This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day four of our first week in the book of Hebrews, so Hebrews chapter
one. We're going to look at verses four to nine today. And I just want to say
before reading these verses, before getting into the content of these verses, as
I read through these verses, I want you to notice something with me.

Notice how these verses speak personally about God's voice, God's person being
involved as quotes from the Old Testament and New Testament are brought forward.
And then I want to share with you what that means at the end of these verses.
Verses four down to verse six.

"So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is
superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my
son, today I have become your father. ' Or, again, 'I will be his father and he
will be my son.

' And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all
God's angels worship him. '" Before talking about Jesus and the angels, notice
as quotes are brought forward from the Old Testament that each time it says, "He
says," God says. It doesn't say, "Scripture says.

" It doesn't say, "David says," in the Psalms. It says, "God says. " It says,
"He says," in the personal voice.

And this is a reminder that what God says is what Scripture says because He
wrote it. He wrote it. Sometimes you'll hear people say, "Well, I want to just
read the words of Jesus because that's what God really said.

" The truth of the matter is, all of the Bible is what God said. Old Testament,
New Testament, all the way through, and we learn different things from different
chapters and different verses, but all of it is God's Word. What did He write
here?

What does God say here? He tells us here that Jesus is superior. Jesus is first.

Jesus is Lord. And the list begins in this first chapter. He's going to tell us
that He is Lord, He is superior, He is better than angels, than Moses, than the
temple, and He begins with angels.

And He says here, Jesus' name, Savior, is superior to the angels, and He is
superior to the angels. Now, it might help you to know some of the Jewish
beliefs about angels in this day. I'm not talking about beliefs that grew out of
the Old Testament, but beliefs that had been added to what the Old Testament
says about angels.

Their beliefs had become very detailed. They believed there were millions of
angels. They believed that there were seven specific angels that were in God's
presence all of the time.

They even had names for these seven specific angels. This isn't from the Bible
that there are seven specific angels that are in God's presence. This is from
their beliefs.

But you see, the names of some of these in the Bible--Raphael, Uriel, Gabriel,
you've heard that in the Bible, maybe Michael, you've heard in the Bible--these
angels were said to be people who are messengers, who brought messages, who
intervened in history. These angels were very detailed in their ministry. They
believed that there were 200 specific angels who controlled the movement of the
stars.

There's one who controlled the calendar. There was another who was over the sea.
There were angels of the frost, of the dew, of the rain, of the snow, of hail,
of thunder, of lightning.

There were angels who wrote down every word that man spoke. Every nation had an
angel. Every person had an angel.

The Talmud actually says every blade of grass has its angel. And with all this
depth of belief about angels and what they did, one of the bad things that came
out of that was this growing belief that angels were in some way intermediaries
between man and God. We can't get close to God because of his perfection, so
someone has to be between us and God.

Someone has to connect us. And more and more they began to believe that was the
angels. And so it wasn't believed that the law was delivered directly to Moses.

Something was inserted in, a belief that it was given to angels and then given
to Moses. Now whether then or today, this is the core, what we're talking about
now, of most false teaching about angels. The core of the false teaching that
you hear about angels is God can't get close to us and we can't get close to
him, so angels are needed.

But the writer of Hebrews says, wait a minute, there stands Jesus. Jesus is God
getting close to us, God in human flesh. We're missing something here if we
think we need angels to get close to God.

Truth of the matter is, they had their beliefs about angels back then. We also
have some false beliefs about angels now. The number one false belief about
angels that I hear from people today is this belief that somehow, someday, we're
going to become angels.

That when you die, you become an angel. You get wings, you go to heaven, that's
what you become. I know this has been many, many times put in movies.

It's a great movie plot. I enjoy those movies too. But there's no truth in it.

Angels are spiritual beings. They're not physical beings. They're creations of
God like we are.

But they're not people. They never were people. They never will become people.

They're just a different kind of creation of God, a spiritual being. Mixed in
with that thought that somehow we become angels is this belief somehow, even
today, that we need angels to connect us with God. We need angels to get
miracles from God.

And the writer of Hebrews writes and says, "Wait, wait, wait, everyone. Let's
just sit down and reason about this for a minute. The truth is, Jesus is better
than angels.

" And he brings forth some verses from the Old Testament to remind us of this.
He says, here's how Jesus is better than angels. In fact, let me give you three
ways.

Number one, Jesus is the son. Angels are the servants. I mean, who's better, the
servant in the household or the son in the household?

Jesus is better by his relationship. He is the relationship of the Son of God.
Verse five, "To which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my son.

Or again, I will be my father, and he will be my son. '" So he reminds us here
that it's the difference between a servant and a son. If you go to a household
and you're best friends with a servant in that household, they might be able to
show you certain things in that house, but they couldn't get into every room,
not like a son could.

Not like a son could. They would have more rights, and Jesus has all the rights.
He reminds us, why is Jesus better than the angels?

Well, Jesus is worshiped. Angels are the worshipers. God says, "Let all the
angels worship him.

" In verse six. Now, to me, if you need any proof that Jesus is God, it's right
there. It's very clear in the Old Testament that no one is to be worshiped
besides God.

We're told again and again that to worship anyone besides God is a breaking of
the Ten Commandments. Worship anyone besides God is turning our hearts from him.
And here is God saying, "Worship him.

Worship Jesus. " John Bunyan once said, "If Jesus Christ be not God, then heaven
will be filled with idolaters. " He said that because you can see in the book of
Revelation, in the book of Daniel, those books that give us a glimpse into
heaven, you can see 10,000 times 10,000 angels worshiping the Son, worshiping
Jesus.

You only worship God. That's one of the clearest truths in all of scripture. And
again, God brings his firstborn into the world, it says in verse six, and says,
"Let all the angels worship him.

" One question you might have as we walk through these verses is, what is this
about firstborn? I mean, was Jesus born? I thought he always was.

He was always created. And that's true. He's God.

He's always existed. So why would he call him his firstborn? We don't quite get
this today because we don't think like they did back then.

We don't have Hebrew thought. Firstborn is not a description, it's a title.
We'll talk about this more as we walk through the book of Hebrews, but the title
of firstborn, you'll see this even in the Old Testament, it didn't always go to
the firstborn.

The title of firstborn means the one who gets the inheritance. So although Jesus
was born as a baby after many, many other people were born, he certainly wasn't
the firstborn on this earth. He's always existed.

But Jesus is going to be the one who inherits everything. So he is by title the
firstborn. We'll talk about that more as we walk through the book of Hebrews.

How do we know Jesus is higher than angels? Jesus is the son. Angels are the
servants.

Jesus is worshiped. Angels are the worshippers. And then he brings forth some
more verses from the Old Testament and reminds us that Jesus' throne will last
forever and angels are servants of wind and fire.

He's talking about authority here. He goes back to Jesus' throne again. Verse 7,
"And speaking of the angels," he says, "he makes his angels winds, his servants
flames of fire.

But about the Son," he says, "your throne, O God, will last forever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. " It's very clear here
angels serve. He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.

There's even a sense there of temporary service. Angels may exist forever, but
they have temporary assignments. They serve and do whatever God says from time
to time.

Angels serve, but Jesus rules. Angels play a part. Jesus is the all.

Angels are part of the plan. Jesus is the plan. Angels take orders.

Jesus gives the command. Jesus is the one who's on the throne. Angels are the
ones who are serving the one who is on the throne.

And what's the one on the throne doing? Well, he says here, "your throne, O God,
will last forever and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. " He
goes on to say in verse 9, "you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

Therefore God your God has set you above your companions by anointing you with
the oil of joy. " I want you to note here what this says about Jesus as the
ruler. Just have this in mind as we go through the book of Hebrews.

It says that his throne will last forever. It says here that righteousness will
be the scepter of his throne, the sign of his leadership, the righteousness that
he gives us through the cross. And it says here that joy will be the anointing
oil of his throne.

We're going to come back to all of that again and again and again in Hebrews.
The eternal throne of God, the power of God's righteousness, the joy of Jesus
and what that means for us. As we close this day about angels and Jesus and who
is better, I want to remind you that this is not some kind of a fight because
the truth of the matter is the only reason the writer of Hebrews has to argue
about this is because those in that day were confused.

Angels have always known who they are. They've never fought. Well, there were a
certain amount of them who fought to be better, but they fell because of that.

But those who follow him have never fought to be better than Jesus because they
recognize who Jesus is. And that's what I want us to do as we close this few
moments together. Jesus, we take a minute to recognize you, who you are and what
you've done.

And just to say in our hearts and minds you're better and to realize we don't
need anyone between you and us. You're the one who's the mediator. You're the
one.

You're the one that we can go to and thank you that we can come into your
presence. Thank you that we don't need some angel or some person or something
else to go to God on our behalf, but that you as God in human flesh are right
there for us to talk to. So help us to talk to you in confidence and in a sense
of joy that we're in your presence throughout this day today, we pray in your
name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to look together at two words about Jesus that can give
you confidence for every day.