Hebrews: Son or Servant
Pastor Fletcher preaches about angels and Jesus from Hebrews 1:4-14. Discussion points: There are a few types of heavenly beings that we know of, and only some of them are angels; Jesus is more than a messenger from God; since we are adopted as sons in God’s family we have both worship and intimacy with God.
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Scripture reader: [Hebrews 1:4-14] Having become as much superior to 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 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?
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Preacher: Good morning. My name's Fletcher. I'm the lead pastor of the church, and it's a joy to welcome you this morning. Hope to get to know you better if I haven't had the chance to already. Back when I was growing up in the late 1900s, there was, an uncommon obsession with angels. I don't know how many of you were there back before Al Gore invented the internet, but angels were everywhere, everywhere.
One of my favorite movies as a kid was the famous Danny Glover film Angels in the Outfield. And but this is full, yeah, give it up for Angels in the Outfield, full of stars. I didn't even realize it. Not only, not only is Danny Glover, no relation to Donald Glover in this film, but Matthew McConaughey is in this film, before you knew who that was, really. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the children in this film, and also they have Christopher Lloyd, that's right. I don't know if this is anybody else. This is a very small film, but I went to go see it in the theaters. It's a movie called Michael with John Travolta. That image has popped in my mind innumerable amount of times. I have no idea what happened in this movie. I went to go see it in the theaters as a child at Cinema 4 in Cleveland, Mississippi, and where your feet stick to the ground, it is so sticky, you just lose your shoes as you're walking in there. And this image of John Travolta with wings holding a dog, just remains in my mind.
Another movie, City of Angels, because we have to get all the great 90s actors, Nicolas Cage himself, along with Meg Ryan. Another movie I don't know what happens in, but I remember watching at cinema o when I was a child. Touched by an Angel ran for 9 seasons, and Touched by the Angel fans. Good, good on you, 9 seasons on CBS. Touched by an Angel. Also, these were really popular, Precious angels, Precious Moments angels, you guys remember those? Everywhere, everywhere. Oh man, Angels are a big part of my childhood, of many of our childhoods, and many of our lives as we think about our lives. And then I come across this thing that's just pure nightmare fuel on Reddit one day called a biblically accurate angel. And it just ruins my childhood. There goes the 90s, you know, like, what is happening here? Pure nightmare fuel.
I don't know if this is, I don't know if this is what people saw when angels appeared to them, but if it is, then it's really obvious to understand why people freaked out when they would see angels, if they are biblically accurate in some ways, and they're also very not biblically accurate. So I'm gonna walk through all of that. You just have to give me a few moments, we'll get there momentarily.
We're in week two of our series on the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. The, Hebrews is near the back of your Bible. If you have a Bible, it's on like page 1532 for me, it's like almost all the way through, and it is written by an anonymous author to Jewish Christians who are trying to live their life under persecution and remain faithful to the cause of Christ. Hebrews is packed, it's more packed in the Costco on Saturday morning. It has so much theology in this book, and it's going to be a joy to walk through this together.
What we have in Hebrews, I'm just going to outline a little bit so that you can understand what's happening in this book. What we have is the the author does a short introduction, we did that last week, verses 1 through 3, and then he continues to go and he outlines section after section of ways that Jesus is superior to what we had in the Old Testament. And the, the best way to get an overview of a book is through, hopefully you've heard of this, through the Bible Project. You guys know the Bible Project? It's a, a free YouTube videos, really insightful videos, and I have the graphic for the Hebrews from the Bible project right here. So this is the mapping out the whole book. I'm not gonna walk through all of that. If you watch the video, they draw it right in front of you. It's really great, so I'd encourage you to do that.
But I just wanna zoom in on this little section here and hopefully you can see what's happening here. but this just kinda outlines this whole 1st 10 chapters of the book of the of Hebrews. So just so you know where we're going and what's going on in the book of Hebrews, there. An introduction, and he's trying to say, hey, Jesus is better than everything that you previously knew in your previous religion. He is, he's better than everything. And then what he does is he starts to line out his case, and so he is quoting from the Old Testament over and over and over again, making a case for how Jesus is better than what they have previously. And so for chapters 1 and 2, he's talking about how Jesus is better than the angels. For chapters 3 and 4, he's talking about how Jesus is better than Moses and the promised land, chapters 5 through 7, how Jesus is better than the priest in Melchizedek, whoever that is. we're gonna get to that. Melchizedek is fun. And then chapters 8 through 10, how Jesus is better than sacrifice and covenant.
And so before we dive into this passage, since we're spending two chapters on how Jesus is better than angels, we need to understand what a biblical accurate angel is because there are so many misconceptions about what a biblically accurate angel is. So we're going to do that. I have 4 different, I can't do numbers right now. I'm sorry. I broke my finger 2 weeks ago. I, next week I'm just gonna take the tape off and while I preach so I can hold up, live long and prosper. So, we have, I have 4 different types of angels, so to speak, and then we're going to go into looking at the passage in depth, because we just can't look at this passage without understanding what an angel is.
So what is a biblically accurate angel? The Bible describes not just angels, but heavenly beings. Everybody say heavenly being. Heavenly beings, and it's not just angels, the Bible describes cherubim and seraphim, and, Elijah talks about living creatures that are really freaky when you read that, and all colloquially, a lot of times we just call all of these living beings, all of these heaven. beings as angels, but maybe more accurately, they're not all angels. Maybe they have different roles and responsibilities, and they're different parts and different types of heavenly beings. So I just wanna walk through a few of the heavenly beings first.
First you have cherubim. Have you guys heard of cherubim? in Hebrew, if you want to make something plural, you add an IM, OK? So when you see cherub, that's one cherub. When you say cherubim, that's multiple cherubs. And what comes into our mind when we think about cherubim is this wonderful picture. That is what is depicted as cherubim over and over again. I do not believe there is a less accurate picture representing something than this right here. Cher, there, there is no description of babies with wings in the Bible. Let's just make that super clear, babies with wings do not exist in the Bible. Cherubim would look more like anybody have a Stanley water bottle? If you have a Stanley water bottle, the logo on a Stanley water bottle. Is basically a cherub. it is like this bear with wings on it, and that's more like what a cherub would look like.
A cherub was like God's bodyguard, and they are often depicted as, as bulls or lions with wings, and they are these powerful spiritual beings, and they're usually placed at the point where heaven and earth meet. And so who's defending the, the Garden of Eden, keeping Adam and Eve from going back in, but the cherubs. Who is sitting enthroned on top of the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God's foothold is, in the temple, who is there but the cherubs? And so we see the cherubs as the cherubim as these divine creatures that you don't wanna mess with, not babies with wings.
Now the next one that we wanna talk about are seraphim. Seraphim are most popular from Isaiah chapter 6. In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah goes into the throne room of God, and he sees these creatures flying around, and he describes them as the seraphim. And with two wings they're flying, with two wings they're covering their face, and with two wings, they're covering their feet. And so, in the Bible, a, a heavenly creature, they're either an animal with wings or they have six wings. And they, we do not see the babies with wings here. The seraphim are there to give praise and worship to God.
Now here's the most interesting thing about seraphim, and we can go into this more in the Q&A if you'd want. The word seraphim in Hebrew, literally, and I'm not, it's not even clo it's not close to, it just literally is snakes. Like that is a seraph is a snake. And so these are snakes with wings, and the, the biblical translators have no idea what to do with this. So when they get to it, they do what every biblical translator does when they have no idea what to do with something, and they just transliterate it. And they say, OK, seraphim, cause we can't translate these as snakes. They're obviously not snakes, they've got 6 wings and they're singing praises to God. But it does make you wonder about a lot of different things. You think about the Garden of Eden, you think about Satan, you think about how he's a fallen angel. You think about a lot of different aspects with snakes and, and I don't know. We, we could go into that for a long time. it's really just mysterious. It's just mysterious, and the biblical translators don't know what to do with it, neither do I. But the, the seraphim are there to bring worship. God.
Third, you have living creatures. Now this is when they get real freaky. In Elijah, you have, these, these wheels described, and on the wheels are eyes surrounding the wheel. And you have these living creatures with multiple heads, and you have all of this crazy stuff. Let me tell you, I'm not sure if we should be taking these things super literally. Isaiah is, or Elijah is a lot of apocalyptic-ish, in there. There's a lot of different visions going on in there. When you read Revelation, again, apocalyptic literature, a lot of it might be needed to be taken figuratively. And so, I don't, I'm not sure what to take of that, but there is just this aspect of different types of heavenly beings.
And the fourth one that we talked about is just plain old angels. And with angels, you have archangels, but let me tell you something about angels. Angels are never described as with wings. You can just get the idea out of your mind. They seem to look like people, though people know that they're angels whenever they see them, because you fall on your knees, right when you see an angel, you see that they have been in the presence of God. The word angel literally means messenger. So these angels are created as messengers of God to speak on behalf of God and to bring God worship and praise. I don't know how many people I've heard say something to the effect of. When you die, you become an angel. And I think they're confused, they're thinking that we're caterpillars, becoming butterflies. That's, that's a caterpillar. You don't become an angel when you die. Angels are a separate created being by God. And angels, I mean humans, sorry, angels are separate a created being, you don't become them, you become a perfected person when you go to heaven, not an angel, and we're gonna go into that more and how that's even better. It's a better situ it's a better result for you, that you don't become an angel. It's way better than that.
All taken all together, these heavenly beings are what we might call the divine council, and that is your crash course in angelology. I don't know if that's a word. I may have just made it up, but I bet it is a word. I'm sure you have more questions now than you did when we started. And so I'm not, I, I'm not gonna spend the whole time just breaking down all that I could possibly know about angels. I will let you come to the Q&A afterwards and we can talk about this.
Now, a reminder for you, or this might be the first time you've heard this, the Bible was not written with chapters and verses. So this was written kinda as a sermon or as a letter, no chapters and verses, but when you open your Bible, you're gonna see big numbers, those are chapters, little numbers, those are verses added later, much later, to help people find where we're going. So, what the author has to do to help you to see different parts is use literary style. And so what the author does in this one is they use something called an inclusio. An inclusio is when you use one phrase, and then you use it again. So you have a phrase at the beginning, you have a phrase at the end, and you can tell that that is one block of thought, and the author uses an inclusio here in verse 5, he says, or she says, the author of Hebrews, who we don't know who it is, "for to which of the angels did God ever say," and then verse 13, you see the author say again, "and to which of the angels has he ever said?"
And so this is blocking off the beginning of the passage and the end of the passage. And what we actually find in this passage is that the author is taking the arguments laid out in verses 1 through 3, so if you haven't heard that sermon, you can go back and listen to that next week, but, or this week, excuse me, but he's taking the arguments and using them like scaffold. and he's building upon these arguments. And so you have just this plain Christ is God, he's enthroned in heaven, you have this cosmic action that he created the heavens and the earth, and you have this relationship with God. We learned all this last week, we learned what a chiasm is, all that fun stuff, and and he's building upon that, and what is he building upon on it? He's saying, OK, now let's take what we learned last week, apply it to angels, and I'm gonna quote a whole bunch of Old Testament to you.
And so what he starts doing is he starts building out a case using Old Testament quotes, one after the next. He has 3 pairs of quotes, and so that's 6 quotes there and then he finished with a 7th, hey, 6, sorry, that one's for my kids, OK. The parents are all tired. If we just adopt it, it stops being cool, OK? Like if, if I say it, it's not cool anymore. So 6, 7 verses that we have here. So he has 3 pairs of quotes. And then he has a final climatic quote. And so we're just gonna walk through these quotes briefly and then I'm going to apply it to your life, alright? I promise, actually that the Lord has something really important to say to you from this passage. I'm, I'm very confident in that today.
First pair of quotes that we have. 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. So these two quotes emphasize this one truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, and angels are not the children of God, that they do not have the same relationship with God that Jesus Christ has with him. The first quote is taken from Psalm chapter Psalm 2 verse 7. The second quote is taken from 2 Samuel chapter 7. Both are referring to David and implying that Jesus is the messianic fulfillment of the child of David. And so here's what the authors want to communicate that Jesus is not just a messenger from God. He doesn't just have a message for us from God. He is God embodied himself, the Son of God. With human flesh. This is the Lord.
On when Jesus was baptized, God came down and he quoted the same verses, and he said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. When he was on the mountain of transfiguration, God came down and he said, this is my son. Jesus is superior to the angels, and that he is the Son of God.
Second pair of quotes. Verse 6, and again, when he brings the first born into the world, he said, let's all let let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. These two quotes emphasize that Jesus is not someone merely bringing glory to God. He is God, and that the angels merely point to his glory. That the angels sing Jesus' praises. How could they be as good as God? When they sing His praises.
The first quote is from Psalm 97, verse 7. This is a super interesting quote. It would take me 10 minutes to explain everything that I found in Psalm 97, so hence Q and A. There is so much going on in that one verse, very, very interesting. I'm gonna skip it all. Second quote is from Psalm chapter Psalm 104, and it's this poetic language emphasizing that the angels are servants of God.
I do wanna hit on one thing here before I move on to the third pair of quotes, and it's verse six, it starts and again when he brings the first born into the world. So he calls Jesus the firstborn. And when we think about the first born, we might think that this might imply that Jesus, there was a time in which Jesus didn't exist, and then God made him exist. But this is not how the Bible is using this first born language. This first born language is meant as a title of inheritance. And so Jesus is the preeminent son of God. That he deserves all of the glory and all of the praise. He is the first born, beloved Son of God. He has existed eternally past and into eternity future, ah temporarily, I mispronounced that somehow, but But he is the first born, and above all.
Third pair of quotes. Verse 8 But of the sun, he says, your throne, oh 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, second quote. 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 have rolled them up, like a garment, they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end. So this third set of quotes, again, building on what we learned last week, is emphasizing that Jesus is the king and that he is the creator. So much superior to angels in every way. The first quote is from Psalm chapter Psalm 45, 6 and 7. The second quote is from Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27.
And then he finally ends with a final quote. And if you know anything about scripture, you know that sometimes numbers are significant, sometimes they're not, sometimes they are. But the number 7 often is, and it finishes with this climactic 7th quote, where it says, and which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. This quote is from Psalm 102. It is the most commonly quoted Psalm in the New Testament. It appears over and over again. It is a very important Psalm. In fact, the author of Hebrews spends nearly a complete chapter on the Psalm in Hebrews chapter 7. So come back like in March and learn what he's saying here. As we continue through the series, Jesus himself quoted this Psalm, and, and really the Psalm is meant to make it to it befuddles the Pharisees when Jesus quotes it. And it's meant to make you think that this is a a Psalm of Davidic promise, saying that the Messiah will be the Son of God, but then David refers to the Messiah also as his Lord. So how would the son of David also be the Lord of David? And that is who we find in Jesus. More on that once we get to Hebrews 7, OK? I'm not gonna go through all the details on that one right now.
What Hebrews does though, is it builds an argument. And what you see is many of the same themes, they get repeated over and over again. So if you're here for the next couple of months, you're gonna get this repeated built on argument, the way that people used to argue with not on X or Twitter, with little quips, but they would write books to refute one another. Taken together, all these quotes are meant to leave us with a sense of awe. This man, Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah. Amen. He is greater than the angels in every way. He's not merely a messenger from God. He is the second member of the Trinity, part of the Godhead.
And let me, let me ask you this as we move to like applying this in our lives. How many of us here, you can be honest. I would like to meet an angel of us on that, but meeting an angel would be pretty cool. It would be an amazing experience. And from what I see in bookstores, an experience that sells books. My main seminary professor was a man named Russell Moore. He is now the ethics, the, he is now, and the job, his job was to live in DC and to represent religious people, Christian people to the president of the United States and to the government. And so, many years ago, while he was in that post, we had him come and speak at City on the Hill Brookline before Somerville had begun. And, he, we took him out to eat lunch, and he was telling when you would get to meet with him. And we were all standing, you know, mouth half ajar, like, tell me more. I wanna know what this guy's really like. And he was just telling us a few stories, what his faith is like, what, what he would share in those meetings and whatnot. It was really an amazing experience to meet someone who was a servant to the president in that way. If that lunch table had Obama's daughter's at it though. The effect would be quite different, would it not? They would not be impressed with Doctor Moore's knowledge of their father.
Why would we be impressed to meet an angel when we're children of the king? When we know Christ, they exist to serve him, but you, my friends are adopted as his children. You see, they have worship, and you have worship and intimacy. You can know God. In fact, when we trust in Jesus, we become children of God, adopted as sons. Now I know some of you didn't like my, my choice of word there. You would prefer me to say sons and daughters. It sounds rather exclusive to say sons. But actually it's the most radically inclusive thing in the entire Bible. That men and women adopted together as sons of God. That they get the full inheritance of the firstborn, that when you trust in Christ, what the scripture actually says is that you are hidden in him, and Christ, who is your life appears on your behalf. And so it's not you, but it's Christ.
So you're loved as the first born child who has dwelt eternally with God. That is who God sees you and loves you as. I love how the author of Hebrew of of Galatians, excuse me, Paul, puts this when he says, but when the fullness of time had come, this is very Hebrews like, when he says long ago and many times in many ways that our fathers prophesized to us, but you have received full revelation of God. Here Galatians says, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, you and I. So that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So friends, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
This is the promise to us that not only is Jesus superior to the angels, but through our faith in Him, we also enjoy an intimacy with God that they long to look at. First Peter chapter one, concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesized about the grace that was to be yours, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you. And the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, and then what does it say? Things which angels long to look at. What you have received in Christ, the angels are on their tippy toes, peering over the fence, hoping to get a glimmer of what you have with God. It is that much better.
Friends, I have, I have 3 kids. And my kids enjoy privileges that none of you get with me. A child has so many benefits. A son doesn't have to be measured in what he asked for from his father. My son can come to me and, and it's not like approaching your boss where you have to play your cards carefully. My son just tells me what he wants. And he tells me again and again and again. That's the joy of having a child. A son doesn't have to have an excuse to spend time with his father. My son doesn't have to say sorry dad, I know I'm bothering you. Can we just hang out a little while? You know, you might feel bad having an if you refer to God as your boss, you might feel bad spending his time, but a son doesn't have to have an excuse to spend time with his father. Just says, hey, I wanna watch a game. I wanna play basketball. Will you throw me over there? That's what it's like to have little kids. A son doesn't have to worry about what he has to offer to gain his father's affection. My children have nothing to offer me. In fact, they just suck it all from me. All life, all money, all time, all sleep, it's gone. But I love them. I would have it no other way.
A son doesn't have to hide his weakness or failures from his father. A son doesn't have to carry the fear of rejection and abandonment from his father, and I'm here to tell you guys. That I sense in this city especially. That there is an orphan spirit that is rather strong. That we feel like we have to prove ourselves because our fathers didn't love us the way that God loves us. That there is something more to do, something more to achieve, something more to success. When God wants to look at you. And say, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.
The story of the prodigal son. He goes out, he, he renounces his rights as son. this is a parable that Jesus told me. He renounces his, his rights as son, and he goes out and he, he spends all of his father's money, his inheritance on wayward living, just doing whatever he wants to do. And then one day he's eating slop from the pig that the pigs would eat, and he comes to his senses and he says, what am I doing? I bet my father would take me back as a servant. That's way better than the way I'm living my life. And so he goes back to his father, and what does his father do? But he's standing waiting on his son with anticipation, and when he sees his son, he greets him warmly, he puts a ring on his finger, he says, go kill the fattened calf, we're having a party, you're not coming back as a servant. Get that out of here. That my son has returned.
And I think that many of us are living as though we're servants in our father's home, that we don't deserve the rights of full sonship. Whether it be guilt or something else that's keeping us from the intimacy with God that we have in Christ. Because we see our salvation still somehow based upon our own good deeds instead of what Christ has done for us. And as a result, we have this orphan spirit, and our spirit cannot cry out Abba Father, in the same way that we were created to enjoy fellowship with God. Friends, it's time to come back to our father. The gospel is not simply that your sins are paid for, so you get to live in the presence of God like an angel. But that you get to be a son. Not because of what you've done, but because of what the firstborn of all creation did on your behalf. How he bore your iniquities and paid for your sins and rose victoriously from the grave.
And so I just wanna invite you to talk to God as a child this morning. I'm gonna invite Jared to come and play a little music as we as we pray. And close things before we move to a time of communion. But I just wanna lead you in a prayer this morning. If you'll just Approach God with a posture of prayer, whether that's bowing, kneeling, praying, whatever you wanna do at this moment. Where do you need to repent of living as though you weren't God's child?
I've been reading the book that we're doing for Literary of the Ordinary, and she has this quote that says that Rich Mullins, is from the 90s, He said, back when I was in youth group, I would rededicate my life every year at at youth camp. And then when I was in college, it was like every semester. And now that I'm 40, it's like every hour. I'm rededicating my life to God again. Where do you need to? Confess that you've been relating to God as an angel instead of as a son, as a servant. With worship and service, but with no intimacy. It's time to go back to the Father. To learn your identity in Christ. To experience the loving embrace of a father again. Would you pray with me?
Here I am, God. Would you speak again? Would you remind me of your grace and your mercy. Father, I confess I've gone my own way. I confess that I've lived as a servant when you've called me to be a son. I confess that I feel like I'm bothering you. And that I don't feel good enough to be a son, but God, I pray that you help me to see Jesus. Would you fill me with your glory? Would you give me a desire to be near to you? Would you give me the strength to understand What I have in Christ. Would you invite me to the table again, where we can enjoy fellowship. God, I give you my life. And I'm here for your kingdom. Amen.
On the night that he was betrayed, Jesus initiated a sacred meal, and we practice this meal every week, being reminded that God invites us to dine with him. That we enjoy family privilege of meals with God. And that on the day when Christ returns, or when we meet him in heaven, we will enjoy fellowship with him, full fellowship at the table, the wedding feast of the Lamb. And so until that day comes, we enjoy it in part. And we do that each week with a communion meal, Eucharist, Lord's Supper, whatever you wanna call it. On the night that he was betrayed, he, he initiated, he said, this is my body broken for you, this is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Would you stand as we prepare our hearts to sing.
God, help us to respond to you as we come to the table now. As we come to the table, would you remind us of the fellowship that we enjoy in the Spirit? Would you fill our hearts and our lives with glory, with fellowship, with intimacy with you. Would you help us to live as a son and not as a servant? In Christ's name we pray, Amen.