jesus Christ is returning to this earth. Heaven, hell, all hell, death and hell are going to be cast in to the lake of fire. And if you're a Christian, you are going to receive a glorified body. You're going to receive a body, a body where sin has been vanquished, where sickness is no more, where death has been completely conquered, where you will never have to worry about sinning again. It cannot and will not happen in your life and where Christ is every day lifted up in great glory and in great joy. All of His enemies at that time will be under His footstool.

Revelation 11, 15 says it this way, The kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of our Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. Man, that ought to make a Presbyterian shout. Point five, greater than the angels. Look at verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who inherit salvation? These last two sermons have been centered on verse 4 through 14, where we are being taught that Jesus is greater than the angels. We are taught that Jesus created the angels. And some scholars believe that there are trillions of angels that He created, absolutely trillions. And some believe that He created them all simultaneously at one time, and immediately they had all had their own identities and their own calling. Matthew chapter 18, verse 10, we are told that some of the angels, some of the angels were guardian angels.

They took care of little children. We are told in Daniel chapter 10 that some of the angels watch over entire nations. Angels had different responsibilities. But the Scripture says here that they are ministering spirits unto us who inherit salvation. Folks, one of the things that angels do is they minister to Christians.

Let me give you a great biblical example. Peter, there in Jerusalem, is preaching the gospel. King Herod Agrippa decides to have Peter arrested. To have him arrested, he gives the order that the next day Peter is to be decapitated.

They're going to chop his head off. So he put Peter in a prison cell. He's sitting in that prison cell. He's got a Roman soldier on one side, another Roman soldier on the other side. He's got chains on his hands and his feet.

And in the middle of all this, what is he doing? He goes to sleep. Can you imagine knowing that on the next day you're going to have your head chopped off and being able to sleep? I tell you, that is perfect peace. But while he's laying there sleeping, all of a sudden the angel comes to him. And the angel stands before him and he puts all the guards into a deep, deep sleep. And then he says the word and the chains fall off Peter's hands and feet. And then he says, Peter, get up. Peter gets up.

He said, follow me. They walk out of the prison door. Then they walk out of the cell door. Then they walk out of the gate that's next in the prison. Then there's a final gate that they walk through.

They walk through it and there is Peter. What happened to him? Did he get his head chopped off the next morning?

No. He lived for 30 more years. And every single day he's preaching the gospel. Now, that was a powerful angel that did that. But the Scripture tells us that Jesus is the one who created that angel.

Jesus is greater than the angels. Love the story in 2 Kings chapter 6. There's the Syrian king is just mad at Elisha. Elisha keeps interfering with what he wants to do. And so he sends the Syrian army out to get Elisha and to bring him to death. And so the Syrian army goes out and they surround Elisha and his servant. And the servant is scared to death over what he sees.

All these Syrian soldiers out to kill him. And so let me read you what happened. 2 Kings 6, 16 through 18. So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, Strike this people, I pray, with blindness. And he struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

The Lord sends angels in fiery chariots. And they're in those chariots, they're holding up a mighty powerful sword. And there's the Syrian soldiers surrounding him all around them. And all of a sudden, they have their eyes open. They see what's going.

They're scared to death. And then Elisha says, Blind them, Lord. And they're totally blinded. Elisha's servant has not had his eyes open yet. He doesn't see what's going on. He doesn't see the angels yet. And then Elisha says, Lord, open his eyes.

And the Lord opens his eyes and boy, he brings a sigh of relief. For he knows those angels are there as ministering spirits unto them to protect them. I wonder, I just wonder how often angels are ministering to us, getting us out of one difficulty after another, and we never see them. And we don't realize it's there.

Let me tell you, it happens much more often than we think it does. Angels are ministering spirits to those who inherit salvation. Folks, angels are powerful, they are wise, they are godly, they are greatly important in God's kingdom. But the Scriptures are emphatic. Jesus is greater than the angels. Jesus created the angels, and the angels carry out his bidding. They worship him, they glorify him, they obey him. Let me ask you, why do they do that? Here's the answer.

Take it home with you. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is God. And all God's people said? Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you for sending your Son to us. He is greater, more glorious, more powerful, and more wonderful than his creation, the angels. We thank you for your precious word that drives us to understand the greatness and the glory of Jesus. Lord, help us that we might glorify his precious name in everything that we do. Help us, Heavenly Father, that we might be the kind of church that refuses to compromise, refuses to bow before the enemy, because we know who you are, and our faith is totally and completely in you. We ask this prayer in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.