Hebrews 1:7-14
Good evening, everyone and welcome back. Well, look, we are in Hebrews chapter 1, so if you would turn in your Bibles to Hebrews first chapter. And we started out last time in this section from verses 5 to 14, we’re looking at the pastor’s justification for his thesis statement in verse 4 where he says, “The Son has become as much better than the angels as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.” And after stating his thesis in verses 5 through 14, he defends that thesis.
All right, let’s look at Hebrews 1 and do some reading. Let’s read the entire chapter. It’s only 14 verses, but let’s read the whole chapter and get the context. “God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power;
“who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘YOU ARE MY SON TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’” And again, ‘I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME?’” when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.’ And of the angels he says, ‘WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS FLAMING FIRE.’
But of the Son He says, ‘YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE SCEPTER OF UPRIGHTNESS IS THE SCEPTER OF YOUR KINGDOM. YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR CAMPANIONS’ And, You LORD, IN THE BEGNNNING FOUNDED THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN;
“‘AND THEY WILL WEAR OUT LIKE A GARMENT, AND LIKE A MANTLE YOU WILL ROLL THEM UP; LIKE A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED. BUT YOU ARE THE SAME, AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.’ But to which of the angels has He ever said, ‘SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES AS A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET’? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?”
That question is rhetorical, as these questions are. And then he gets into an exhortation section that we’ll come back to the next time we’re in Hebrews here. In chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, and really this entire letter, epistle, this entire work of Hebrews is a letter of exhortation. It’s a sermon, really.
It’s a sermon of exhortation that a pastor is writing down and sending to his church, probably a congregation in Rome, one of the house churches that’s there, a number of ethnically and religiously Jewish Christians, those who have a religious and ethnic background in Judaism, and now they’re Christians.
They’ve been through a difficulty in Rome when Claudius cast out a number of the Jews from Rome, who are caught up in this controversy over someone named Chrestus is how it’s written. So they lost homes and property and businesses; had to move, they were cast out, at Claudius’s death, they were able to come back as edict was lifted.
But here they are again and facing another difficult time as Nero is on the throne. And very likely they are feeling the pressure, they’re feeling the heat and they’re concerned that they’re in for round two of persecution, difficulty, maybe losing homes, property.
In this case it was, we know with Nero, he was cruel and many lost their lives. So it wasn’t an idle threat, it wasn’t something they were imagining; this is a real deal persecution, and so some of these congregants, some of these Christians were waffling on their faithfulness to Christ. Some of these wanted to return back to the synagogue, return back to Judaism and, kind of be, covert Christians and kind of stay underneath the radar so that they didn’t have to suffer.
Once again, the pastor writes with an exhortation, saying stay put. I want to go back to verse 4, in that thesis statement where the pastor says, that the son is better than the angels, because he’s inherited a more excellent name than they have. He’s not writing about the contrast between the son and the angels, necessarily here, because there are those who are prone to worship angels, but they do have a high regard for angels, because of the angelic involvement throughout the Old Testament, but especially in the giving of the law.
And they want to justify going back to the synagogue and the angelic presence within Judaism, seeing that as, okay, maybe it’s not this church and it’s not as good as we’d like it to be, but I can move back to the synagogue where it’s pretty good and it is angelic ministry and it is the word of God. Okay, maybe we’re not preaching Christ as we are here, but I can make my way there.
How many people do you know who have made decisions like that to accept, so so churches because the living is better or because the weather’s better or because of whatever reason and they don’t want to stay where Christ is proclaimed so clearly. Same kind of thing here. That kind of thinking is really nothing new.
But going back to that in verse 4, where the pastor says the son is better than the angels because he’s inherited a more excellent name than they have. What does he mean my name? What is the significance of a name? Why is he bringing that up as much better but name than the angels? Is Jesus better than Gabriel? Is that what he’s saying here? Or what’s the issue?
If I give you some names like Donald J. Trump, Barack H. Obama, just by the mention of those names, I know that it calls to mind who those men are, information you’ve been exposed to about who they are, what they’re like, what characterizes those men, words, actions, views, policies. And so really, I think the name is really a linguistic symbol that represents who and what a person is.
I wasn’t named Travis necessarily because there’s some Travis-ness about me, but it’s a linguistic symbol, isn’t it? A name. This is how the ancients understood the concept of a name, as well. In verses 5 to 14, the pastor is unpacking the excellency of the name of the son. And so in verse 5, he’s the begotten son. In verse 6, he’s the preeminent one. In verses 7 and 9, he is the anointed king. In verses 10 to 12, He’s the eternal Lord, and in verses 13 to 14, he’s the exalted savior. So those are all the five points we’re going to follow as we work through.
Last time we talked about the first two, the begotten Son, the preeminent one. And the begotten Son in verse 5, it’s “For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘YOU ARE MY SON TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU’” And again, ‘I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME?’”
That’s two of a series of seven Old Testament texts that the pastor cites in proof texting here about the excellency of the name of the son. Here it’s Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7:14. He uses Psalm 2:7 to establish the eternal sonship as the basis for the incarnational sonship that we see in 2 Samuel 7:14. It’s the foundation, his ontological reality, his essence is the foundation of his incarnational ministry. He fulfills the Davidic promises, and by extension, he fulfills all other promises because of his ontological identity, because of his essence as the only begotten son of God.
So there’s this second notable mention of his character and his essence, his identity, as he is the preeminent one. That’s another mark of his superiority, of, over the angels as the writer calls him the firstborn there in verse 6. He is the firstborn, the preeminent one.
Again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him.” The worship and the witness of angels is from start to finish in the economy of redemption. And so when God brings the son into the world, the oikoumenē is the term for world that’s used there, not the typical cosmos, but oikoumenē. This is where we get the word economy from, but it’s the economy of the incarnation, his incarnate ministry.
The angels, just as in the Old Testament, we can see angelic involvement everywhere, so we see when the son is incarnated. In fact, even before he was incarnated, the angels announced the conception of Jesus in Luke 1: Gabriel. They were there praising God of the birth of Jesus in Luke chapter 2.
The angels protected the family of Jesus right after his birth in Matthew chapter 3, hiding them out in Egypt and then bringing them back when Herod was dead, when that murderous Herod was dead. The angels ministered to Jesus after his testing in the wilderness, as is described in Matthew chapter 4. You can also see that testing in Luke chapter 4.
The angels stood ready to deliver Jesus from his crucifixion. He said, can I not call my Father? All of a sudden twelve legions of angels will show up and deliver me from this hour, from this moment, they’re standing by ready to deliver him. That’s Matthew chapter 26.
The angels witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. They facilitated the discovery of the resurrection for his disciples in Luke 24, Matthew 28, and they witnessed the ascension of Jesus into heaven in Acts chapter 1. These angels have been ministering all through the life of Jesus, all through the book of Acts.
They’ve ministered to the church ever since, often facilitating further revelation, like for example in Revelation. They show up all the time as those who are bringing revelation to John, showing him things, helping him to understand things.
We need to keep in mind though that the angels are like us. They are just creatures at the end of the day. They are worshipping the only begotten son along with us, and they see him as the firstborn, the preeminent one, the firstborn over all creation, and then the firstborn in the church. So he is preeminent and the angels worship him.
A Third Point, and this is verses 7 to 9. He’s the anointed king, the anointed king. And again, all of this is to tie these Christians, to keep them in their churches, in place, being faithful, continuing to rejoice in the truth, and being bold about evangelizing even in a hostile world. So he’s the anointed king, verses 7 to 9.
Now, unlike the opening in verses 5 to 6, the closing in verses 13 to 14, we said those two verses at either end of this section are like bookends on this section. We see in verses 7 to 12, one long section that really is making two points about the son. At least that’s how I’m organizing it into two points. He is the anointed king in verses 7 to 9, and he is in verses 10 to 12, he is the eternal Lord; so anointed King and eternal Lord.
The two points here that elaborate the son’s more excellent name are part of this single section, and it again uses the angels as a foil in verse 7 to provide a point of contrast that serves to glorify the more excellent name of the son. So he starts out speaking of the angels and then the rest of this section, it’s all about the son.
So one verse on the angels, it says, in verse 7, “of the angels,” he says, ‘WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS FLAMING FIRE.’” He makes his angels winds and his ministers flaming fire. The quotation in verse 7 comes from Psalm 104 verse 4 and Psalm 104 is really affirming the sovereignty of God over the whole world that he created and it’s kind of over it and against a Pagan worldview.
In the history of philosophy, ancient philosophers, they believe the creation, that all of creation and all the world was composed of four basic things, so four essences or four elements, water, air, fire and earth or material, so matter. And they would speculate about these four essences, seeking to find that fifth essence, that quintessence that was really the stuff of the celestial heavens, they believed, that really held the other four essences together.
It’s the old ancient problem of the, one and the many. What is prior? Is it the many or the one? And if it’s the many, well, how do you explain the one? If it’s the one, how do you explain the many? And how does everything hold together in the world? And I know that’s something that keeps you up late at night as you are raising families and going to work and shopping and all that.
You do wonder, as you’re walking through King Soopers, picking things off the aisle, what is that fifth essence? And what is its real nature? Is. Was Aristotle right? That is, is the aether? Yeah. That’s that was his name for it. Aristotle called it the aether or the ether and he thought of it as a substance. He thought of it as an element that is immutable and incorruptible.
Consider, though, what the psalmist says in Psalm 104. I’m going to read the first nine verses. “Bless Yahweh, O my soul! O Yahweh my God, You are very great; You’re clothed with splendor and majesty, wrapping Yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out the heavens like a tent curtain.
“He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He sets up the clouds to be His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind; He makes his angels the winds, his ministers flaming fire. He founded the earth upon its place, so that it will not shake forever and ever.
“You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters were standing above the mountains.” and “At your rebuke they fled, and the sound of Your thunder they hurried away an alarm.” And “the mountains went up; and the valleys went down to the place which you founded for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over, so that they will not return to cover the earth.”
There is nothing in an angel that could ever do anything to improve our situation. Visa vie, an angry God who’s wrathful over our sins.” Travis Allen
We could go on and see more, but this is a poetic retelling of the creation story. And we find those essential elements in God creating the earth. It’s the essence of the stuff of the earth: the water, the air, the fire, and the earth. But there is no fifth element named, no quintessential stuff that permeates all other elements, that holds them all together.
And it’s because the Bible acknowledges, while it acknowledges the need to hold all the elements together; without something causing a coherence, the elements would pull apart, everything would disintegrate and so the ancient philosophers really did grope their way to a truth.
What they didn’t know is that the cohering force is not, a what, a quintessence, a fifth element, but a who. It’s God, the one named here, who’s clothed with splendor and majesty and robes himself in resplendent light. The one who creates is also the one who sustains. And the writer to the Hebrews says by him in Hebrews 1, verse 2.
And you can go back there to Hebrews chapter 1, but the writer to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 1: that this God made the worlds. And he verse 3, “Upholds all things by the word of his power.” This God who made all things, made it by the son. He’s not the quintessence, he’s not a created substance, he’s not an aether, he is a who? A God.
He is God; “He upholds all things by the word of His power,” so he is the creator and the sustainer of all things. Two of the four elements named in Psalm 104. Two of the four elements and essences identified in ancient philosophy and in ancient thought are wind and fire.
Wind and fire, in contrast to the water and the earth, wind and fire by their nature kind of pervade all things, and they are not limited by any boundaries. And so it’s these elements, wind and fire, that become ready metaphors for the angelic nature in Psalm 104:4, helping us to understand how angels move and how they minister.
Angels are like the winds, both the Hebrew term rûaḥ and the Greek term pneuma, both of those can be translated, based on the context, can be translated either wind or spirit or even breath. So they can refer to physical winds or to invisible spirits such as angels.
The picture is also of this universal unbounded element like wind, which is invisible and yet it is mighty. It’s able to show up anywhere. It’s able to do great damage. If it’s harnessed, it could do great good, create energy, power. The angels are also like fire.
We understand that fire is used and accompanied with angels a lot of times in the Old Testament. One time in particular stands out where God opened the eyes of Elijah’s servant when he saw in 2 Kings 6:17 that behold surrounding the hills and surrounding the Aramean army, that was outnumbering them and causing Elijah’s servant great terror. God opened his eyes at Elijah’s request and saw that there were horses and Chariots of fire all around, and those angelic forces were arrayed, surrounding and hemming in, and penning the Arameans.
There’s another use of this same expression, and it doesn’t have as much to do with burning, but more translated, more like lightning, so like lightning bolts. And that’s comes in Ezekiel 1:13 and 14, where the angelic creatures are there attending what we might call God’s mobile throne. Maybe everybody’s got wheels and wheels and eyes and all that weird kind of stuff. They appear there as burning coals of fire.
So there’s that burning idea. But they’re torches that move to and fro, and they move so fast and so brightly that they seem to go forth like bolts of lightning, flashing from one place to another, and attending the throne of God, they’re like flashes of lightning. This picture of fire pictures angels as speedy and powerful and energetic and with splendor and glory. And they’re shooting all over the place.
They burn brightly, they flash fervently, but they’re also targeted. It’s not haphazard. It’s not like a brush fire that’s out of control. But these fires do the bidding of God. As great as these angelic creatures are, who are made winds, who are made flaming fire, note the contrast that comes in verses 8 to 9.
On the one hand, he makes angels, winds. He makes angels, flames of fire, but the son is not made. There is no sense in which he’s made. He is in an entirely different category, “But of the Son He says, ‘YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE SCEPTER OF UPRIGHTNESS IS THE SCEPTER OF YOUR KINGDOM. YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED LAWLESSNESS; THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR CAMPANIONS.’”
That’s almost a verbatim quotation from Psalm 45 verses 6 and 7. If you’ve read Psalm 45, you know that it’s a kind of an ode to a Davidic king and these verses in particular are Messianic. They’re addressed to the greater or better son of David.
So this affirmation of Christ’s deity here coming right out and calling him God, he’s the son, and he’s called, “God your throne, O God,” that’s an overt testament to the deity of Christ. It’s inescapable. There is no way that Jehovah’s Witnesses can dance their way out of this one. They’ll try, but they can’t.
At the same time, notice the distinction of personhood there in verse 8, you notice that he calls the son God and then in verse 9 it says that the son receives an anointing, from who? God your God. So two are being called God. How is that true if we are still monotheists?
Are there multiple gods or they’re two persons sharing in the same essence of divinity, deity? Very remarkable text. This is not merely a text though or he’s not citing this merely to point out the deity of the son, but really the sovereignty of the son.
In the case of the angels, God makes them act like elements of the earth and they’re changing. They, even in their movement, there’s a change. They’re sent forth to do his bidding, but in the case of the son, his throne is simply affirmed here, and it’s affirmed as eternal. His sovereignty is an assumed reality.
So if the pastor only wanted to contrast the son’s deity and his sovereignty with the creaturely submission of angels, he could have stopped his quotation at Psalm 45, verse 6. But he continues into verse 7, which is expanding the thought of the king’s character and showing that his character is a righteous character.
He loves righteousness, he hates lawlessness, and because of that, he’s received this anointing. It’s because of his character that he’s been anointed. Anybody who remembers the occasion, for writing the situation that the readers are facing, what is the pastor’s point in speaking of this king, who is sovereign and having such a character as this.
Power, money, wealth, influence, all of that was used for the advantage of an evil, sinful, and in the case of Nero, a sadistic, honestly, a kind of a lunatic of a man. And so in contrast, you see this one who loves righteousness and hates lawlessness. You’ve got this assurance that comes to the hearts of his people, who are unsettled.
They’re fearful, they’re wondering about their future, and they know that they’re in the hands of a madman, but they’re having trouble looking beyond that madman to see the God who is really on the throne. And it’s their Christ, it’s their Lord.
Even though they were great servants who delivered the law of Moses, the angels are not equal to the lawgiver, nor are they equal to the son, the righteous king who is the head of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of a heavenly government.
This is a a righteous king. He’s set apart from all others by his zealous love of righteousness, his impartial, zealous hatred of lawlessness. So this is not someone to be trifled with. It’s someone to be served loyally, obediently, faithfully. He’s not someone that you abandoned during an hour of your difficulty, whatever that, however long that hour is for you on the earth, however great the difficulty seems to be.
This is one of such a great character, such a high place and position, this son, that you serve him. You seek him, pray to him, cling to him, depend on him. He hates lawlessness. He hates those who especially, who persecute the saints of God, and he will exact his vengeance on them. And that’s an assurance to our hearts.
No matter who is in office, no matter who’s on the throne, no matter who’s trying to make laws, unjust laws, evil laws, anointed far above us is our king; even the greatest of his servants, the angels, are underneath him and do his bidding.
I also don’t want you to miss how the pastor in verse 9 refers to all of us. He wants us to see this too, in addition to the high position of the son, his great character. Look what he calls us there; he calls us companions. He says, your God, “God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.”
Who are the companions? That’s us. The word metochos, the first of five uses of that word in the Hebrew, it means partner, partaker, sharer. So is shares with him. That’s what we’re to see here, we’re his companions we’re sharers with him. He is a sharer with us. And so in whatever we’re going through in life, he’s far above us.
He’s gone before us, he’s gone through the greatest difficulty, the greatest persecution, the greatest suffering, and he’s emerged triumphant and he’s been anointed with the oil of gladness and we’re going to share in that too, if we stand fast, if we continue steadfast, faithful.
He’s just again sowing seeds all through the text here, for, that are going to serve his exhortation. People stay put, be faithful, don’t lose heart, don’t lose hope. We’re companions with Christ. So he’s the begotten son, the preeminent one, the anointed king.
And now verses 10 to 12, he is the eternal Lord. Number four: The eternal Lord and here the pastor quotes from Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27. There’s a contrast in this text between eternality and mutability, between the creator and the creation.
“He says you, LORD, IN THE BEGNNNING FOUNDED THE EARTH, AND THE HEAVENS ARE THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; THEY WILL PERISH, BUT YOU REMAIN; AND THEY WILL WEAR OUT LIKE A GARMENT, AND LIKE A MANTLE YOU WILL ROLL THEM UP; LIKE A GARMENT THEY WILL ALSO BE CHANGED. BUT YOU ARE THE SAME, AND YOUR YEARS WILL NOT COME TO AN END.’
Again, there’s another clear, unequivocal affirmation of Christ’s deity as the creator of heaven and earth in verse 10, starting with what seems to be immovable and unchanging. You founded the earth. The earth seems immovable. The heavens seem unchanging. And yet he is the one who created those things.
The Lord laid this foundation in the beginning, from the beginning, and from a human perspective, it seems to have never changed. Many of you who grew up in Colorado and see those Rocky Mountains, they seem to be the same Rocky Mountains. You remember when you were four, when you were 10 and 14 and 20. They don’t change. They’re going to outlast you and your children and your grandchildren, and generations from now, they’re still going to be there if the Lord tarries.
And that’s how the ancients really looked at the Earth; from the beginning it seems like it’s never changed. Plates of the Earth’s lithosphere, the crust, the upper mantle. There’s a mantle beneath that. There’s the Earth’s outer core, the inner core. All of them seem like they’re not going anywhere. They’re fixed, reliable, certain.
And then when you go from looking down to looking up and you look far above into the heavens, the work of the Lord’s hands, his hands did that. Spread that out. Big hands, big sky, he did that. Beautiful, sublime, incomprehensibly vast, gargantuan forces of power, great distances, balls of gas burning and just sending light everywhere.
Energy seems to be limitless from the fleeting perspective of mankind, with our life spans that are so brief in comparison. The heavens seem to be to us from perspective, seem to be infinite, seem to be immovable, seem to be unchanging. Therefore, they’re fixed, reliable, certain.
They (Angels) are just creatures at the end of the day. They are worshipping the only begotten son along with us,” Travis Allen
The heavens and the earth, fixed, reliable, certain and yet, as Psalm 102 says, and what the pastor brings out here in Hebrews, they’re all going to perish. They’re going to wear out. They’re wearing out right now. For him, the creator of all this, of heavens and the earth, they’re nothing more than like a change of clothing.
It’s like folding laundry for him, to just roll it up and put it away. Their author is also their finisher; their alpha is also their Omega. He is their beginning and he is going to be their end, too. Again, just the power of perspective in what seems so beyond us is underneath him, is subject to him, and where they will change, he never changes.
Again, going back to why is the pastor saying this? Why is he drawing these passages out? Because whatever may seem to be fixed and certain and unchanging, like an ascendant Roman Empire with lots of money and lots of power and lots of iron and steel and lots of brutality, whatever seems like it’s not going anywhere, like a hostile Pagan culture, like an evil, unpredictable and capricious emperor, none of these things are going to last. They’re all going to be rolled up and castaway, having served their purpose.
Isaiah 51:9 talks about this same thing. The heavens and the earth. They’re going to wear out. They’re going to be castaway. It describes human beings in our lifespans, like gnats or like flies just dying. Very short lifespan. By contrast, you, Lord, remain, verse 11, and in verse 12, you’re the same. You’re immutable. You’re truly unchanging. You’re not going to be rolled up like a garment. You’re not going to be castaway. There’s no wearing out with you. You’re eternal and your years will not come to an end.
Isn’t it precious how this pastor is not only proving his thesis from verse 4, but that the son’s better than the angels, but even in demonstrating his superiority, he’s not just making this massive point. He is ministering to need. He’s preparing hearts to receive an exhortation from him.
He cares for them. He’s laying the foundation of the implication of this truth to apply it to their lives and minister to their present need and settle their hearts. So He’s the begotten son. He’s the preeminent one, the anointed King, the eternal Lord and finally, in verses 13 to 14, he’s also the exalted savior, the exalted Savior.
Back in the opening line in verse 5, he said, “To which of the angels did He ever say?” And that’s repeated here, but it’s intensified in verse 13. But to which of the angels has he ever said? So it goes to a perfect tense talking about a continuous reality.
“To which of the angels has he ever said?” And if you say to none of them, well, that continues. Just take that as your answer from here on out. There is not one of them to which God has ever said, “sit in my right hand until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet.”
Never said that to any one of the angels or any other creature or any other man for that matter, except for one; the God man and he said it, this is a quotation from Psalm 110 verse 1. He’s at the right hand of God the Father now.
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead. He is in his resurrected glory. He has ascended into heaven and he is at the father’s right hand. And he’s ministering now as the preeminent one, the firstborn of the Church, the firstborn from the dead. He’s ministering there from a position of ascendant glory, royalty, at the father’s right hand, and he’s ministering in a much improved state.
He’s prophet, priest and king. Here is emphasized both his priesthood, his high priestly ministry at the father’s right hand, and also his royalty. And we know from verse 3 and what he says in Hebrews 1:3, the pastor says that he is there as a savior.
He’s a savior, it says in verse 3, “having accomplished cleansing for sins.” That’s when he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So sitting at the right hand of the majesty shows a finished work, and the finished work in particular isn’t conquering nations; it’s not coming in like a hero God from space to vanquish, God like enemies or demigods or anything like that. Here, the greatest work that he can speak of in verse 3, is accomplishing cleansing for sins. And that’s why he takes his place with the father’s right hand.
This is precious, how this speaks to each and every one of us. He’s there as a savior and as the pastor develops his argument, he’s also there, we’re going to see in, this features a lot in the Hebrews, he’s there as a high priest, a great high priest.
The focus here though, is on savior, verse 3. “Whereas after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.” No Angel ever did that. No Angel ever did anything to improve the condition of sinners in their sinfulness.
He never able to rescue us from our sins, move the needle one bit in God’s justice to deal with our sins. Angels can’t do that. They’re not qualified. They don’t have a physical body, they can’t die for sins. They’re not infinite beings, they’re creatures, so they can’t absorb the wrath of God for sins.
There is nothing in an angel that could ever do anything to improve our situation. Visa vie, an angry God who’s wrathful over our sins. No angel, an angel, being designed as a servant; no angel ever sat down in God’s presence. In fact, when Gabriel speaks in Luke 1:19, he says, not I sit in God’s presence, but “I stand in God’s presence.”
And that was a great honor to be in the presence of God. But he was there standing. Why is he standing? Because servants don’t sit. Servants stand. They’re ready to run. They’re ready to do. They’re ready to execute. That’s what the angel is.
The son, though, having suffered and died for sins as a savior of his people, he lives on in glory, and he’s not there passively waiting. He’s actively working to see that his salvation works into every single one of his people. He wants to see his redemption that’s accomplished. He wants to see it by the Spirit applied to all of his people, so that he would accomplish God’s perfect will.
So these verses, verses 13 and 14, they’re like bookends at the other end of verses 5 and 6, one end and the other, they kind of form what’s called an inclusio and parallel each other at the opening and the close of this section. Verses 5 and 6 started with the nature of the son and talked about the position of the angels.
Here in verses 13 to 14, the pastor reverses that, shows the position of the son followed by the nature of the angels. And what is that nature? Verse 14, “Are they not all ministering spirits?” “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” They’re for you, they’re for me.
And as the pastor writes this, he’s saying, you church in Rome, these angelic messengers, these ones who attended the giving of the law, these ones that you have thought are the highest and the greatest of servants. And you’re not wrong about that. There’s one servant greater, who is a son, but they are great servants. But their greatest ministry and their greatest service is to you, O Church, is to strengthen you and minister to you.
As the creator who rules and governs his world, he makes his angels, winds and flames of fire to do the bidding of his Providence. And as the savior who rules and governs his church, he makes his angels, ministers. The word there is diakonia, deacon. They’re deacons. They’re deacons executing the will of God to serve the saints.
Let me give you a couple more questions. We’ll kind of close with this again, as we know the pastor’s reason for writing, we know the predicament facing the congregation; What do you think is his aim in ending the section this way? How does this serve his exhortation? What’s he trying to do?
Pretend you’re there in Rome. Do you receive a letter from your pastor that says things are heating up for us in Rome, time for us to move. Is that what you hear him saying? Do you hear him saying, you know what, time to take the sign down from in front of our building? So no one really knows we’re a church. And let’s just kind of, like, be kind of incognito, just kind of keep it below the radar right now.
Times are tough. Rome is yeah, doing Rome; they’re doing their thing. Nero’s kind of getting crazy again, burning stuff down, and he wants to light us on fire and feed us to the animals in the arena. So guys, I got a few suggestions for you, hide or move, run. Why is he not saying that? Why is he instead saying this?
So if he is given heavenly beings, the greatest of all creaturely servants to serve his people, does he think he’s resourced us well enough to handle trials? Does he want us to pick up and leave, get out of town? Does he want us to escape? He’s given everything, pertaining to life and godliness for us, including angels as servants who are like winds that are blow everywhere invisibly and work and do do God’s work like fire with power and like lightning flashes across the sky.
If they serve his people, can he uphold them through those servants? If he’s the one above them directing them, can we not trust his heart? Can we not know that the trials are designed for our good and he’ll bring us through them? So he’s not pampering them, even though they’re going through a very difficult trial. He’s tender toward them, his heart is for them, but he strengthens them to stand up and be sustained through the trial, and he strengthens them with truth.
All right, God’s only begotten son who is firstborn and preeminent over all. He’s anointed, here, is by God as Messiah, Christ the King. He’s the eternal, unchanging Lord. He’s the exalted savior of his people. And the pastor’s point, as he writes to his people is, folks, don’t go anywhere, stay put, endure.
You have all the resources you need. You have a God above you, who sent a Christ to serve you, and he’s done the greatest work of dying and suffering for your sins. And now he ministers and he even sends angels to your aid.
Bow with me for a word of prayer. Father, thank you for our time in your word. We thank you for the pastor here who’s so wise in pastoring these people, loving them, caring for them. We thank you for this example of good ministry, how it’s done, how it’s spoken, and just a beautiful writing, beautiful pictures from Scripture, this huge arsenal at his fingertips as he writes and he draws the right psalms and makes the right points. And really, even 2000 years later, our hearts are encouraged.
We’re not going through a time and trial like these Roman Christians suffering under Nero, but we live in milder times, so to speak. But at the same time, we can all be subject to anxiety and worry and wondering, if we just need to get out of here and hide and find some easier place for ourselves. This pastor says look to Christ, let him guide you. And we pray that Christ would be our hope, his fixed position over heaven and earth as creator, lawgiver, judge, as Redeemer, as Savior, as high priest. Let us look to him. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.