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Introduction: Prayer

Good morning again, Horizon City. It is great to be with you as we continue through Hebrews chapter 1. I’m excited to continue to look through and see the theme that Jesus is better. Would you, before we look at the passage, pray with me?

Father in heaven, we thank you. You’re so kind to us in so many ways. You are our living hope. There is none like you. There is none above you. God, you are Holy forever. God, we thank you. We thank you for your many blessings in our lives. We pray for our region. We pray that as our central Florida and other regions recover from back-to-back hurricanes, you would help our region to recover quickly.

God, I specifically pray for families that have lost loved ones in the storms. Would you comfort them? God, would you use this tragedy as a means of pointing people back to yourself? God, I pray as your word commands us. I pray for our leaders. You tell us to pray for our leaders. So, God, I pray this morning for President Biden.

I pray that you would give him wisdom in his final months in office, in the areas where he is righteous, where he has good ideas and righteous ideas, I pray that he would flourish and that his decisions would positively impact many. In the areas where he is wrong and has embraced bad ideas or evil ideas, I pray you would convict his heart, and may he repent.

God, I pray the same for Governor DeSantis. Would you give him wisdom, especially as he leads hurricane recovery efforts across the state? Would you guide him, God, in areas where he is righteous, may he flourish. May his decisions positively impact many people across our state in areas where he is wrong and unrighteous, in areas where he has made bad decisions or has embraced bad ideas. God, would you convict his heart? Would you expose that and help him to repent?

God, I pray for our local leaders, our county commissioners. I pray for Winter Garden Police Chief Steve Graham. Lord, I pray you would give every single leader in our community wisdom to lead well for the good of our community, I pray. And now, Lord, I pray for the rest of this service and this sermon, I pray that you would use all that we do this morning to glorify yourself.

God, would you use the book of Hebrews to shape us, to mold us to be the church that you want us to be. And God, I pray that you would use this sermon to expose things in our own hearts where maybe we have sinned, where we have erred. Would you help us, God? Would you help us to see that Jesus is better?

Lord, Lastly, I pray that if there’s anyone in this room right now, under the sound of my voice, who is not a believer, anyone in this room who does not genuinely know Jesus, I pray that today they would see that Jesus is better and may today be the day they put faith in Christ. I ask all these things in the matchless name of Jesus.

Amen.

 

Jesus is Better

Last week we talked about Jesus, the Son of God. We talked about Jesus being on his throne in glory, and then he steps down off that throne and he enters into humanity and he suffers the consequences that we ought to have suffered. He dies in our place. Because of his death, sins can be forgiven. Because of what he did at the cross, our sins can be purified. That’s what Hebrews tells us. Because of sin, we are separated from God. All of us long to be close to God, whether we realize it or not.

Billy Graham, the famous evangelist in the 20th century, said that ‘every human being is born with a God shaped hole in their hearts’. All of us have this hole in our hearts, this emptiness that can only be filled by God. We long for that. But because of sin, we are separated from God, and we are incapable of coming to him. The emptiness in our soul cannot be fulfilled because of our own sin. But because of what Christ did, because of his death, we can now come back to God. We can be reconciled to him and be fulfilled.

Of course, Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose from the dead. Then he ascends to heaven, and he marches back into glory. That’s the moment that’s happening here in Hebrews 1. When God the Father sees his Son coming back into glory, God the Father says, My son, he’s mine. Come on, sit right next to me. Stay close to me. What I’m going to do, all the enemies against you, son, I’m going to take care of them. You stay right here. I’m going to make all these enemies your footstool.

That’s this incredible moment. That’s the starting point for the Book of Hebrews. That’s where he starts. Then, what he begins to do after the Book of Hebrews lays this foundation, what he’ll begin to do here in chapter 1 and then throughout the rest of the book, he compares Jesus to other things. He compares Jesus to the angels. He compares Jesus to Moses. He compares Jesus to Abraham. He compares Jesus to this guy named Melchizedek, this very interesting character that God willing, we’ll get to in a few weeks.

He compares Jesus to the other offerings that were offered in the Old Testament. In every single case, the writer of Hebrews is making it clear that Jesus is better than all of these other things. Jesus is better. That’s the overarching theme. Last week, I quoted from that iconic Journey song, ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. That’s the overarching theme of the Book of Hebrews. Jesus is better, so don’t stop believing in Jesus. That’s the intent.

If you’re gonna sum up the entire book of Hebrews in one phrase, it’s that Jesus is better, so don’t stop believing in Jesus. That’s the overarching exhortation of the Book of Hebrews. So we’re going to launch here into the first comparison. He compares Jesus to the angels. Look at verse 5, Hebrews chapter 1. He says this:

“For to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my son?”

The writer of Hebrews is saying, What angel ever heard those words from God? You are my son. The answer is none. No angel in all of history has ever heard God the Father say to them, You are my son. There is something special about Jesus. Jesus is better than the angels. No angel ever heard God say, Come, sit next to me. Sit at my right hand.

But with the Son, the Father shouts it from the rooftops. One of the sweetest moments, in my opinion, in the Gospels is Jesus’ baptism. In Matthew chapter 3, there’s this moment where Jesus has just been baptized and he’s coming up out of the water. And here’s what Matthew 13:16-17 says:

“And behold, the heavens were opened and a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God the Father sees his son and says, he pleases me. In him, I am pleased. God the Father wants everyone to know it. He’s never said anything like this to an angel. The angels have never heard these types of words. This might have been surprising to some of the people in the first century. When the book of Hebrews was written in the first century, 2,000 years ago, there seems to be an over-fascination with angels.

We know this when we read extra-biblical literature from the first century. There seems to be a pretty significant fascination with angelic beings. There are some people in the first century who might have been surprised by reading this. When they read this sermon in Hebrews, they read these words from the writer of Hebrews. They would have said, why didn’t the Father say something like this to an angel? Aren’t angels awesome?

The Apostle Paul says in Colossians, he warns them not to be tempted to worship angels. Paul says that because he knows they’re potentially tempted to want to worship angels. Angels were seen as really high. So this would have been a little bit of a surprise. The writer of Hebrews, saying God’s never said this to an angel, would have taken some people by surprise.

 

What Does the Bible Say About Angels

So I think the question that maybe we need to answer first is, why were they fascinated with angels? Or maybe a better way to ask it is, what does the Bible say about angels? What I want to do for a brief moment this morning is to take a long side note and answer the question, What does the Bible say about angels? Why were people in the first century fascinated with angels?

A couple of things about angels. First. Angels are personal spirits. They’re not like the Star Wars Force. That’s not what the angels are like. They have personalities. They can communicate, they can think, they can reason, they can act. Some of them have names. That’s important to consider. Angels are powerful. They are clearly way more powerful than human beings. Angels can do way more than we can do. Angels are immortal and invisible, and yet they can travel between the invisible realm and the visible realm. They can come back and forth.

In the Gospels, Jesus tells us that angels do not marry and they do not procreate the way we do. Every single angel is distinct. We all have the same parents, Adam and Eve, many years ago, and all of us have come from them. We are of the same species. Angels are not like that. Each one is unique unto itself. They don’t procreate. Each one is a special creation.

There are probably billions of angels. Angels don’t have flesh and blood like humans and animals do. We see this in the Gospel of Luke. But sometimes angels can appear to have flesh and blood. We’ll see this later in Hebrews 13. The writer of Hebrews tells us that there have been moments in your life where you have entertained angels, unaware. There are moments in your life when you’ve interacted with a person that you think is just another person, but is actually an angel appearing to be a person. That’s what the Bible tells us.

Angels are not omnipresent. They can’t be everywhere at one time. And they are not omniscient. Meaning they don’t know everything. They know lots of things. They know way more than we do as humans, but they don’t know everything. The apostle Peter tells us that there are things they long to see. They’re longing to learn some things. They know a lot, but they’re not omniscient.

Angels were created by God to serve in his kingdom, to serve a purpose. Now, God didn’t need angels. God could do it on his own without angels. But God seems to enjoy creating creatures and involving them in his plans. God seems to take pleasure in this. Angels are clearly involved in the affairs of humanity. You may not realize this, but there have been things that have happened in your life that angels were involved with.

Now, the Bible doesn’t give us any idea of a guardian angel. We don’t see anything in Scripture. There’s not one angel assigned to you. That’s not what the Bible teaches. But clearly, there are angels involved. There are moments where God sends angels, and so it’s okay to pray those kinds of things.

I prayed that this week, as a hurricane was bearing down on our home. Lord, would you send angels to encamp around our house to protect us? God, would you send angels with that vehicle to protect them as they drive? Lord, I pray this regularly over my kids. Would you have angels in their room to wage war against demonic forces that would seek to harm them? God will answer those prayers, and he will send angels. Angels were powerful, and Angels are involved.

Now, we want to be careful. Some Christians want to overemphasize this or get a little weird about it. They’re like, oh, my stomach hurts. It’s an angel. Maybe it was the dozen donuts you ate this morning. Maybe it was the 5 gallons of ice cream you ate last night. Maybe it wasn’t the angel. So we want to be careful that we don’t overemphasize this.

But we also don’t want to underemphasize this. We don’t want to act as if there’s no spiritual realm. We want to believe that there is indeed a spiritual realm. It is appropriate to acknowledge that there is a spiritual realm that we cannot see and that the things happening in that spiritual realm are influencing this world that we can see.

 

Spiritual Powers of Darkness

We ought to think about whether we believe that angels are real. The Bible tells us that they are. So we should believe that. If we believe that angels have legitimate influence and power in this world, we should believe that because the Bible teaches that. If we believe there are spiritual forces at work, then that ought to lead us to be careful what we engage with on planet Earth. We don’t want to engage with overly spiritual things, which potentially opens the door to some spiritual influence in our lives that we would not want.

So we want to be careful. What are the types of things we engage with? Now, I want to admit I’m not one of these people who think there’s a spirit behind every single thing. That’s not my position. I don’t think you’re going to hell if you’ve read Harry Potter. That’s not my position. I want to make it clear. But I think it’s wise and valuable for Christians to pause and take inventory of their life.

What are the types of things I’m engaging with? Is it possible that I’m dabbling in something spiritual? That maybe would not be helpful to me? Just ask yourself that question. If the answer is no, then there’s nothing; that is great. But maybe there is something that you want to rethink.

The Bible tells us that these spirits, the angels, some of them, disobeyed God. A third of them rebelled against God. We call them fallen angels. These fallen angels are at war with God, and they’re at war with you. They hate you and they want to cause damage in your life. These angels have corrupted themselves and they’ve poisoned themselves by sin, and now they love evil and they want to influence you to do evil.

Anytime I hear stories of a mother who has done something evil to her children, I think to myself, that was a fallen angel. That was a demon. That was a principality. No human mother does that of her own accord. When I read stories about the Nazis and things they did or other evil regimes, I think to myself, that was a fallen angel, that was a demon, that was some hellish creature. Because humans don’t do that of their own accord. In Ephesians 6, it says:

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.”

The person in front of you is not your enemy. The darkness behind them trying to influence them; that is your enemy. The politician you disagree with is not your enemy. Donald Trump or Kamala Harris are not your enemy. Regardless of who you think should win, regardless of who you’re gonna vote for, that’s not your enemy. The kingdom of darkness trying to influence them; that’s your enemy.

So be careful when you are having a conversation with someone who presents themself as an enemy, be careful that you don’t treat them as an enemy, when actually the person you’re wrestling with or the being you’re wrestling with is the principality trying to influence them. The kingdom of darkness is much more subtle than we think, and their number one tactic is conflict amongst people. It’s very subtle.

Tuesday night, my wife and I were having a conversation that turned into a bit of a debate or an argument. We were having an argument about something, and I’m frustrated with her; she’s frustrated with me. I just sensed the Holy Spirit reminding me, Malaina is not your enemy. She’s not the one you’re wrestling with.

Demonic creatures are seeking to wreak havoc on our marriage and our home. They are the enemy. I have to pause and remember, my wife is not my enemy. If I allow the conflict that they want to stir up, if I listen to them and I allow them to agitate me, then they win. We want to be careful. So angels are real, but those of us who are Christians ought not be afraid of them. 1 John 4:4 tells us:

“Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”

If you are a follower of Jesus, Jesus lives in you. He is far more powerful than any fallen angel outside. He is better than the angels that are still with him and the angels that have fallen. If you are a follower of Christ, there is no reason to be afraid of the fallen angels.

 

Narnia and The Overworld

As I think about angels and Hebrews chapter 1, I want to give you four quick observations and some application. The first one is something I’ve observed. When we think about angels and the spiritual realm, it often helps us to remember that we are indeed spiritual beings. There was a famous French philosopher who once said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

We are spiritual beings, and sometimes we want to act as if we are not. We want to say things like, you’re nothing but the result of a chemical reaction, nothing but animals that have evolved. We’re nothing but a bunch of sacks of skin and cells. Philosophers refer to this sometimes as the ‘nothing buttery’ effect. Love is nothing but a bunch of chemical synapses in your brain that help the human species to continue and to propagate itself.

The ‘nothing buttery’ theory is wrong. We are far more than simply material beings. We are spiritual beings living in this material world. Thinking about that regularly helps how we live, it helps us to live well. If you know me, you may know that I am a fan of a man named C.S. Lewis. This morning I want to touch base with something Lewis gave us. The sixth installment of the Chronicles of Narnia series is a book called The Silver Chair.

In The Silver Chair, there’s a witch. The witch has taken some of these Narnians, people who once lived in Narnia, She’s taken them into the underworld. She has convinced them that this underworld is all that there is, that there is nothing above. She tells them, This thing you call the Overworld, there’s nothing there.

There’s a prince in the story. He’s a descendant of Prince Caspian. He is arguing with the witch, and he says, No, I think I remember this place called Narnia. The witch says to him, ‘Narnia? I have heard of this word. It has been uttered from time to time. That name has been in your ravings. Dear Prince, I think you are sick. Oh, very sick. There is no land called Narnia.’

The prince’s friend, Puddlegum, one of the heroes of the story, jumps in. Puddlegum says, ‘Oh, No Witch, Yes, there is. You see, I have happened to live there all my life. I know of Narnia. I know it is real.’ The witch says, ‘Well, indeed, if it is, tell me where is this country you speak of? Oh, Narnia.’

Puddlegum says, ‘Well, well, up there. It’s overhead. I don’t know exactly where, but I know it is there.’ The witch responds, ‘You say there is a country up there in the Overworld, but I cannot see it. There is only here what we can see.’ Puddlegum shouts again, ‘I don’t know exactly where, Queen.’ She responds, ‘Is there a country up there among the stones and the mortar on the roof?’ ‘Well, no.’ Puddlegum says. ‘No, no.’ He’s struggling to catch his breath. ‘It’s in the Overworld.’

Puddlegum goes back and forth with the witch, and he tells her about this thing called the sun. He tells her about a lion. The lion is a big cat with a mane, but not a regular mane, but like a wig of a leader. But he’s wonderful. His name is Aslan. The Witch shudders at the name of Aslan. She says, ‘You speak of this, sun. You believe that simply because you have seen a lamp that there is a sun. You believe that simply because you have seen a cat, that there is a larger cat.’

The witch and the members of the court are mocking Puddlegum. The Witch later says this. ‘There is no light but the lamp that we see. There is no cat but the ones that we see here in the underworld.’ This goes on for a while. Puddlegum speaks up. He’s pushing back on the nothing-buttery phenomenon.

Puddlegum says this: ‘Suppose we have only dreamed or made up all those things of Narnia. Suppose Narnia is not real. Suppose trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have, as you say, dreamt it. Then all I can say is this, in that case, the made-up things, they seem a good deal more greater and more important than these real ones we see. Suppose the black pit of the kingdom of yours is the only world. Suppose there is nothing more than what we see. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one indeed. If the world we see is all there is, it’s a pretty poor world.’

But this is what he is saying: ‘This world gives us clues that there is a greater world to come, that there is an invisible world that we cannot see. The fact that I can see a lamp shows me it’s an insight, an inkling that there is a sun that, although I cannot see it where I’m sitting, it will be there one day.’ He says this, ‘we’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right, Witch, but four babies playing a game can make a play world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by and play in the world you say is not real. I’m on Aslan’s side, even if there’s no Aslan to lead to. Which I’m going to live like a Narnian, even if there isn’t a Narnia.”

The world we live in, they’re going to tell you there’s no spiritual realms. You’re just silly. There are no angels. There’s nothing outside this universe. Where is it? I challenge you, take up the faith of Puddlegum, to look at the world and say, you know what? I’m gonna live like this is a spiritual realm, and if I’m wrong, fine, so be it. But I’m gonna live like there’s one. I’m gonna live like a Narnian, even if there’s no Narnia.

 

Observations of the Text

There are several observations to look at here in our text.

The more we think about the spiritual realm, the more we think about things like angels and spiritual beings, the more likely we are to remember that we are spiritual beings.

That will impact how we live our lives. That will impact how we pray. It’ll impact how we think about suffering in this world. It’ll think about how we think about hurricanes, how we think about our prayer life for our families.

When you think about angels of the spiritual realm and the elaborateness of angels, it helps you think about the beauty of the Creator.

Several years ago, I was in New Jersey and went to Carlo’s Bake Shop. Carlo, the cake boss. I went to his shop in New Jersey, and these cakes are unbelievable. They use fondue to make figurines and these huge cakes that are elaborate and detailed. It’s unbelievable.

Here’s what you don’t do. You don’t look at the cake and see how incredible it is, how elaborate it is, and think to yourself, wow, cake, you’re amazing. I just think you’re an awesome cake. Thanks for being great and making yourself so good. No one does that. When you see the elaborate creation, you look at the creator and you go, Carlo, you’re good at making cakes. You’re awesome. You are the cake boss.

Similarly, when we think about the spiritual realm, when we think about angels and their magnificence and their glory, we don’t look at them and go, Wow, you’re awesome. We look at them and say, Wow, the Creator who made you is awesome.

When we look at scripture, we see that God has offered humanity something that he’s not offered Angels, and that’s redemption.

A third of the angels sinned against God, and God created a lake of fire where they will be cast into forever and ever to suffer. None of them gets a second chance. Humanity, 100% of us have sinned. Not a third of us, 100% of us, have sinned against God. Every single one of us deserves to be in that lake of fire right alongside those fallen angels. That’s what you deserve.

But God has chosen to treat humanity differently from how he’s treating the angels. He’s offered us a second chance. The angels, they’re being treated righteously. Some people say that’s not fair, that they don’t get a second chance to repent. God is not obligated to save anyone. No law says he’s required to save. If he saved no one, that would be perfectly appropriate. God could have said to every human, To hell with you. But he loves us so much. He is so filled with kindness and mercy and grace that God says, I will make a way for their sins to be forgiven. Why does God not do that with the angels? We don’t know.

The Bible does not tell us. But I’m so thankful that he doesn’t treat us that way. Every time you think of angels, you should think to yourself, a third of them rebelled and never got a second chance. 100% of us have rebelled, deserve the lake of fire, and yet all of us have the opportunity to repent. If you are here this morning and you have not believed in Jesus, if you have not repented, I exhort you this morning to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. He is kind, and he is willing to purify our sins if we believe in Jesus.

The fourth observation comes directly from the text. If you have your Bibles, look back at Hebrews chapter 1 verse 7 with me. It says this:

“He makes his angels winds.”

The word ‘winds’ can be translated as ‘spirits’. So God makes these angelic spirits. The contrast, of course, is that angels are made.

Jesus is the maker.

Whenever we think of angels, we should think they were made by Jesus. He is greater than them. Now, this exact verse in this passage, the writer of Hebrews is quoting from the Old Testament. He’s quoting from Psalm 45. Psalm 45 was written about seven or eight hundred years before the Book of Hebrews.

He’s quoting from Psalm 45 in this letter. In essence, what the writer of Hebrews is implying is that the words of Psalm 45 are actually words from God the Father to his Son, Jesus. When you go back and read the Psalm, that’s not obvious at first glance. You read through Psalm 45, you realize it’s a love poem. It was pretty frequently recited and sung at Jewish weddings.

So when you read it, you think that it is a love note from God the Father to his son Jesus. It may seem a little odd at first thought. But what the writer of Hebrews is saying here is to remember that Psalm 45, what they thought was just a love note, was actually a love note from God to his own son, Jesus. Psalm 45:2, this is God speaking to his son, it says:

“You are the most handsome of all the sons of men.”

God the Father looks at his son and says, You’re so handsome. God the Father sees his own son, and he explodes with joy. I understand this a little bit as a father with a son. My son Josiah, every time I walk in the room and I see his two little buck teeth that are half out of his gums, he stands on his crib and chews on the side and gets the paint in his mouth. His hair is all disheveled. I walk into his room, and I see him, and I go, Josiah, you are so handsome, buddy. You’re the most handsome boy that’s ever walked this planet. This is my boy! This is my son. He’s so handsome. This is what the Father is doing in Psalm 45 toward his son.

 

Closing: The Spiral of Delight

The writer of Hebrews wants you to know that Jesus is better than angels. Angels are great. They’re magnificent. They’re glorious. Jesus is better. Jesus is so much better, that God the Father wrote Jesus a love note. It starts by saying, Son, you are so handsome. There’s this divine love affair that’s been going on between the Father and the Son for all of eternity. The greatest joy and happiness that can ever be had is happening between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

I have a friend, Ricky. He calls it the spiral of delight. It’s this spiral where the most amount of happiness that could ever be had is being had right there between Father, Son, and Spirit. This divine love affair where they’re just gushing over one another, and then here’s what happens. They go, hey, let’s create some angels. They’ll watch, and then we’ll create some people. Those angels will be a part of taking those people and bringing them into this spiral of delight so that they can experience what we’ve been experiencing for all of eternity.

God wants you. He invites you to come be a part of the spiral of delight, where you can experience and enjoy the most glorious form of happiness that could ever be had. The angels don’t get to be in on that. They get to be a part of bringing us into that. But of course, we sinned. We rebelled against God. So God says, we’re going to go after them. The Father says to the Son, Go rescue them, save them. Make purification of their sin and make it possible for them to be brought in so that they can enjoy us.

When we think about angels, we should think that Jesus is better than the angels. We should think about the spiritual realm, and it should inform how we think. We should think about the spiritual things with which we engage. We should think about the Creator who made those angels. But above all else, every time you think of angels, think of Jesus being better than the angels, and think about the angels existing to help you be ushered into God’s presence so that you can enjoy him forever.

 

Communion

But of course, the only reason we can enjoy him forever is because of what Christ did on our behalf. That’s why we take communion together each week. Every single week, we take wine, juice, bread, and we remember what Jesus did for our behalf. We remember that Jesus made it possible for us to be forgiven.

In just a moment, we’re going to pass baskets. This is for anyone here who’s a believer in Jesus. If you are a follower of Christ, we invite you to participate with us this morning. If you are here, though, and you are not a Christian, if you are not a follower of Christ, I am glad you are here. But I would ask, when the basket comes, just let it pass by you. This is for Christians only, but don’t let the moment pass.

Let the basket pass by, but don’t let the moment pass. Instead of taking communion with us this morning, if you are not a Christian, I implore you, take Christ instead. If you have any questions about what that means, what it looks like, let me know. I’d love to grab coffee this week and talk to you about what it means to follow Jesus.

This morning, let’s remember not just the angels, but let’s remember the one who is better than the angels, the one who created the angels, the one who made it possible for us to enjoy God forever and ever. His body is the true bread. His blood is our true drink.