Book of Hebrews - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-14 (02/14/2021)

manners, spake in time past unto the Father by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his

Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day

I have forgotten thee, and again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him.

And of the angels, he saith, Who maketh his angels, spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

But unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.

Therefore, God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.

They shall perish, but thou remainest. They shall all wax old, as does a garment.

And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.

But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to us, but to which of the angels said he at any time,

Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

Let us pray. Most gracious heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for giving us the opportunity to reach out and to touch one another through the operations of all of the electronics, all the devices, all the communication systems that are made available to us today that would not have been available only five to ten years ago.

Thank you for giving us the holy word that we can read and study, and thank you for giving us the

Holy Spirit that we might be able to understand what we read and study.

But most of all, thank you for giving us your Son who came and died and was resurrected in order that we might obtain a more abundant life.

Thank you for all the things that you've given us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Now we're going to go back to Hebrews 1 and restart, and then we're going to break it down line by line as we go.

So I'm going to begin again at verse 1. God who at sundry times and diverse manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his

Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Now from verse 2 on, the focus of chapter 1 is

Jesus, God's only begotten Son. And that is a bit of an understatement.

The focus of the entire scripture, both old and new, is Jesus. Jesus himself said in John chapter 5 verse 39, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.

Of course Jesus when he spoke this was speaking about the Old Testament, because that's the only scriptures that existed at the time that he made that statement.

But at this point we have both the Old and the New Testaments, and both of them, the emphasis is, the focus is

Jesus Christ. So let's go back to verse 2 and look at the last part of it, and we'll pick up where we left off last week.

God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds.

Make note of the fact that not only is Jesus the heir of all things, but he is also the creator of all things.

The word worlds that ends this verse, the Greek word used here is aeon, which can also be translated aegis.

But what aegis really means is the entire universe and everything in it that makes it function.

Time, space, energy, matter, everything that makes it function.

Well we know who created it. John 1 tells us, or the gospel of John chapter 1 verse 1 tells us, 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, and without him was not anything made that was made.

So what John is saying is that everything that exists, including man, was created by God.

If you look in Genesis 1 verse 26, you'll get this statement.

And God said, let us make man in our image. Now you notice that's plural.

God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion.

Now the them are the ones that are created. That's the man and the woman.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.

And he gave them dominion of the earth, and all that was in it. But that dominion was relinquished when

Adam and Eve were disobedient in the garden. And don't think that came as a surprise to God.

God put them in the garden, and he put the tree of knowledge of good and evil into that garden with them to give them an opportunity to show either obedience or disobedience.

And for a long time they were obedient, and then they were disobedient.

And for that they relinquished control or dominion of the earth to Satan.

And Satan usurped control temporarily. But that control will ultimately revert back to Jesus, the

Son of God, the Messiah, the heir of all things. I thought it'd be good here to add a little passage from Psalms chapter 2 verse 7.

I will declare the decree the Lord said unto me, thou art my son, this day have

I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Now that will happen, but that's not happened yet. That will not happen until Jesus reassumes the throne in the millennial kingdom.

But right now, Satan's still the prince of the power of the air.

So back to Luke. I'm sorry, back to Hebrews. I've been in Luke so long that I've trained myself just to say

Luke. Back to Hebrews verse 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his

Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he, that's

Jesus, had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

And that is the Father. So let's look at verse 3. Who being the brightness of his glory.

Now he's not like the moon reflecting the light from the sun. He's more like the sun creating its own light.

He is not simply reflecting the glory of God, but he's generating a glory of his own.

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the expressed image of his person.

Now person here is a word expressing nature, or being, or essence.

The sun is the perfect imprint, the exact representation of the nature and essence of God in time and in space.

The Father transcends time and space, but the sun exists in both.

But he doesn't exist in time and space as we do, for in him dwells all the fullness of the

Godhead directly. So we can say this, everything that pertains to the

Father outside time and space, also pertains to the sun in time and space.

Now Matthew Henry gave what was to me, maybe the clearest understanding of this that I have come across.

But you got to bear with me, Matthew Henry wrote a long, long time ago, and the writing styles were different.

So I may stumble on this as I read it, but I'll do my best. The person of the sun is the true image and character of the person of the

Father. Being of the same nature, he must bear the same image and likeness.

In beholding the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold the power, wisdom, goodness of the

Father. For he hath both the nature and perfections of God in him.

In fact, he said this, Jesus said this, he that hath seen the sun hath seen the

Father. That is, he has seen the same being, the same being he has seen.

He that hath known the sun hath known the Father. For the son is in the

Father and the Father in the son. The Father in the son, the personal distinction is no other than will consist with essential unity.

So there is not a father and a son separate from one another. They have to be the same.

This is the glory of the person of Christ. The fullness of the

Godhead dwells not typically, not as a type, but really in him.

You're going to have to bear with me just a second. I need to take care of something, and I'll be right back in like 30 seconds.

Well, pardon me.

I had a dog in the room with me, and he started crying to get out, so I had to let him out. Okay.

Not fullness as a type, but fullness really in him. From the glory of the person of Christ, he proceeds to mention the glory of his grace.

His condescension itself was truly glorious. The suffering of Christ had this great honor in them to be a full satisfaction for the sins of his people.

Remember when he had by himself purged our sins? That is by the proper innate merit of his death and bloodshed by their infinite intrinsic value.

As they were the suffering of himself, he has made atonement for sins.

Himself, the glory of his person and nature gave to his sufferings such merit that it was sufficient reparation of the honor to God who had suffered an infinite injury and an affront by the sins of man.

Now, what that's saying, I believe, is only Jesus with his infinite intrinsic value could sacrifice something worthy of the reparation for God to be satisfied because God had suffered an infinite injury and affront by the sins of man.

So, it took an infinitely good man to pay for an infinitely great injury.

Well, Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But now is

Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also resurrection from the dead.

For as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But every man in his own order Christ the first fruits, and afterward they that are

Christ at his coming. Then cometh the end when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the

Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he put all the enemies under his feet.

And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet.

But when he said all things are put under him, it is manifest that he has accepted which did put all things under him.

So, what that's saying is everything is put under the feet of God.

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

And going on back to Hebrews, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

Now, we have a passage in Colossians that tells us this, Colossians 1 verse 14.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even forgiveness of sin, who is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of creation. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

That is to say, put and held together. The Son of God directs or is in charge of everything, leading the consummation of all things according to God's sovereign purposes.

Of all things, according to God's purposes. He who spoke all things into existence also sustains creation.

Now, the right hand is the power of position and authority and honor, but it is also a position of subordination, implying that the

Son is under the authority of the Father. Now, we have a couple of verses in Hebrews that I'd like to jump ahead and read.

This is out of Hebrews 8 verse 1. Now, the things which we have spoken, this is the

Son. We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high.

What that's saying is, when Jesus has completed our salvation and finished all the things that needs to be done, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down on the right hand of God.

His work was finished. He sat down on the right hand of God where he rules as a sovereign

Lord. This depicts a victorious Savior, not a defeated martyr.

One other thing, while the primary thrust of this passage is the enthronement of Christ, his sitting might also imply the completing or the completion of his atoning work.

Okay. Earlier I mentioned, this early was not earlier today, it was earlier in the study of Hebrews, that the community of Christians to whom this letter was addressed was facing the possibility of intensified persecution.

As they confronted the reality of that intensified persecution, they were tempted to cast aside any identification with Christ.

One avenue that they explored was the worship of angels. Angels are spiritual beings, spirit beings created by God to minister to him and to do his bidding.

But the Jews held these angels in very high regard as the highest beings next to God.

So it was easy enough for them to distance themselves from the Messiah and draw nearer to the angels.

In fact, the sect of Judaism, which had established a community at Qumran, taught that the

Archangel Michael's authority rivaled or suppressed, or surpassed rather, that of the

Messiah. The writer of Hebrews clearly disclaims any such concept.

And his theme for the rest of this chapter and for a couple of more is that the

Son of God is superior to the angels. Now, I doubt that the avenue that we will be tempted to take as we face intensified pressure will be to distance ourselves from Christ and attach our affections to angels.

But you can rest assured that some other alternative will present itself.

We can always already hear the drumbeat. There are many ways to heaven. In any case, the writer of Hebrews devotes the rest of chapter one to rejecting the worship of angels as a viable alternative to the worship of Jesus.

And as we proceed, we need to keep this in mind. Jesus himself said in John chapter 14, verse 6,

I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Jesus is the way. Not angels, not Buddha, not

Mohammed, not the Pope, not science, not mother nature, not anything.

There is no other way. Now, I'm going to read two verses.

One, verse 4, and another one from chapter 2. I'm going to read them back to back, and I'm going to ask you a question after I get through.

Here is verse 4. Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

And now for the next one. This is Hebrews 2, verse 9.

Take a second and look there. Hebrews 2, verse 9. But we see

Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, and he hath, by grace of God, should taste death for every man.

So what is it? Is it much, let's see again, is it much better than the angels, or is it a little lower than the angels?

The question I want to ask is, is this a contradiction? Did the writer of Hebrews contradict himself already in just the first two chapters?

And of course, the answer to that is no. The Son, in his divine essence, has eternally existed, but for a while, about 35 years from his birth to his resurrection, he was made a little lower than the angels.

He had to be made a little lower than the angels so that he could identify with man.

But afterwards, he was exalted to an infinitely higher position by virtue of what he had accomplished in his redemptive work.

And now to verse 5. For unto which angel said he at any time, thou art my son, this day

I have begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

Now the words this day indicate that the Son was born in a point of time.

So there can't, there was a point in time when the Son was born. We have the stories of that, that we just did at Christmas, the birth of Jesus.

And he was declared, he was born in a point of time, but he was always

God. He fulfilled his role as Son in time and space at the

Incarnation. So when he was born, he began to be God in time and space.

And he was affirmed as such by his resurrection. Paul tells us this in Romans 1 -4.

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

That's what proved that he was the Messiah. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten, the first begotten, of course, is the

Messiah, or is Jesus, into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him.

Since the angels were commanded to worship the Messiah, the Messiah must be superior to them.

Moreover, they were commanded to worship him, even at the time when he was placed temporarily in a position lower than they were.

So even when he was born and he was put in the position of man, a little bit lower than the angels, the angels were commanded to worship him.

Verse 7. And of the angels, he saith, who maketh his spirits, his angel spirits, and his ministers flames of fire.

But into the Son, he saith, by throne, O God, is forever and ever.

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. The first thing to consider is this.

This is God the Father speaking to his Son, calling his

Son God. This is John MacArthur's take.

He notes that this is a quotation from Psalms 45, verse 6 and 7.

And he comments this. The writer argues for the deity of the lordship of the

Son over creation. The text is all the more significant since the declaration of the

Son's deity is presented as words of the Father himself. And it's clear that the writer of Hebrews had three messianic offices in mind, that of prophet and priest and king.

Induction to these three offices required an anointing. And of course, the word anointing means, or the title

Christ, or Messiah, means the anointed one. Verse 9.

Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore God, even thy

God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Now look at the first and the last words of this verse.

Thou refers to Jesus. Now in one sense, Jesus is unique.

He has no fellows. But in another sense, he is the firstborn of many brethren.

But no matter what, no matter how noble these men were, or no matter how noble men are today,

Christ is superior. And that's what part of this verse, chapter is about.

Verse 10. And thou, Lord, in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.

They shall perish, but thou shall remain. They shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed.

But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. Now here's the story.

The Son who created the universe. We read about that earlier in John 1 .1.

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, and without him was not anything made that was made.

So the Son created the universe. The same Son who created the universe one day will destroy the heavens and the earth that he created.

Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3 .10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.

That implies it's not there at Peter's time, and in fact it's not there yet.

In which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye be in all holy conversation and godliness?

That's holy lifestyle and godliness. Looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of the

Lord, wherein the heavens being set on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.

So the earth, the heavens, and all that are in it will be changed, but not

Jesus. He remains unchanged, and that's once again the scripture testifying to the deity of the

Son. Now on to verse 13.

But to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

It's Christ's destiny to reign. It's the angel's destiny to serve the recipients of that salvation.

And then verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits set forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation?

Now you understand this. Not only is it the destiny of angels to serve

Christ and God, but it is also the destiny of angels to serve the recipients of salvation.

That's you and I. The heirs of salvation. The joint heirs with Christ.

Now that's very important.

It's very important for us to recognize that the angels are not superior to Christ.

They are not even superior to the glorified man. They are here to serve both

Christ and the heirs of salvation, and that would be his people.

Romans 8 talks about this in a more straightforward past way, and I would like to read it, and then

I'll close. Romans 8 beginning at verse 16.

This is not too far in the past in Brother David's messages. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs.

Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Now that is a wonderful thing to be.

Joint heirs with Christ. But that doesn't come without a cost. Oh, it's a free gift, and I understand that.

We don't do anything to earn it, and I understand that.

But there'll be things that happen to us, not in order to gain our salvation, but because we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

If so be that we suffer with him that may be also glorified together.

For I reckon that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

So yes, we will suffer on this world, on this earth, just like Christ suffered on this earth, but we will be glorified in heaven forever.

I'm not going to say just like Christ, but I will say very much like Christ.

And skipping down to verse 28, And we know that all things work together for them that love

God, to them who are called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow.

He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified he glorified.

What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

For it is God that justifies, who is he that condemns?

It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?

Who shall separate us from the love of God, from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. And that is a wonderful thing to be persuaded about, that there is nothing in this world, about this world, in this universe, with enough power to separate us from the love of Jesus.

Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for putting us in the position of being able to be with God, with Jesus, in glory.

Thank you for making it impossible for anything or anyone to separate us from this love.

Thank you for making this love eternal with us knowing that whatever happens to us here is not worthy to be counted against.

What great things will happen to us in the future.