To The Angels Or To The Son

The Old Testament reading today is Psalm 2, found in page 448 in a few

Bibles. Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the

Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart, and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,

Ask for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the

Lord said to me. You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore,

O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all those who take refuge in him. New Testament reading is

Matthew 22, 41 -46. Now while the

Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, What do you think about the

Christ? Whose son is he? They said to him, The son of David. He said to them,

How is it then that David in the spirit calls him Lord? Saying, The Lord said to my

Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. If then

David calls him Lord, how is he his son? And no one was able to answer him a word.

Nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. You may be seated. Okay, let's get one distraction dealt with immediately.

The snow is getting deep and branches and trees are getting lower. That's all there is to it. And if I would stop letting my mind think about so many things that I'm not aware of my surroundings,

I'd probably be better off. So there you go. There's the there's the answer to your question. Turning your

Bibles to Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. You follow as I read these, this first chapter.

Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son. Today, I've begotten you, or again,

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. 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.

But of the sun, he says, Your throne, oh, God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of right 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.

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 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 who are to inherit salvation?

Let's pray. Now, Father, we pray as we look into the text of scripture, you would exalt

Christ in our eyes. Oh, God, help us to see him for who he is.

God, grant that today that we might see this one. Jesus is the one who is our only hope, the one to whom we must submit, obey, but above all, to believe.

We thank you in Jesus' name. You know, angels are a source of fascination for so many people.

They're just fascinated by the whole concept of angels. I've had many people ask me questions about angels and even say,

Why don't you preach a series of sermons on angels? When you see them in scripture, they often appear as these powerful and fearsome beings.

You have angels visiting Abraham only to walk into the city of Sodom and blind a bunch of men and eventually wipe that city off the map forever.

In Daniel, they appear to be these powerful spiritual beings that guard and fight for nations.

Even you get the impression that angels of one nation are fighting angels of another nation. In the face of overwhelming

Syrian forces, Elisha's servants' eyes were opened so they saw the mountains filled with fiery chariots of angels.

In Isaiah's visions, angels surround the throne of God, and as one of them cries out,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the foundations of the temple shakes.

Balaam's donkey. Eventually, Balaam sees the angel of the Lord standing in front of them with a sword drawn.

In Revelation, these angels appear as powerful beings who pour out judgments on the earth.

Angels are really something to behold, evidently, as we look in the scriptures.

The term angel in the New Testament comes from the word angelos.

You can see that angels is just not even a translation. It just moved it over from the

Greek into English. Angelos is angels. The term angelos is a term that's translated many places, not just about these supernatural beings, but about people because the word angelos means messenger.

It's a messenger. Messenger sent by God to communicate and to accomplish his will.

We saw last week that God actually used angels to communicate the

Mosaic Covenant. God spoke through angels.

So then, these powerful messengers were held in high esteem by the

Jewish audience who received this exhortation that we now call the

Book of Hebrews. But Jesus is also a messenger from God.

In fact, the writer of this sermon that we call Hebrews makes it plain that God made his final, supreme revelation in the person of Jesus Christ.

As we saw two weeks ago, that name of Son is a title that is superior and more excellent than any that the angels have received.

So in order to make sure you understand that this last messenger is the final and supreme spokesman of God, he now contrasts the

Son with the angels in verses 5 through 18. He's going to explain to us now why

Jesus is the final and supreme, ultimate revelation from God, better than the angels, because that term

Son is a higher title. He's going to explain how that's the case in verses 5 through 18.

Now he does that as you look through our text for today, and I hope maybe you read it before you came here today.

I hope you did. You will see in verses 5 through 18 that there are seven quotations from the

Old Testament. All of these intended to prove from the Bible that Jesus is superior to angels.

Let's look at that. Verses 5 through 18. 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.

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.

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. 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. 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 who are to inherit salvation?

Now remember, the book of Hebrews is really a sermon. It's an exhortation to God's people, encouraging them to remain faithful to Jesus and to the gospel that they have believed.

And so it's all aiming us in that direction, remain faithful to Jesus and to the gospel that you've received.

Why? Because of what he's just said. The first thing he says is believe that Jesus is the unique son.

Believe that Jesus is the unique son. To Jesus, God says, you are my son.

Well, to the angels, he says, worship him. Verses five and six.

Now, as a good preacher, he now turns your attention to the scriptures, and the scripture in fact is the second psalm, and in particular, verse seven.

So he quotes for us verse seven of the second psalm. Now, what's that psalm about?

In the second psalm, God proclaims that the Davidic king will inherit the nations and rule the world.

This fulfills the promise that was made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that the entire world would be blessed through one of their descendants.

Now, when you look at verse seven, which he quotes, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Verse seven in the second psalm, and verse five here, is not a reference to God actually begetting the son, as in the virgin birth, or eternally begetting him, as our confessions say.

Because the psalm, when you look at the psalm, it's about the king that's being installed.

It's about the Davidic king who's being installed. It's entirely possible that psalm two was sung at the installation of every king of Judah, of Israel first and then of Judah.

So it's not about God begetting someone in the sense that we would think of that, because the psalm refers to the installation or the appointment of the king by God in which

God calls the king his son. And in that psalm, the nations of the world should fear, because God has decreed that the kings of the world are to serve his son, the king.

Now, our writer, our preacher, identifies Jesus as the son installed by the father as the messianic king.

In fact, here's how you need to think about it. You say, well, I look at that. Let's say that was sung at Solomon's, David's son.

Let's say that psalm was sung at Solomon's coronation. They're singing about all the nations of the earth serving

Solomon. Did that happen? No. Did it happen with any succeeding king?

No. So what happens? Because of that psalm, they keep looking.

They keep looking for the one who's going to fulfill that. You see, it's like there are these giant robes and no one fills them out.

They're looking for someone who's going to fill out all that's said about the king in Psalm 2.

And the apostles and our writer here of Hebrew says, Jesus did that. Jesus is the one who finally fulfills it all.

This Jesus, the one who lived and died and was raised incorruptible 30 years ago to the original writers, or this

Jesus who walked in Palestine and ministered and died and was risen well over 2000 years ago,

God appointed as king. He fulfills the promise contained in Psalm 2.

This is the one who they're looking for. Of course, we know as we, as you read, and we don't have time to look up all the references, but as you read, you see that to the writers of scripture, the apostles, the

New Testament writers, Jesus fulfills it all. Not because he's ascended a throne in Jerusalem, but because he's ascended to the throne at the very right hand of God.

And so he fulfills that passage in Psalm 2. But then in order to make his point in verse, the last part of verse five, he turns to 2

Samuel 7, verse 14. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

Now you find this quotation in the covenant that God made with David. And there, you remember,

David wanted to build the temple for God. And Nathan came to him and said, no, you're not the man to build the temple of God or a house for God.

But here's what God's going to do. He's going to build your house, meaning your dynasty. He's going to build your dynasty.

And one of your descendants will build that temple. And God promises to establish your throne forever.

Okay. That's the Davidic covenant, the covenant God made with David. I'm going to make sure that one of your descendants sits on the throne forever.

They'll always be a descendant on the throne. And what we see in the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus is that he fulfills the promise of this forever ruling

Davidic king, right? Our Hebrew pastor points to Jesus as this promised son, promised in that covenant made to David.

Yes, Jesus was the son before the incarnation, but he entered into a new experience of sonship, this royal experience by virtue of his exaltation to the right hand of God.

He is the son. He is the divinely installed king. So that's his first point. He is this unique divinely installed king that was promised long ago.

However, no angel has ever been declared this kind of God's son.

But to the angels, God says, worship him. That's what he says here. But to the angels, and again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all

God's angels worship him. He's greater than the angels because the angels are called to worship him.

He's the son. You're called to worship him. Now, we're not entirely sure what scripture he's quoting here.

There's a couple of passages that he may be quoting from, but it seems to be

Psalm 97 verse seven, which says, all worshipers of images are put to shame who make their boast in worthless gods.

Worship him all you gods. Now, Psalm 97 is a

Psalm about God's sovereignty and rule over the earth. And our preacher takes this

Psalm about Yahweh's sovereignty and says, this is about Jesus. In his mind,

Jesus is God. As he's already said earlier up there in verses one through four, where he talks about him being the radiance of the glory of God and being the creator and the sustainer of everything.

In his mind, Jesus is God, as he already said earlier. And so he deserves the worship of the angels.

But you say to me, Psalm 97 seven, which you just quoted says, worship him all you gods.

What does that have to do with angels? Well, most Jewish people in the time that this was written, believe that that term gods was a reference to the angels because the

Bible that they used in their day translated it as angels, uses the word angelos.

Now, our writer here probably quotes the Septuagint. Okay, put your seatbelts on. We're gonna go on a ride through history here so you can understand a little bit about this book.

He's quoting from a translation of the Bible called the Septuagint.

Okay? That's the Bible translations that almost all Jews used in the first century.

And it translate the word gods from the Hebrew text. When it takes it into its

Greek text, it translate the word gods with angelos. They thought it was a reference to gods.

Now, the Septuagint, I got one right here. Septuagint.

You can kind of see that a little bit so you have good eyesight. This is the Greek translation of the

Hebrew Bible. Are you with me? You say, why would they translate it into Greek?

Here's why. Let's just say you have a Jewish friend who lives in New York City. And as you're writing him,

I'm sorry, what am I doing? As you email him or message him, all right, and you want to communicate the gospel to him, you want to use his scriptures, what are you going to go to?

Well, let's say you go to Isaiah 53. Are you going to give it to him in Hebrew? You go, no, why not?

Well, for one thing, I don't know Hebrew. And for another thing, he doesn't know Hebrew either.

Right? He doesn't know Hebrew. Even though he's a

Jewish guy who lives in New York City, he doesn't know Hebrew. His language is American English, just like yours.

And so what do you do? You use the translation. You use an

English translation. That's the language you both spoke. He doesn't know Hebrew. Look, I'm only two generations from the

Netherlands. My grandpa came from the Netherlands. I don't have,

I don't know one word in Dutch. Right? You're that far separated. You don't know. I know

English because that's where I grew up. Same with the people of the Hebrew Writers' Day. They all spoke

Greek. This was their Bible. This translation was their Bible. So he's quoting the translation that they all use.

And the translation they all use says, and evidently in common belief, that the word gods in the

Hebrew means angels. So that's what they translated, angels. Now, not only that, not only that, here's another reason why they use the

Septuagint. The Roman Empire had all kinds of people in it, right?

Conquered nations left and right. They all had their own languages. They all had their own languages.

They all spoke differently languages. But there was one language that everybody knew in the entire empire, and it was the

Greek language. Okay? So one day

I said, I wonder if there's any other tympasmas in the world. So I googled my name.

And I found a couple, but one was in the Netherlands. Actually a tympasma in the

Netherlands. I figured this guy's probably a relation. So I messaged him. What language did

I use? I used English. Why? Because today, in this time and here in history,

English is the universal language. Just like Greek was the universal language in the

Roman Empire. They all had different languages, but everybody knew Greek. So today, most everybody knows

English. When I travel, for example, I fly, go to Romania, I fly into Vienna or Amsterdam or whatever.

Or when I'm flying on Turkish airways or Air France or something like that, you know what they do?

They always give the instructions, right? Whenever you get on a plane, you get instructions.

They always give it in the language of the nation whose airline this came from. But then they do it again.

You know what they use? English. Because there's tons of people there who may not be

Air France. Probably only a few people there are French. A bunch of them come from all kinds of countries all over the world.

So they, what? They use English. Now Jews were spread all over the empire. They had the languages of the particular nations they were from, but they all knew

Greek. Therefore, a writer quotes the Old Testament from that Greek translation.

And by the way, as you read through this and he quotes the Old Testament, most of the time he's quoting that Greek translation in this book.

So, okay, that wasn't too difficult of a trip, was it? So that's what's going on.

So quoting from the Old Testament, the writer declares, God even commands the angels to worship him.

Now, when does this worship takes place? He says when he's first born, comes into the world. Right away, you might be thinking, well, it's talking about when he was born on earth.

And I don't think that's what he means. He's talking about the heavenly world, the heavenly, the world of glory that he ascended to.

Our writers and the apostles all indicated, all say that Jesus fulfilled these promises to David when he ascended to glory, and he assumed the place of majesty and authority at the right hand of God.

He says that in verse three, does he not? After making purification for sins, he sat down.

After he made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So it appears that when

Jesus ascended to the heavenly world as king, angels worshiped him. You say, but it says first born there.

That's true. But remember, first born does not always mean the one born first.

It doesn't always mean that. It is often used as a title suggesting preeminence of place or an exalted position.

Listen to Jeremiah 31 verse nine. Just listen to this. I want to show you something here. With weeping, they shall come, and with pleas for mercy,

I will lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water in a straight path in which they shall not stumble.

For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.

Now he says Ephraim's my first born. You go, wait a minute, God. For one thing, Ephraim was the younger brother of Manasseh.

He wasn't even the older brother of the two brothers. He was the younger brother of Manasseh.

And on top of that, he's the son of Joseph, who's the 11th of 12 sons, right?

So here's Israel, Jacob. Then you got Joseph, who's number 11.

Then you got a grandson of Jacob, who is the second born, but he's called first born.

Why is that? Because God is simply saying here that Ephraim has this place of preeminence.

It's a title of honor. We use the term first lady, right?

So does that mean that Mrs. Biden of all the women in the world is the very first one to be a lady? Is that what we mean when we use the term first lady?

No. Every president's wife has been called the first lady. It's a title of honor of preeminence.

And so what he's saying here is when the firstborn, when this exalted one, this one who occupies this place of exaltation, came to this heavenly world.

So the angels, because he fulfilled these prophecies when he was ascended and sat at the right hand of the glory on high.

So the angels must worship this exalted king, God's firstborn, who enters glory to assume his position as ruler of all.

So the first thing he says is believe that Jesus is the unique son of God. Who the angels must worship.

Now he makes a second point. Believe that Jesus, now this is, listen, now

I'm not, I'm not going to dwell on this. I'm not going to dwell on this thing about Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, okay?

But I'm telling you right now, this passage alone destroys all, all of those arguments that Jesus is not

God, right? Angels are supposed to worship him. So God is encouraging idolatry?

Is that what God's doing? Worshiping a created being? You know,

God hates that. He alone deserves worship. Here he commands the angels to worship.

Everything we're going to say destroys all those arguments about Jesus being a created being, particularly this. Believe that Jesus is both

Lord and God, verses 7 through 12. Now again, the preacher turns to the

Old Testament to show us that angels are servants. So he starts out, okay, just that angels should worship him.

Let me say something else now. Angels are servants. Keep that in mind, he says, angels are servants.

And he quotes Psalm 104, verse 4, to show that angels are servants.

He makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. Angels are God's messengers.

They're servants. Notice his ministers. What's parallel with angels?

Ministers, servants. They're servants. They are not objects of worship, as is the sun, for they did not create, but they're part of the created order.

They're like wind and fire. They are not the sun. They are couriers who carry out the will of God.

That's what they are. But what about the sun? If he's not a courier and he's not created, what should we think of him?

Well, so he gives us two more psalms. He gives us, first of all,

Psalm 45. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You've loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

Now, Psalm 45 is a royal song. It's penned in honor of the king of Israel, who's righteous and who triumphs over all other kings so that the cause of truth and righteousness advance.

The king conquers other kings for the purpose of advancing God's truth and his righteousness.

Now, the first thing you notice is he's God. As he speaks to the king, he says, your throne,

O God, is forever and ever. Now, notice he says, but of the sun.

Who's he said is the sun? Jesus. What does he say? He writes, but of the sun, indicating that the king is none other than the son,

Jesus Christ, the greatest king in David's line, fulfilling God's description of that king fully.

Fully fulfilling all that's expected of the king. And the king is God. At least that's what he's saying here.

The king is God, agreeing with what he said about Jesus as creator, verse two, as possessing

God's divine nature, verse three, and of going about the business of sustaining the world.

Again, verse three. And this king loves righteousness and hates all evil.

The scepter of uprightness. The scepter is the symbol of power and authority, and he uses his power to promote righteousness and justice.

And because of his love for righteousness and his hatred of evil and injustice,

God exalts him above all other men, anointing him as king.

Okay? He's anointed with the oil of oil of gladness beyond your companions.

He's exalted above all other men. He's anointed as king. Now, when you look at Jesus, he's obedient to every command of God.

He's sinless in all his testing. He's faithful in every way, and he's now exalted to this place of authority.

The father rewarded him with rule over all because he's the obedient son.

Not only that, and boy, this to me is a clincher. Verse 10, not only that, but he is the eternal, unchangeable creator.

Quoting Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27. Okay? You know, he preaches differently than I do.

I like to just stick with one text. Man, he's jumping all over the Bible, isn't he? But he's really trying to prove a point here.

He's really trying to prove the point. Verse 10, what does he say about the son?

He says, 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 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. Wow. Now, Psalm 102, the psalmist finds himself in distress.

It's one of those psalms where the psalmist is crying out to God because he's in distress.

He's in trial. He's in trouble. He needs help, but when he calls out to God, he describes the

God that he's calling out to, and he says, this God is powerful. He can save me.

He can deliver me from my enemies because he is the powerful God who created the world, and he will never change.

Now, again, that psalm is about Yahuwah. It's about the true

God, but because the writer believes that Jesus is God, he takes all of the things said about God in that psalm and applies it to Jesus.

What's he saying? He's saying Jesus is God. Now, think about it.

This is where we need to really, you know, you've been in church for years.

You hear these things, whole hum, but wrap your mind around this. Think about this from their perspective.

This Jesus, who appeared to be a Palestinian rogue rabbi, right, just given the ruler's fits, is the one who laid the foundation of this

Jesus, who walked and talked and ate with his disciples and gave the

Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians all kinds of trouble, who's just making their lives miserable, is the same person who laid the foundations of the earth and put the stars in place with his own hands.

You imagine that? This Jesus, this Jesus who was crucified and rose from the dead, is actually the one who created everything you see.

You know, I mean, if you just think about it from a perspective of 30 years after Jesus has been raised from the dead, that should blow your mind, right?

He's God. And what does he note here?

He says he's the creator, and by the way, the creation is temporary, like everything else that's going to decay and perish.

It'll perish, right? It'll be like, you know, I was sitting at the table yesterday and Becca's sitting next to me and we're chatting with, yesterday was a big day.

I can't remember who was sitting around, I think it was the grandkids were sitting around the table yesterday. We were having a good time and talking and she looks over at me and says, you can't wear those blue jeans anymore.

Why not? Well, you got holes in them. Okay, I guess

I won't wear those, if you say so. What's the point? What's the point?

The point is all of creation are like those blue jeans that wear out and you roll them up and you throw them away.

That's how creation is described here. It's wearing down, it's wearing out, it's tattered.

Someday, like old garments that have worn out, changed, they're going to be rolled up and thrown away.

But what? You remain. Speaking of Jesus, but you remain.

You are the same and your years will have no end.

Poetic way of saying, there's no end to you at all. There's no end to you.

He is uncreated being who never wears out but remains forever unchanged.

This Jesus is the son who created everything and rules everything and he is greater than the angels.

Last point, verses 13 and 14. So he says, believe that Jesus is a unique son of God.

He's told you to believe that Jesus is both Lord and God. Now he says, believe that Jesus sits enthroned.

One last question, says our preacher, has God ever invited an angel to sit in the place of authority? Has God ever invited an angel to sit in the place of authority?

Well, Psalm 110 verse 1 answers that question and the answer is, no, he has not.

He's never asked an angel to sit in that place of authority. Now, when you look at Psalm 110, it's one of the most quoted psalms in the

New Testament. In fact, you're going to run across Psalm 110 several times in this book alone. It's a bedrock.

In fact, in our scripture reading today, you heard Jesus quote

Psalm 110 to the Pharisees and stumped them with it.

Because as our writer does, as our pastor here does, he says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Now, when you look at Psalm 110, this psalm says that God has promised

David's Lord, that is someone who has more power and more authority than David the king.

That someone, God will put him in the place of authority and all his enemies will be subject to him.

They'll be made his footstool. This Lord of David will conquer, if you read

Psalm 110, this Lord of David will conquer, bringing judgment and extending the peaceful rule of God.

By the way, do you notice a theme in all these psalms? Most of these psalms that he quotes is about a king who's going to extend the rule of God, right?

And he says it here, but this king will be no ordinary king. If you read Psalm 110, and we're going to come across it later in this book, it's going to come back to Psalm 110.

Because in Psalm 110, he says, this king that I'm telling you about, this Lord of the king who's going to come will be no ordinary king for he will be like Melchizedek, he will reign as a priest -king.

That is to say, he not only will function as a king, he will function as a priest, unheard of in Israel, because the kings came from Judah, which isn't the priestly line.

But he says, I'm going to bring you a king who's going to be like Melchizedek. He's going to be a priest and a king, all right?

And God does not invite any angel to reign as priest and king, none.

Yahuwah invites the son to sit at his right hand until he makes his enemies submit, that is, he makes them his footstool.

David's Lord is none other than Jesus himself, who now sits in throne, who has begun his conquering rule until God makes all his enemies his footstool.

Through the son, the victory promised to Israel and to the Davidic king becomes a reality through this one, through Jesus.

And then to finally put the final point on it, verse 14, angels do not rule, they serve.

They are not kings, they are ministering spirits, serving spirits.

God sends them to carry out his wishes. In fact, he says in verse 14, they are not even greater than human beings.

In this sense, they serve them. Angels serve us because they carry out

God's bidding for the salvation of his people, that salvation that we're going to inherit.

Notice he uses the word inherit, the salvation that we're going to inherit when all the enemies are made the footstool of the king.

You must believe that Jesus sits in throne. Now, this

Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Palestinian is more than a teacher.

He is more than a rabble rousing rabbi. He's more than a great moral teacher.

Jesus has inherited a name that is superior to the angels. It is son.

Now, God never appointed one angel to a place of rule or worship. Angels are created servants and couriers.

But maybe you're just not interested in angels. That's fine. That's okay.

You know, if angels don't pick your interest, that's fine. It doesn't matter because the glory and majesty of the

Lord Jesus Christ comes blasting out at you from this text.

So, okay, let's not talk about angels. Let's just talk about Jesus then. Do you see what he's described as here?

He is the divine ruler appointed by God to sit in the place of universal power and authority.

That is Jesus. If God commands angels to worship him, what do you think he demands of you?

What do you think he demands of you then when it comes to this Jesus? If angels must worship him, then certainly you must worship him as well.

Jesus is the creator of all. He's responsible for all the beauty that you see.

The galaxies are his handiwork. The beauty of the mountains are his idea.

The intricacies of a snowflake are his design. He is the eternal, unchangeable creator,

God. This is the Jesus that we believe.

Now, listen to you. Some of you here have never entrusted yourself to Jesus. Listen to me now.

You cannot escape the weight of this text. This is

Jesus, the ruler in the place of supreme authority, the creator of all, the one who deserves your worship.

This is not just another man. This is God himself.

You dare not turn away from him. You cannot ignore him.

You must not abandon him. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the glory of Christ that we see in this passage.

God, help us to not just know this, but to believe it to the very depths of our being that this is the

Jesus that we know. This is the Jesus that we worship. This is the

Jesus in whom we've trusted. If he is God, he will never fail to fulfill his promises of salvation.

And if he is God, then what he says is final. What he does is more than important.

It demands our attention. God, help us to see

Jesus as we ought to. We thank you now in his name.