1. "Some religions are free. All addition. What I mean is they come to you when you want and as you want. They come making offerings to you. I'll give you peace. I'll give you purpose. I'll give you health. I'll give you an ethical compass. I'll give you success. I'll give you self-respect."

2. "If you're going through a difficult path, even a dangerous one, we need confidence that the goal we're going towards is worth it. And specifically here, if you and I are gonna keep following Jesus, we need to be sure of who he is."

3. "Friends, what sense does it make to worship a creature? Especially in comparison with the creature's greater Creator."

4. "I remember hearing materialism described as that philosophy which invests everything in what will one day become nothing. Friends, don't act as if this world is all there is."

5. "Houses may burn, jobs may be lost, marriages may be strained, health can be compromised. But friends, none of them will ever jeopardize God and his essential goodness and rightness, and in His unchanging commitment to His children."

6. "We thank our friends when they pray for us. Nothing wrong with that at all. But none of their prayers matter at all apart from a God who hears and answers. We can thank our friends. We should really thank our God."

7. "Maybe you've come today feeling a little unsteady spiritually. Take confidence, my friend. Not only are angels assigned to see you make it safely to your heavenly home, but God the Son reigns for you. He has made Himself King for you."

8. "The angels were mediating messengers from God, but the Son was what the messages were about."

9. "We have been so greatly loved by so great a person despite such great sins. How could we not worship him and tell others about him? Why would we not follow him the way the Bible tells us to, suffering and then glory?"

10. "If Jesus is all this, our Creator, our Commander, our Deliverer, what would you gain by turning away from Him?"

Observation Questions

1. In Hebrews 1:7, what does the writer say God makes His angels, and how does this description characterize their nature as creatures?

2. According to Hebrews 1:8-9, what titles and attributes does the Father ascribe to the Son, and what does the Son love and hate?

3. In Hebrews 1:10-12, what role did the Son play "in the beginning," and what contrast is drawn between the heavens/earth and the Son regarding permanence?

4. What specific command does God give to the angels in Hebrews 1:6 when He brings the firstborn into the world?

5. In Hebrews 1:13, what unique invitation does God extend to the Son that He has never extended to any angel, according to Psalm 110:1?

6. How does Hebrews 1:14 describe the role and purpose of angels in relation to those who will inherit salvation?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does the writer of Hebrews emphasize the contrast between angels and the Son throughout this passage, and what does this comparison reveal about the identity of Jesus that the original Jewish audience needed to understand?

2. How does addressing the Son as "God" in verse 8 and crediting Him with creation in verses 10-12 establish His divinity, and why would this be significant for believers tempted to view Jesus as merely a great prophet or angelic being?

3. What is the theological significance of the Son's unchanging nature ("you are the same and your years will have no end" in verse 12) compared to the created order that will "perish" and "wear out like a garment"?

4. How does the command for angels to worship the Son (verse 6) demonstrate that Jesus is not merely another creature, and what does this tell us about the proper object of worship?

5. In light of Psalm 110:1 quoted in verse 13, how does the Son's position at the Father's right hand until His enemies become His footstool shape our understanding of Christ's current reign and ultimate victory?

Application Questions

1. The sermon describes how following Jesus can become more costly than expected over time. In what specific area of your life right now does following Christ feel most expensive or inconvenient, and how does knowing that Jesus is the eternal, unchanging Creator affect your willingness to pay that cost?

2. The passage emphasizes that the Son "loved righteousness and hated wickedness" (verse 9). What is one area where you find yourself tolerating or accommodating wickedness rather than hating it, and what practical step could you take this week to align your affections more closely with Christ's?

3. If an outside observer watched how you spend your time, money, and emotional energy, what might they conclude you worship more than Jesus? What specific change would help redirect your ultimate allegiance toward Christ?

4. The sermon points out that angels serve believers on their earthly pilgrimage, but our greater confidence should be in the commanding Son who reigns for us. How might this truth change the way you approach a current trial or uncertainty you are facing?

5. The writer of Hebrews addressed believers tempted to abandon Christ because of social pressure and persecution. What specific pressures in your workplace, family, or community make it difficult to openly follow Jesus, and how can you prepare yourself to remain faithful when the cost increases?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Psalm 110:1-7 — This psalm, the most quoted Old Testament passage by Jesus about Himself, reveals the Messiah's divine authority and ultimate victory over His enemies that the sermon extensively explained.

2. 2 Samuel 7:11-16 — This foundational messianic promise to David establishes the eternal kingdom that finds its fulfillment in Christ, which the sermon identified as the starting point of the "royal road" of messianic prophecy.

3. Colossians 1:15-20 — This passage parallels Hebrews 1 by declaring Christ as the image of God, the Creator of all things including angels, and the one who holds all things together.

4. Isaiah 9:1-7 — The prophecy of the child who is "Mighty God" and "Everlasting Father" demonstrates the Old Testament expectation of a divine Messiah, which the sermon cited as part of the royal road.

5. Daniel 7:9-14 — This vision of the Son of Man receiving everlasting dominion from the Ancient of Days reinforces the exalted, divine identity of the Messiah that Hebrews 1 proclaims about Jesus.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Appeal of Undemanding Religion Versus the Cost of Following Jesus

II. Jesus Christ Is the Creator (Hebrews 1:7-12)

III. Jesus Christ Is the Commander (Hebrews 1:13-14)

IV. Jesus Christ Is the Deliverer (Hebrews 1:5-6)

V. The Call to Persevere in Following Christ Despite the Cost

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Some religions are free.

All addition.

What I mean is they come to you when you want and as you want.

They come making offerings to you. I'll give you peace.

I'll give you purpose. I'll give you health. I'll give you an ethical compass. I'll give you success.

I'll give you self-respect.

They can be as undemanding as a passing thought or a feeling of relief or inspiration. Or they can consume you in exactly the way you feel most comfortable.

In your native culture, among your own people, with your identity reinforced by the shared customs and beliefs of your extended family and friends, all with nods of approval.

This kind of religion is convenient.

Perhaps there are no fixed weekly obligations like this meeting that you're in right now. You know some religions have no normal weekly meetings. There are lighter obligations out there if you would check out some of the competitive religions. No guilt inducing calls for work and childcare. No plans for what to do with your money if you would give it.

Classes may be available online or in person as you wish. Clerics for hire, as welcoming as your yoga instructor or your dance teacher or your personal trainer.

Perhaps since you've undertaken to follow Jesus some months or years ago, You found yourself coming into a time now where that past decision is starting to feel a little more expensive in the present.

It's costing a bit more than you at the time thought it would.

I think that's how it was for a lot of the folks in Jerusalem who heard this message of Hebrews the first time it was given.

You remember back in the earliest days of the gospel, Jerusalem was ground zero for Christianity. And for a while, it looked as if the Jewish nation as a whole might go with recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.

Mark, surely you're exaggerating. Oh, I don't think so.

You know, we have that very interesting passage in Acts, chapter 6, verse 7, about a time when many were coming to know Christ, and at the end of it, it says, A great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. You notice what the very precise Luke, the historian who wrote Acts, did not say. He did not say, Many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Faith. He said, A great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Have you ever noticed that? A great many?

I wonder what happened to that movement.

Of course, the Jerusalem church was growing and being prepared for persecution, but in the intervening decades between Pentecost around 30 A.D. and the Roman siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. what were the churches like around Jerusalem. They seem to be large and growing and to number among them many Jews including many priests. This message of Hebrews was first preached to a church like that.

At some point in those decades, the rising cost of following Jesus seemed to be making some reexamine their decisions to be baptized. And follow Christ. And as they looked back over at the temple and its ancient worship, and they considered what they had become accustomed to in church as Christians, the temple seemed so fixed and unshaken and honestly so easy that they would then look at following Jesus and it seemed to be clearly demanding and to the point of being exceedingly inconvenient. And as it was becoming less and less popular, it was becoming more difficult, even dangerous. You can see the persecution that came in those early chapters of Acts, like the one that cost Deacon Stephen his life.

These were real things.

When you find yourself in a time when following Jesus begins to look more costly than not following Him, more costly than the surrounding common religious assumptions and practices.

What do you do?

Perhaps that's where you are this morning. You do the kind of hard work that the preacher does who wrote Hebrews. He considers for us very carefully exactly who this Jesus is. And he does that in comparison with other potential attractions to them. For example, here in this first chapter, he considers Jesus in contrast with the angels of God, creatures that were respected, even revered in the first century, and that were associated with the religion that we see in the Old Testament.

Angels had crucial roles from guarding the Garden of Eden to helping to bring God's law to His people. The author's interest, however, is in angels only in so far as considering them helps us better understand Jesus. So if you are one of those people who has held on at Capitol Hill Baptist Church for years wanting more teaching on angels, and thinking, Finally, today, in February of 2022, we will hit the mother lode. I am going to sadly disappoint you. I am so sorry.

You can speak to me at the door afterwards. This is a sermon not on angels, but on Jesus. That's what this chapter is on. Friends, that's what Jesus is explained as here. If we're going through a difficult path, even a dangerous one, we need confidence that the goal we're going towards is worth it.

And specifically here, if you and I are gonna keep following Jesus, we need to be sure of who he is. And that brings us back to this first chapter of the New Testament book of Hebrews. You'll find it on page 1001 in the Bibles provided. Let me encourage you to open your Bibles. Will be in them a lot.

Turn there. Listen as I read, beginning chapter 1 from verse 5.

And let me ask you to do something as I read. I know because some of you have been talking to me through the week, this seems like just a long list of quotations from the Old Testament. In fact, there are seven, just letting you know. But it's not just a sort of random string. I think there's an order going on here.

As I read it, see if you can figure out what that is, and then after I've read it, I'll let you know what I think it is and how you could see it, all right? So let's look. Hebrews chapter 1, beginning 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.

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, you, 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 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 me explain this structure with two simple points. One, I think what you see here are pairings between considering the angels and the Son. They're pairings. I think that's how you'll see this passage most accurately. So in chapter...

I mean, in chapter 1, in verse 5, you see two citations about the Son, and then verse 6, He brings the angels into it, in contrast. Then a second pair would be verses 7 to 12. You have the verse 7 marked there of the angels, he says, and he quotes then Psalm 104. And then he gives two quotations about the sun from Psalm 45 and verses 8 to 9 and Psalm 102 verses 10 to 12. That's another pair.

Then the last pair is verses 13 and 14, where he quotes Psalm 110 about the sun in verse 13, and then he tells us about angels. In verse 14. Now, if I were preaching even more slowly through this passage, there would be much more to meditate on than we're going to have time to meditate on from each verse. These are rich prophecies about Jesus. But what I want to focus on specifically are the points of contrast with the angels.

Because the angels are brought in specifically as the highest beings other than God which these Jewish believers might be tempted to think too highly of, perhaps even to categorize Jesus as. And so what the author is doing is he's saying, look, take what the Scriptures tell us about the angels and compare that with what the Scriptures tell us about the Son. At every point you see, the Son is superior. So that's what he's doing here in these pairings. You can see the pairings there.

It's indicated by in verse 5, For to which of the angels? And then verse 6, and again, he turns to the angel, to the Son, or from the Son to the angels. And then verse 7, Of the angels, he says. And then verse 8, But of the Son, he says. And then the last pair, But to which of the angels?

And then verse 14, he describes the angels. So the angels are directing me. In which parts of those messianic prophecies I will emphasize in this time together. In many ways, the writer pursues the same themes that he previewed in the first four verses that we thought of last week. Only this time, he's added the comparison with the angels to bring in some of the texture and shadows, as it were, in these contrasts.

So through these three pairings of contrasting statements, citing seven different passages from the Old Testament, the writer to the Hebrews begins to show us that's how we need to read the Old Testament. And what we find is we need the New Testament to understand the Old Testament. Said another way, Jesus is the key to understanding the Old Testament correctly. And friend, if you're a Jewish friend visiting us and you're more conservative even and you think the Old Testament, we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures really are inspired by God, I mean this with all respect, The Hebrew Scriptures are an amazing collection of writings, but with all humility and respect, I want to suggest that the Rabbi Jesus actually teaches us all how to understand the books of the Old Testament better than anyone ever taught. I would encourage you not to be scared off checking out his teaching and reading it carefully.

We'll revisit this idea throughout our study this year. For our purposes today, I'm guessing that few here are tempted away from the Christian faith into Judaism or angel worship. But we may well consider leaving off following Jesus to follow the teachings or have the approval of some other creatures or even ourselves. You know what I mean? People like the category increasingly of non-religious.

I would say people here on Capitol Hill, many of our neighbors, are devoutly non-religious.

So the same truths about Jesus, in contrast to the angels, should serve us here as well. So how is Jesus different than the angels? Let me give you three points. Number one, Jesus Christ is the Creator, verses 7 to 12. Number two, Jesus Christ is the Commander, verses 13 and 14.

And number three, Jesus Christ is the Deliverer, verses 5 and 6. Let me just repeat that for you. Number one, Jesus Christ is the Creator, verses 7 to 12. That's those two long passages from the Psalms. Two, Jesus Christ is the Commander.

That's that Psalm 110 reference right at the end and the comparison with angels, verses 13 and 14. And then number three, Jesus Christ is the Deliverer. That's that beginning up in verses 5 and 6. I pray that as we follow this argument, Jesus will be seen to be greater, and those things which would tempt you to leave Him for would be shown to be lesser, and certainly not worthy of your investing with your time and money, with your life, or even with your eternal destiny. Let's get started.

Number one, the Creator. Jesus Christ is the Creator. This is verses 7 to 12, the large middle section. Look again at the two long citations there in the middle of our passage. As the writer contrasts the Son of God as the eternal, unchanging Creator with the angels as the changing temporary beings that they are.

Look at verse 7. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. He's quoting Psalm 104 there. And then really the middle of the pairing is right there in verse 8, but of the Son. So that's how you know, he's saying this specifically, looking back at what he quotes in verse 7, 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. This is from Psalm 45:6-7. I would encourage you to take all of these Psalms or chapter in the case of Deuteronomy that he quotes and go back and read the whole chapter, the whole Psalm this afternoon.

I think you'll see how wonderfully careful this preacher is as he is exegeting the various parts of the Scriptures. He's doing very good work that we can even see as we go back and read it ourselves. He helps us to notice things we would not have noticed probably had we read it by ourselves. But things that once you notice them, it's very hard to unnotice. Another citation that he adds on the same pair, verse 10, you can see he just starts with an and, so here's another one.

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. This is from Psalm 102, it's verses 25 to 27. So back up in verse 7, the writer is making the point that the Psalms show us, like the rest of the Old Testament does, that these angels have no set physical forms.

So Mark Feather looks like Mark Feather. He may or may not have a beard in heaven. I don't know what the resurrected body will include. But there are forms that you and I have, like your body is your body. And that's why we're not like a sort of Greek Platonists who think the body doesn't matter, the spirit is what's good, that will last.

No, these bodies are actually going to be resurrected, but forever. Angels we are not taught are like that. Angels appear and disappear. Angels can be seen by a donkey but not by a man. Angels in the Old Testament have various forms.

They may be like Gabriel gloriously making a startling appearance to the Virgin Mary announcing the Messiah or a whole host of them may suddenly appear like from a Star Trek teleporter in the skies above Bethlehem, singing, and then they're gone. This is what we see in the Scriptures. Many or a host of them come and they go. They are God's creatures made to do His bidding. Well, if you look back at Psalm 104, where that's verse 7 is taken from, it includes the angels among other creatures of God, clouds, mountains, the seas.

So at one point angels, as awe-inspiring as they may sometimes be, at one point angels didn't even exist. They're creatures. But, and here is the big contrast, he's introducing with these next two passages, beginning of verse 8, but of the Son he says, you, throne, O God, is forever and ever. So you see what the contrast is. These creatures, the angels, with their creator.

And what's even more striking, notice he says here, of the Son, your throne, O God. Friends, here is still more proof of the Son's divinity. It's like those verses we were thinking of that are so clear in teaching that Jesus is the Son of God. He is truly human and truly divine. We thought about it last week from John 1.

You'll see this also in other places in the New Testament. If you had religion classes in university and you were taught that the idea of Jesus as divine is something that developed centuries later, just cover over in a forgiving silence the ignorance of your professors. They clearly haven't read or carefully considered the writings that were there. Or if they have, they haven't done it very accurately. They just read some secondary textbooks and are regurgitating that stuff.

But if you go and you study the primary sources, it's very clear that people in the middle of the first century of Jewish background understood Jesus to be divine. What did that even mean? Well, that's what we're seeing here. You see here he says, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. His throne lasting forever means that no one succeeds him in his role.

There's no other creator. There's no next king. He's never a lame duck in his own creation. And this Creator is not like some views of nature red in tooth and claw. No, this Creator is moral, and that should make every one of us happy and even more make every one of us fear.

He is good.

Look at verse 9. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

God loves the good and the right. God hates the evil and the wrong. Friend, when you just read that, are you struck by how perfectly Jesus Christ imaged His heavenly Father?

It's like the psalmist here quoted in verse 9 foresaw something of Christ's perfect obedience, because keep reading here in verse 9, Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

And if this is His great character, what has the Son done? Well, here the writer turns to Psalm 102. Verses 25 to 27, He has this other citation. Verse 10 begins simply with and. He's making the same point.

He's piling on here. And, verse 10, you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. This is what we saw last week in verses 1 and 2. And in John chapter 1 and Colossians chapter 1, the Son of God in the beginning made the heavens and the earth and by implication all that is in them, including the angels. You see what he's doing here?

Friends, what sense does it make to worship a creature?

Especially in comparison with the creature's greater Creator. Look how the citation continues in verse 11, but with this strong contrast between the creature and the Creator, verse 11, They will perish, but you remain. They will wear out like a garment. Friends, the universe as we know it will perish. Peter says in 2 Peter 3, But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved.

Heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn, but according to His promise we are waiting for the new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Or John in Revelation 21 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

So here the citation of Psalm 102 in our passage about the Son of God continues here in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 12.

Like a robe, you will roll them up, like a garment, they will be changed. Didn't we just sing about this? Earlier in the service, and where shall I be? But the sun, when heaven and earth like some great scroll shall from God's holy presence roll, we just all sang enthusiastically. This is what we're singing about.

The sun, when that rolling up happens and rolling away, the sun will still be there. The Son survives it all from age to age. See that last phrase in verse 12, the Creator is not a dependent being. That means He has none of the external needs you and I do for continued life. Even the changing angels must be upheld by the Creator, but not the Son unchanging.

But you are the same and your years will have no end. Very similar to what he's going to say in chapter 13, verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. So friends, even the most magnificent angels are but creatures. Meanwhile, the Son is the eternal Creator. You see, all the attributes of God attributed in these verses to the Son, his eternity, his justice, his holy affection for the good and his holy hatred of all that is evil, the implied relationship of the Father and the Son, His creation work, His immutability, His unchangingness.

I mean, how would you want Him to change anyway? If He's perfect and He changes, He becomes less good. All and more are attributed here to the Son of God. How wonderful to know that the One who set all this up loves righteousness and hates wickedness. And how far is this from the way our schools are jettisoning moral ballast for our culture?

How far is this from what so many are being taught in their schools and colleges? That this whole world in all its complexity has arisen on its own entirely at random. And friends, they're selling that as the intellectually neutral position. I just want to be on record, I deny its neutrality. That is a statement of religious faith every bit as much of what you're hearing here.

Declaring the eternity of matter is no less religious than other eternities we may espouse. I remember hearing materialism described as that philosophy which invests everything in what will one day become nothing. Friends, don't act as if this world is all there is. Look at those words in verse 11, They will perish. Brothers and sisters, as those who know the Creator personally, we can enjoy His creation without worshiping it.

If you really believe that this world is not all there is, What difference does that make in how you spend your time, your money, your heart's affections? Do you see how understanding this would help to corral your loyalties if you, like the Son of God, grow more and more like Him in your love for righteousness and in your hatred of all that is evil? If you're in a time of trouble in your own life, Christian, take comfort. In the fact that this God who is always good has not changed. No circumstance that's blown through your life in the last week or the last month has changed this God.

Houses may burn, jobs may be lost, marriages may be strained, health can be compromised. On and on I could go with the trials we experience. But friends, none of them will ever jeopardize God and his essential goodness and rightness, and in His unchanging commitment to His children.

So contrast number one, the angels, grand as they may be, are but creatures. The Son is Himself the eternal, unchanging Creator of all. Not only is the Son the Creator, He's also, we see in the last couple of verses, number two, the Commander.

Look again at verse 13. And to which of the angels and if you're, if you're really at your own copy of the Bible, I would just scratch out the end and write in butt. I'm not sure why the ESV did it like that. Butts a better thing to say there. But 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? So the writer finishes out this opening argument for the superiority of the Son by bringing out that most well-known of all of Jesus' arguments for His own exalted status, Psalm 110:1. He repeats that pushy phrase from verse 5, and to which of the angels has He ever said, 'You are My Son. It's kind of a rhetorical flourish, kind of a raising of the eyebrows or the hands. To emphasize the point that the answer is zero to none of the angels.

Did God ever speak like this? This is only to his son. 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.' you' see the logic in this passage? It's so much a part of Jesus' self-understanding that, let's just turn back to Psalm 110 right now. Jesus, we heard from the scripture that Sherry read earlier, how Jesus used this and he steps us through it, but I'll step us through it maybe even a little more slowly.

Look at Psalm 110 verse 1. So obviously all the words of Jesus are not written down, but all the ones that are written down, this is the verse he quotes more than any other verse, or at least as much as any other verse in the Old Testament and maybe more. Just this first verse in Psalm 110.

All right? Get your eyes on it and let me explain how this pops. It's a little bit like explaining a joke. Sorry to have to do it. But once you have a solid handle on it, I think you'll see why this acted like it did in Jesus' own ministry and why the writer cites it here.

Psalm 110:1, the Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Now, who is saying this? Ah, it's a psalm of David. So David, King David, is saying, the Lord says to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Okay, who is the Lord? Probably in your translation, all caps, that first Lord, all caps.

Well, that's Yahweh. That's God, the eternal God.

The Lord says, so Yahweh says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Well then here's the mystery of it. Here's how it pops. If David is talking to Yahweh, who's this my Lord person?

David says, the Lord says to, he identifies him as my Lord.

Who is David's Lord? I mean David's Lord is Yahweh, but this is Yahweh talking to himself. It's Yahweh talking to some discernible my Lord, distinct in some sense from Yahweh. Who is this my Lord? That's the question that readers have.

And who, especially, this person would be called my Lord by David, whose son he is, whose descendant he is. So it wouldn't make sense in any way that we would normally understand for him to call him my lord. I'm not gonna call my son Nathan, my lord. I'm not gonna call if he has grandchildren or great grandchildren, one of them my lord, not in any natural sense. So what would this mean?

And especially for the Lord to speak to my lord and say to my lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. He gives this blank check of authority and victory to this one. To whom would God do that? What feels like essentially resigning the universe to this one. All right, that is the great enigma left there in Psalm 110 that if you read through the Gospels a few times you'll notice Jesus brings this thing out.

And he uses it to open the Jews' minds about Oh, in our own Scripture, our simple monotheism that does not understand the Trinity will not correctly comprehend the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. There will be some stuff left that doesn't make any sense. There's some further explanation needed. You see how Jesus explained the Scriptures that had been so mysterious to them before the Son of God appeared. As I say, this is among the most quoted Old Testament passages by Jesus, if not the most quoted.

In fact, you could argue that it's when Jesus brings this out in his teaching in the temple during the final week of his earthly ministry, and it's interesting, we read the great throng heard him gladly on this point. When he explains this, they liked it. They lapped it up. That shows there was a readiness among the first century Jews to believe that there was this Messiah coming and that this Messiah was more than just a king, more than just an earthly king. We're taught in modern Judaism that's built against Jesus that this is a distinctly Christian as opposed to faithfully Jewish idea.

Before those arguments ever got reared, if we go back to first century Judaism in the temple, listen to this rabbi teach, Rabbi Jesus is teaching this to his Jewish followers. That this is what the Jewish Scriptures mean. And they heard him gladly on this point, but this is what sets off the opposition that finally gets him killed. When he's at his trial, just a few days later, he makes an allusion to it when he answers the question if he is claiming to be the Son of the Blessed. And we read in Mark 14 verse 62, Jesus said, I am.

And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. That's an allusion to this Psalm 110, verse 1 right here. And unlike the people hearing this with gladness, we read in the Bible, the high priest tore his garments and said, what further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. Friends, Peter was there.

He heard the preaching and teaching of Jesus. Do you remember what Peter said at Pentecost? This is how he closes that impromptu sermon that he gave at Pentecost, Acts 2:32.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, 'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.' Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' I think this is behind that part in 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul says that Christ must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. When you begin to see this Psalm 110 and Jesus, then it's no surprise when in the Revelation to John, Jesus is described in Revelation 19 as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Friends, do not lose your confidence. And the fact that Jesus is King. Turning back now to our passage in Hebrews 1 verse 13, what a contrast is this exalted status of the Son with the summary of the angels' roles that we read in verse 14. Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? He says that angels were sent out to serve.

Even though by nature they're higher than humans. They're magnificent servants. Psalm 85 says, you, have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. So the heavenly beings, the angels, are a little higher than us. Perhaps meaning their lifespans, their abilities, certainly their access to the presence of God, perhaps the moral fixedness of the unfallen angels.

Even so, their mission given them by their Creator and Commander is, we read here, to serve those who are to inherit salvation, that is, who are entering into Christ's kingdom in the future. And that would be those who presently seem to be under his kingdom and continue to be so until it's finally confirmed. In the same way, Christ himself could be said to have inherited his name, we thought about last week up in verse 4, his name of divine human reigning Messiah. Son of God and Son of David. So too, when we are raised and are in the unmediated presence of God, we shall be said to have finally and fully inherited salvation.

That's the future tense of salvation. The author mentions it later in chapter 9, verse 28, where he says, Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save. Those who are eagerly waiting for him. So, friends, salvation is in the past for us as Christians. Salvation is in the present, but there is also this future aspect to it.

Paul refers to the inheritance that Christians know that we will receive in Colossians 3. And this is what the angels in some unspecified ways that you can speculate about over lunch busy themselves in serving us to the end that we will one day receive final salvation. And yet, as exalted as this angelic service is, the Son is so much more than a servant. The difference in authority is between the one whose message it is and the one carrying it.

By nature, these angelic creatures are in some powers and superior stations to us by creation. But friends, by redemption, Christian, you and I have been elevated into a status far above even the angels. We've been made sons and daughters of God. We are indwelt by His own Holy Spirit. This is why He would so concern Himself with our welfare.

This is why the sovereign Son, the commanding Creator, would command even His angels to serve us on our earthly pilgrimage. My friends, what gratitude we should feel here for the angels' service. As remarkable as that is, should be dwarfed by the gratitude we feel for the all-powerful Son of God who pours out His Spirit on us in salvation. Who sustains our breath and our faith, who guides our steps through his word to bring us finally and forever to himself. We thank our friends when they pray for us.

Nothing wrong with that at all. But none of their prayers matter at all apart from a God who hears and answers. We can thank our friends. We should really thank our God. Same thing here with these angels.

Yes, it's cool that there are servants, but as excited as that makes you, that should be tiny compared to the excitement you have over the way the commanding Son of God is making sure of your safe journey home. Maybe you've come today feeling a little unsteady spiritually. Take confidence, my friend. Not only are angels assigned to see you make it safely to your heavenly home, But God the Son reigns for you. He has made Himself King for you.

His love for you is ancient and has been made known to all. You have a friend in the King.

My troubled brother and sister, you see the peace there is for you here. Yes, in knowledge that unseen agents are at work for your good. But infinitely more than that, that the very one to whom God has promised all authority and all victory is bent on your being sustained in Him. Praise God for the way peace with Him can give us peace from Him that passes all understanding and is deeper than the most dangerous trials we can ever endure. What hope this should inspire in us, brothers and sisters.

If you're feeling hopeless this morning, does this mean that you're godless?

This hope in Christ reigning is the hope this author calls us to have and hold onto. This is the hope he desires each of us to have a full assurance of until the end. And so he encourages us to hold fast to the hope set before us. All of these last three statements are just a few of the many on hope that we'll find in this book of Hebrews as we keep going through. Because of the reigning Son, the Commander, Okay, so Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not a creature like the angels, but He's the Creator.

He's not a servant like the angels, but He's the Commander. Third, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not a worshiper, but is Himself the object of our worship. He is our divine Deliverer. This is number three, Deliverer. This is what we see again in verses 5 and 6.

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.' In verse 4, the writer had said that the Son of God, having become as much superior to the angels, as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs. We noted last week, the Son is the eternally begotten Son of the Father. His nature is always derived from His Father's. But here in verse 5, this today being begotten is referring to the Son's entering into His official office.

That's redundant, isn't it? His official office. It's entering into His office as messianic Son of David when He sits on His throne in heaven. No angel is ever said to be begotten in this way. And in the remainder of this chapter, He's been detailing the superior excellence of the name of Christ.

The thumps there in verse 7, of the angels, he says, down in verse 13, To which of the angels has he ever said, well, that's what you see here in verse 5. The writer begins exactly the same way, verse 5. For to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' Friends, the angels were mediating messengers from God, but the Son was what the messages were about. Again, like we saw last week with the purification and sitting down up in verse 3 and inheriting the name in verse 4, this verse 5 is not so much about the Son, son's eternal relationship of being begotten by the Father, though he is eternally begotten, it is another way that can be spoken. It's rather about his stepping into that official position that we were thinking of last week as the divine human son of God, son of David, Messiah, deliverer.

This is when the son sat down at the Father's right hand, verse 3, having completed his work as the Messiah. This is the today and begotten in our verse here. The angels were sons of God too, but only in the sense of being lesser sentient beings than God himself created by God acting on his behalf, like kings are sometimes said to be in the Old Testament. But no angel is ever recorded as having been spoken to singularly and individually like this. No angel has ever been an appropriate object of worship.

In fact, in the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, we see what magnificent creatures angels must be when they appear, because even after all that John had just seen in the Revelation, when an angel comes to John to say something to him, John felt compelled to offer worship to this angel. And listen to what happened. This is Revelation 22, verses 8 and 9, if you want to look it up later. Revelation 22:8-9, last chapter of the Bible. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.

And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. Wow.

But he said to me, 'You must not do that. I, angel speaking, am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and to those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. This celestial preacher was serving them even then by expounding implications of the first commandment. Back in Exodus 20, you shall have no other gods before me.

Worship is something the angels are called to give, not receive. Any time you meet an angel who wants to be worshiped, run the other way.

Not to start another contrasting pair, but to add another citation onto this one of Psalm 2:7 and to do so to prove the same point, the comparative superiority of the Son over the angels, the writer merely says again. You see that? Again. And he throws another one in. He cites 2 Samuel 7:14.

This is when in David's presence the Lord makes a promise about a single specific at the time future offspring of King David. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

The Jews of Jesus' time were expecting a Messiah King, son of David, to deliver them. They seemed to think he would be merely human. And this was merely to deliver them from Rome. Jesus pointed to another set of prophecies in the Old Testament. Which suggested another aspect of the Messiah's identity that had popularly been misunderstood and ignored.

On the one hand, the suffering of the Messiah was known but seemed to be little commented on, even less understood, passages like Isaiah 52 and 53. So friend, if you're here and you're not a Christian, the way Jesus becomes your Savior is not merely by his ruling, but it's by his suffering. Because God is committed to that which is good and because neither you nor I have done that perfectly in our own lives. We owe our lives in debt to this just and good God. And in order to pay that debt, he has himself sent his only son to live a perfect life of complete trust and holiness and love of the good and hatred of the wickedness.

And that's what Jesus did. And when he died on the cross, he died not for any sins he had committed. He died in the place of all of us who would trust in him. Friend, that is how you can know that when God raised him from the dead and he seated him in the heavenly places at his right hand, that's how you can know that Jesus was raised for your justification if you will trust in him. Find what it means to become a follower of Jesus, one who is trusting in Christ for your salvation.

Ask your Christian friend or family member you came with. That talked to one of us at the doors afterward, we would love to talk to you about that. But those kind of prophecies of the Messiah's suffering did not seem to be widely understood or thought about in the first century, but also these kind of prophecies about the Messiah. The prophecies I'm thinking of kind of a royal road where the status of the Messiah seems exalted even above that of King David himself, and it's there from the very beginning in this initial promise to David. This is where all the Messianic promises start.

I want to take you on a quick Old Testament tour of this royal road. Many other stops could be added. The more you study, the more you see. But let me just start with four fundamental ones. If you want to see how we get this exalted view of Jesus from the Old Testament, this is the road you want to take.

First, there is the initial Messianic promise that he quotes right here.

In 2 Samuel 714. Turn there for a second. Let me read it to you. 2 Samuel, this is where the whole thing about the Messiah really gets going. 2 Samuel chapter 7.

David coming to the Lord saying, Lord, thank you for everything. I wanna build a house now in your honor. And the Lord says to him, no, you're not gonna build me a house. But I'm going to build you a house. Chapter 7, look there at verse 11, 2 Samuel 7, I will give you rest from all your enemies.

Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house, meaning his descendants. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you. Interesting. That offspring is in the singular. Paul makes a whole point of this in the letter to the Galatians.

He doesn't just have this long line of kings in mind, he has one particular king in mind. One of David's sons who will be greater than King David himself. Who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom and he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever and I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. See, that's the bit that I wrote to the Hebrews quotes, this special relationship is further revealed in our second stop on this tour. So stop number one, 2 Samuel 7:11-14.

Stop number two, it's Psalm 110:1. That passage was quoted down in verse 13 that we just explained a few minutes ago. Here we see that the son of David is somehow superior to David. So third stop, Isaiah 9:6-7. You know this one from Christmas time.

Isaiah 9:6-7, For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of His peace, There will be no end.

We could keep going, but you get the idea. And finally, number four, fourth stop in Daniel, chapter 7. Daniel has a very similar vision a hundred or so years later in Babylon as he's being instructed by God about this one who is to come. He has this night vision. He says in Daniel 7:13, I saw in the night visions, and behold, Filled with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Friends, you notice all these same notes. A human coming in the power and the presence of God, being given what can only be described as a divine position. So many other passages we could go to.

Some cited here like Psalm 2, others not like Psalm 89 or Isaiah 40:3, A voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Many of you have heard that one in various musical renditions. That's used of John the Baptist in the beginning of Mark's Gospel. But do people ever stop to think how this is applied to John the Baptist? Who is John the Baptist preparing the way for?

Well, John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus. But the prophecy is one of preparing the way for Yahweh. So Mark's Gospel at the very beginning makes it clear that he views Jesus as the Lord, as Yahweh. We think of John's Gospel as having an exalted opening and you're well-meaning but ignorant Jehovah's Witnesses friends go to Mark's Gospel at the beginning to prove how little Jesus is. But friends, they're not understanding Mark's Gospel very well.

When you see how that prophecy is placed, he's calling Jesus Yahweh. So all this is to say that Jesus is the Son of David, the everlasting ruler to come, who fulfilled that office when he sat down and began to reign that's the today I have begotten you in verse 5 when he's quoting from Psalm 2:7. That's the fulfillment of the first prophecy there in 2 Samuel 7:14. And so in our passage, we read in verse 6, and again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and as much as it may seem like it initially, I think this is probably not talking about the incarnation of Bethlehem, met with angelic choirs though it was, but with the exaltation of Christ as the firstborn into his office of messianic deliverer of God's people.

He says up in verse 3, After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. This is how the Lord could refer in Psalm 89:27 to making this promised one something, and I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. This is what God did in sending his Son, and this is what God did in raising Jesus our Lord from the dead for our justification, as Paul says in Romans 4. This is the context then for the allusion here to the Old Testament passage where these gods with a small G in the Old Testament are called to worship the Lord because we're never called to worship other creatures. In fact, we're forbidden to.

We read here in verse 6, Let all God's angels worship Him. Friends, you can tell from people's reactions to Jesus that the average Jew of the time did not expect to worship the Messiah. They expected to have their problems taken care of, through political or, if necessary, military means. But this part of the Old Testament's teaching on the Messiah may have escaped their notice. And that's part of what made Jesus' ministry among them so revolutionary, so explosive.

And no doubt, that was part of the pressure some of these Jewish Christians may have been facing in the middle of the first century A.D. to tone things down, maybe fall back in line with standard non-Messianic Judaism. Where there wouldn't be such an identification between Jesus and God, where he would be more regarded as a prophet, or maybe the greatest of the prophets, or even some kind of angelic being. But the writer here would have no such insults. He would not have the one to be honored as the Creator treated as a mere creature. He would not have the one to be honored as the commander of all treated as a mere servant.

He would not have the only one to be worshiped as our divine deliverer, mistaken for a creature that should himself be joining in the worship of Jesus. To understand Jesus like this would be to entirely misunderstand him. Friend, you should be clear on what you should worship and what you shouldn't. Maybe you wouldn't use such a religious word as worship to describe your ultimate allegiance, your deepest motivation. Try this question.

What do you think might be greater than Jesus? For you, maybe it's not angels.

Maybe it's a political office. Maybe it's a Bugatti. Maybe it's a college degree.

Maybe it's that coveted job. My friends, whoever you are, what do you find at the end of the day motivates you more to act, even to act in ways that are difficult for you, perhaps even dangerous? Who would an outside observer of your life at home or at work or at school say you worship? What fills your speech?

Are you more comfortable talking to your co-workers about angels than about Jesus?

Why is that?

We have been so greatly loved by so great a person despite such great sins. How could we not worship him and tell others about him? Why would we not follow him the way the Bible tells us to, suffering and then glory, the V-shaped Bobby talked about a couple A couple of weeks ago in Philippians 2, think of 1 Peter 412, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

How could we ever doubt such a one who has created us, who commands the world, who came to deliver us. If Jesus is all this, our Creator, our Commander, our Deliverer, what would you gain by turning away from Him?

The answers to that vary with time and place. Jesus warned us that all those who would follow Him must take up their cross. In many of our experiences, this doesn't seem obvious, but sometimes it does. What I mean is sometimes Nordine has to decide whether or not to return to his North African country and face being killed.

Benny has to decide what to do during his sermon when the police walk in.

Those in places dominated by Hinduism, or by Islam, or by Communism, have to evaluate how much they want to pay to follow Jesus.

It's happening too in the secular West, progressively, as it rots from its phase of religious liberty into religious intolerance. We seem to be ripening for God's judgment. Today we're proud of pride and we criminalize conversion. We're promised freedom of thought. So long as we don't think, we should express our thoughts.

Because if we do, Twitter might delete our account or Instagram might slap a label on us, let alone act on our thoughts. Where once we would have thought a book encouraging us to keep on following Jesus in the face of disapproval and unpopularity as a book for some other country, some other culture, now we realize that this is a book for now, a book for here, a book for us.

Are the lists of things growing which you feel you would gain by deserting Christ?

Oh friends, that list is not finished yet.

Imagine in an English-speaking country being threatened with public embarrassment if you kept insisting on the simplest summary of the Christian faith: Salvation by faith alone in Christ alone.

The people of Vermont have sent us a senator that publicly calls it un-American to do that.

What about you and Jesus? You might be willing to suffer the embarrassment. Perhaps you already are. But what if they added to that the loss of your job?

What about the loss of your freedom?

By imprisonment. That's what they did in England 467 years ago this very week. To John Hooper, he was Bishop of Gloucester in the west of England near Wales. The queen wanted the bishop to stop preaching the gospel. The same message we've been considering about faith in Christ is our deliverer, bringing us salvation but he wouldn't stop.

So the queen threatened him, but he wouldn't stop. So the queen fired him and threatened him with worse, but still Hooper wouldn't stop. So she imprisoned him in London, but still he wouldn't stop. So on a Tuesday morning they put him on horseback, and for three days he rode back to Gloucester. He got there on a Thursday afternoon.

The next morning on Friday, February the 9th at 8:00 a.m. they came for Hooper. I'll quote a witness. By and by he that was appointed to make the fire came to him and did ask his forgiveness of whom he asked why he should forgive him.

Saying that he knew never any offense he had committed against him. O sir, said the man, I am appointed to make the fire. Therein said Mr. Hooper, Thou dost nothing offend me. God forgive thee thy sins, and do thine office, I pray thee.

And friends, it wasn't just Hooper. John Rogers had just been burned to death that previous Monday morning in London. For the same reason. On the same day, Friday, February 9th, Roland Taylor, the pastor of the church in Hadley, in Suffolk, on the other side of England, was burned on Aldham Common there in Hadley. Faithful Christian martyrs provided far too much light in that dark gospel night that had settled over England in 1555.

16th century England, first century Jerusalem, 21st century Washington, D.C. Only three examples of countless that we could bring up where followers of Jesus have considered leaving off following him because of the cost.

But brothers and sisters, with everything that we have.

Who better could we follow?

Let's pray.

Lord God, when we fear our faith is weak, we pray that yout would strengthen us with thoughts of the glory that's beyond the suffering. Remind us of the Lord Jesus in the way he went.

Strengthen us in the way youe call us to go.

Help us to see and understand the truth, and help us to be faithful. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.