The God Who Speaks
Here is the auto transcript from this week’s sermon on the Gospel to the Hebrews, The God Who Speaks
Good morning church, good to be with you this morning.
Last week I started off just before we got into the message making you aware of a special opportunity that we have in the context of giving and that is our extending the Tuesday giving campaign throughout the end of the month because a very generous person is offered to match up to $10,000 if our congregation can give that much money.
If we can raise $10,000 they'll match that allowing us to end the year basically with a $20,000 boost to our income and given the impending move to a new facility and all these things that would be a great blessing.
We made you aware of that last week I think we were hovering somewhere around the $3,000 mark.
As of today we only have $2,700 left to meet that $10,000 goal.
So I want to encourage you and we're not this isn't we're not going to just keep passing the plate okay this is not you know we're gonna give again until you know we get it.
If you've already given we want to say thank you for that and much appreciated.
For those who are joining us online today and I think our numbers are probably higher today in that category because of the amount of people in our own congregation who are ill but also to those who might be visiting if you'd like to join us and help us make that goal we would appreciate that as well.
Thank you for your generosity.
God is good amen.
All right well last week we started into this study of the book of Hebrews and as Chris has already said I really don't want this just to be another sermon series.
I believe that there are certain topics that the Bible talks about that lay the foundation for a before and after moment in our lives and the book of Hebrews is one of those before and after books.
It contains a truth that if fully received, fully embraced, fully lived out changes everything.
So it's not just a study of all these interesting topics that the writer of Hebrews brings up it is an opportunity for us to receive what the Lord God is speaking through this book and through the original Hebrew writer.
This book to the Hebrew believers.
The Hebrew people were a people who were used as an amazing part of God's revelation to the world.
A people who were a part of God's amazing plan for Israel to be a light to the nations.
A people who were entrusted with the Torah, the tabernacle, the temple, the sacred annual times of the Lord as well as the testimony of the patriarchs and the prophets of old.
A people who were the people who were called as we talked about last week to be the Passover people.
Spared from death, led to life through the waters of the Red Sea.
Passover transformed into the kingdom of God's redemptive plan for the world.
That's what it meant to be a Hebrew.
That's what it meant to be a son of Abraham and an Israelite.
A people if any who deserved a gospel written to them addressing things familiar to them calling them to the faithfulness in the kingdom of Messiah it is the Hebrews.
Because not only of the privilege they have of being the recipients of all of those revelations from God but also the heavy burden that has been for them to bring that revelation to all of us.
The writer of Hebrews whomever he was with great knowledge and skill led by the Holy Spirit wrote this book to call them to call us to remain faithful to the King who spared us, saved us, and sanctified us for his kingdom.
This isn't just another study of a book.
This is the revelation that God has spoken in his Word.
And the only question that really matters is are we going to listen?
We pray with me.
Abba Father as we dive into this Word today though the author is unknown the human author is unknown the divine author is not.
We come fully convinced that you by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit have caused this man to pen these words for our benefit for our edification for the strengthening of our faith.
So Father give us ears to hear and eyes to see but especially to hear that which your Spirit would speak to us your church your bride your people may this time bring glory to our King in whose name we pray amen.
All right so this morning we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 1.
Yes it's going to be a miracle we're going to actually cover an entire chapter.
And all God's people said yeah I'll believe it when I see it.
But no that's what we're going to do.
We're going to look at Hebrews chapter 1 and we're going to outline the chapter by simply asking four simple questions.
We're not going to complicate it too much we're just going to try to parse it out so we understand what the writer of Hebrews is trying to accomplish with this book.
And so these are the four questions we're going to try to answer today.
One how has he spoken to us in the first days he being God.
Secondly how has he spoken to us in the last days.
Number three how what has he spoken to and about the Son.
And number four what is the writer of Hebrews saying to us.
If he is the God who speaks what has he said how has he said it and what does that say to us.
And so we're just going to dive in we're going to take small bites of the scripture today so I hope you have your Bible either on your app or on your lap or either one.
But I hope that you'll follow along.
And so we're going to start off by asking this first question how has he spoken to us in the first days.
Now I'm just using that terminology first days to contrast the fact that in a moment he's going to highlight the way that he is talking to us in the last day.
So what do I mean by first days.
I mean from the very moments of creation when he spoke the world into existence all the way up through the kingdom of Israel until ultimately through the prophets until the coming of the Messiah.
So let's see what he says in Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 & 2.
God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways.
Now the book of Hebrews the way the people eventually came in and added the verse numbers sometimes cut sentences in half and that's a little bit of a frustration but we're going to go ahead and follow that pattern so that we're only taking like I said small bites.
And it starts off with God after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions in many ways.
You may not realize this but that is an incredibly poetic statement to start the book.
Now in the English we do something we want to make the subject of the sentence we want to put it on the front end of the sentence.
Greek doesn't have to do that.
Greek has the ending the last letters of a word tell you which word is the subject of the sentence.
So the subject of the sentence could end up anywhere in the in the construct of the sentence.
So our English writers do it in English and they put God.
So God is the is the subject.
But the thesis of this book is what he then talks about God doing and that is that God is the God who speaks.
This is what set the Hebrew people apart and differentiated them from all other people who worshipped lifeless idols who could not speak.
In fact Moses asked them in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 33 has any people heard the voice of God speaking in the midst of fire as you have heard it and lived?
Some translations say survived.
It's a rhetorical question the answer is no.
There is no other group of people in the history of humanity post Garden of Eden who were so favored so chosen so selected by God to actually hear the voice of God which they did when he began to speak from Mount Sinai.
It is an utterly unique experience of the Hebrew people to have heard God speaking to them and live to tell about it.
While the rest of the nations meanwhile back in paganism are listening around bowing down to idols of wood and stone hoping against hope that somehow they will say things but they can't because they're lifeless.
The writer of Hebrews is drawing to mind the Hebrew history of being the people who heard God.
It is utterly unequivocally unique among the nations and they live to tell about it.
So he begins with this truth.
To be a Hebrew means to be a person who has the heritage of being the people who heard the voice of God but with that privilege comes great responsibility and burden.
To be the caretakers of what God has said for he has spoken to them so that they could speak to the nations of his goodness.
Now let me just sidebar for a moment and and say that we understand when we look at the early church the entire early New Testament Church began they were Jewish they were Hebrews but the Lord knew that as time would go on that balance between Jew and Gentile would shift and it might become possible for the Hebrew people the Hebrew believers to begin to think that they had been set aside or their heritage as being the people had heard from the Lord had been set aside but the book of Hebrews cries out absolutely not you are the people God spoke to.
Don't stop listening.
He begins by reminding them of all the ways that God has spoken in what I have said are the first days from creation forward and he eloquently begins the actual sentence doesn't begin with the word God it actually begins with these Greek words paloumeros kai paloutropos which just sounds fun.
Do you remember when you were a little kid and the teacher asked you to write a poem and what did you try to do when you wrote that poem to create rhyme?
Poetry is poetry it's pleasant to our ears because it's rhythmic in its cadence but it's also poetic in its rhyme and this is something that unfortunately when we read through the scripture and I don't have time this is not a class on trying to make you appreciate all the the skill and the technique of the Hebrew writer although I intend to bring those out this guy is good and by the way it can't be a sin for a preacher to alliterate his points because he did it too.
Yeah we got it from God that's where it comes from.
Why do we do that?
Because God's Word is not just amazing and what it says it's amazing and how it says it that's what drives me insane when people get so critical of God's Word without really understanding how beautiful it actually is.
Paloumeros kai paloutropos in many portions in many ways or many fashions.
The word portion would immediately raise to mind in the minds of the Jewish people maybe the Torah portions or at least in our modern minds we would think of the Torah portions but there's the second word paloutropos is built on the word tropes and unfortunately that's not a very positive word in the English language.
When we think of something as being a trope we think of as something becoming kind of expected kind of commonplace but in reality that's not what it means at all it's actually a creative method of communication and so the writer of Hebrews is saying in many tropes in many creative ways God has spoken in in modern English we might talk about puns and metaphors and similes but the writer of Hebrews is is not only reminding that God has spoken to them but he has used a wide variety of creative methods to speak his will in his word to them.
He's used prophets who wrote and spoke what God gave them to say.
He's spoken parables and poetry and song.
He has spoken in the life of the patriarchs which tell his story of how he intends to redeem the world.
He literally spoke his word through the way he orchestrated the life of a man.
Take Abraham for instance who goes to Mount Moriah and there offers his son or attempts to offer his son to the father but the father in heaven says no I've got a better idea I'll offer my son for you.
Beautiful paradigms and patterns.
The point is he has been pervasive in both prophetic speech and prophetic method.
He has spoken not only through many prophets he has used many creative ways to do it.
The Hebrew writer could not help but rehearse that vast array of those methods that has been his Hebrew heritage.
But ultimately all of those portions and methods had two things in common.
They were communicated through the prophets and secondly they were communicated to the patriarchs, to the fathers.
And the stress of this is so important that God through all these methods has been communicating to the fathers.
Why?
Because it's a trope.
It's a method that God is going to revisit.
Why is this so important?
Because it sets the trope of how God is going to communicate as a father to his children through the Son.
Why did the prophets speak in all those various ways and various portions?
Why did God do all those things so the fathers could tell their sons?
So that generation to generation this is what Hebrew heritage is.
It's a history of the inspiration of God's Word being passed from the father to the son.
Again why is the speaking to the father so important?
It's also important because what God is telling them specifically is about the inheritance of the world he has created for them.
When you invoke the concept of the trope of the father you invoke the father's communication with the son.
But the minute you invoke the trope of the father you are also invoking the context of the inheritance.
Are you with me?
Do you see the trope?
You see there's creativity being used here because the trope hasn't changed.
It's just going to get better.
So he emphasizes the natural topic of inheritance and one of the great inheritance of the Hebrew people is the heritage of being the people who heard God speak.
Now this sets the stage for him then to address how the father is going to speak to the fathers in these last days.
And so we'll address that second question I mentioned how has God spoken in these last days?
Verse 2, "In these last days he has spoken to us in his Son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world.
" Notice that the writer of Hebrew says he has spoke to us that he has spoken to us.
Now as we come here today, the Hebraic family fellowship, a church with a origin story of loving the Hebraic context, the Hebrew background of the God who speaks.
This is not something the message of this book isn't something you can set aside because ethnically you may not descend from the Hebrew people.
Because Paul's going to make it very clear in Romans that not everything that is Israel is Israel.
Ultimately God speaks and he's looking for a generation, he's looking for a people who will listen.
So if that's who you are today then guess what?
I guess you're a Hebrew.
And you get to be a part of that Hebrew heritage of those who heard the voice of God.
He has spoken to us, nothing has changed.
It is the unique inheritance of the Hebrews to be the first to hear God who speaks.
Remember how Paul emphasized that even in regard to the gospel, Romans 116, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for everyone who believes to the Jews first and also to the Gentiles.
" Does it sound like Paul is reaffirming that Hebrew heritage, that right of privilege to be the people who first get to hear from the Lord?
The Jews were the first to hear the good news.
In fact God providentially used Shavuot Pentecost, one of the regaleme feasts which required the Jewish men to return to Jerusalem to be the first to hear that the Messiah had risen and ascended to the right hand of God.
Nothing has changed.
To be a Hebrew means to be a part of the heritage of people who hear the voice of God.
But why refer to this or these as the last days?
The last days of what?
The last days of God's specific revelation about the recreation and renewal of the world and those who will inherit it.
There is no more revelation, please hear me, there is no more revelation coming that adds or expands the message of redemption.
The gospel is God's final word on how we can become inheritors of the kingdom that is coming.
Now let me make sure you understand.
Well Brent, what about the book of Revelation?
The book of Revelation prophesies about the events leading to the climactic event, but it does not change or add to the final redemption message which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The revelation doesn't come along to say, "Oh by the way, I forgot to tell you along with calling on the name of the Lord and being baptized into him and trusting the Lord, you also have to do this.
" It calls us to faithfulness, which is the same message as Hebrews.
The writer, the book of Hebrews is probably one of the best companion studies you'll ever have in relationship to the revelation that John received.
It's as if the writer of Hebrews is saying, "If you thought God spoke in the past to the Father in many creative ways, wait till you see how he's going to speak to us in these last days.
" The final word is going to be so amazing that it will eclipse in significance even the former ways in which God spoke.
That doesn't mean it sets them aside, it's just exponentially better, more revealing, more amazing, better in every way because he has spoken to us through his Son who is the heir of all things.
I mean the writer of Hebrews is screaming, "Shema Israel!
" Don't forget who you were, don't forget who you are, don't give up the heritage of people who heard the voice of God.
But the writer of Hebrews even hints at the tropes of the Son, meaning even in the sending of the Son, God used virtually every method possible to communicate who the Son is.
In fact, every prophetic message, every type that we find in the patriarch's life, every terminology that we find in the tabernacle, in the testimony, and the Torah, it's all about Yeshua.
Yeshua is the most creative.
It's just amazing how many creative ways he used to prepare us to come to the most creative expression of God's final word.
So why did God choose to speak in these last days by, through, and most importantly in the Son?
Because our redemption and inheritance is positional.
You can hear that you have redemption and the forgiveness of sins, but that redemption is only accessible once you are positioned in the Messiah.
Are you with me?
I can go put on, you know, God forbid, a Notre Dame Fighting Irish jersey.
Just God forbid, because I'm not a Notre Dame fan.
It has nothing to do with bashing Catholics.
I could have said the Arkansas Razorbacks, but some of you may be from Arkansas and it's a little too close.
But I can don, I can wear a Fighting Irish jersey or a hat or whatever.
It doesn't make me a genuine fan.
And it certainly doesn't just automatically make me a part of the team, does it?
You see, there's a lot of things that we can do.
The writer of Hebrews doesn't say that he comes and speaks by the Son, although that is definitely implied.
He doesn't come and say that he speaks through the Son, though that is also definitely implied.
Because the message of the Messiah, the fullness of the redemption, isn't that you heard something about him, but that having what you heard and what you heard is intentionally changed from outside to inside.
And I want to just throw this terminology out because we're going to come back to it here a little bit later.
We are the before and after, not God.
That'll hopefully make more sense to you when we get a little bit further in.
The Son is not just a prophetic message about the forgiveness of sins.
He is the source and the only source of forgiveness of sins.
And if you're not found in the Son, guess what you don't have?
You don't have the forgiveness of sins.
And if you don't have the forgiveness of sins, you have no right to the inheritance.
Because who does the inheritance come through?
The Father to the Son to us.
And so the question to keep, are you listening?
It's in him.
That's what makes him the greater revelation.
As such, he is God's final word and the most amazing thing God has ever said to us and the most amazing way that God has ever spoken to us.
The writer of Hebrews then tells us four significant things about, actually more than that, I think eight things actually, about God's final word.
First of all, very quickly, he is the Son, God's final word, the word which became flesh.
He is the Son.
Number two, he is the heir of everything.
And you don't earn the right to be an heir in any other manner than being, other than being in the Son.
You know, Tanya's father passed away this year.
My father passed away this year.
And guess what?
Y'all don't get nothing of their inheritance.
Not a dime.
You know why?
You're not their child.
You're not their son.
My inheritance is positional.
I inherit because I am a son or a daughter.
Not because I went out.
People can't line up and say, "Hey, we hear y'all are getting an inheritance.
We're going to do all these things and then you have to include us.
" No, they don't.
Are you in the family?
Do you bear the name?
Then you're not an inheritor.
Now, don't worry.
We're going to try to be generous.
Number three, he is the creator of everything.
The one who is the heir of everything is the heir of everything because he's the creator of everything.
John chapter 1 verse 3, "All things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.
" So everything that has come into being came through him.
Therefore, it belongs to him.
And he knows that which is his.
I've been going through a very strange experience in my office.
My dad shared an office with me and I have all of his books, all of his library, and every lesson, devotional, Sunday school class sermon he ever preached in his entire ministry.
And I've been going through the books and I just find myself sometimes going, "Dad, what were you thinking?
" I mean, you know how when you get a book you like stamp your name in the front?
My dad would stamp his name on the front, underneath the bottom, and multiple.
.
.
like, "Dad, are you just afraid of those roving bands of book thieves that break into preachers offices?
" And at some point you're gonna find yourself in a court, a criminal court, going, "Look, that's mine.
I can prove it on page 5 and 50 and 4.
" I just find myself going, "Dad, what are you doing?
I wanted to resell this book.
" The Father knows that which is his.
I don't know why my dad was so obsessed with doing that, but as obsessed as I think he is, he's not even half as obsessed as the Father in heaven who knows that which is his.
And how does he know?
You're either stamped with his name or you're not.
Come on.
And if you're not, you're not his.
The doctrine of Jesus in the book of Hebrews is 100% consistent with the doctrine of Jesus' deity as taught by Jesus himself, recorded by John, taught by Peter, taught by Paul.
This doctrine is the overwhelming, overarching topic of virtually everything you read in the New Testament.
People who come along and try to convince you, "Oh, Paul came along later and tried to add this subject.
" You've got to be kidding.
I got a whole library of books with my dad's name stamped on it you can read, and maybe that'll prove otherwise, but you don't really need to do that.
Just read your Bible.
Read what God has said.
Number four, he is the radiance of his glory, the manifestation of God's light.
John said he is the light and life of man.
He is not a reflection.
He is the radiance, meaning he is the light.
You and I were created in the image of God.
He is the image of God.
He's not a representation.
He's not a shadow.
He's the very substance.
That's the next one.
He says he is the exact representation of the substance of God.
He's not created in the image of God because he is God.
Remember Isaiah 7 14, we talked some weeks ago about why Jesus wasn't named Emmanuel, because Jesus is called Emmanuel, but he's not named Emmanuel because Jesus is Emmanuel.
That's how Jesus, being named Jesus, can fulfill the prophecy of the virgin birth and the Emmanuel prophecy, because that's what he is.
He is God with us.
And by the way, for all of those of you still struggling with the deity of Jesus, you are struggling with everything that God has spoken about him.
Your debate is not with me.
It's with God, the God who speaks and has spoken by, through, and in his son.
And I'm going to tell you right now, if you don't come to a place in your life where you have a before and after on that topic, you are going to have a miserable experience with the Lord.
You will never walk in the fullness of the inheritance of what it means to be a son if you don't come to trust what the Father has said by, through, and in the Son.
At some point there has to be a before and after.
I know you have questions because there's been so much has been written, so much that's been undermined.
We're going to try to discuss some of those things as we go, but at some point in time, if you cling to that doubt, if you cling to everything else that everybody else has written instead of what God has said, you're never going to come to certainty.
And there is no joy when there is no certainty.
Amen?
I said, "Amen?
" Brent's getting all feisty.
He is the number six.
He is the Word of God who upholds all things.
He is the power of God, which is the Word of God, because what God speaks must come to pass.
Number seven, he is the purification of sins.
He is the redemption.
He didn't complete an act of sacrifice.
He was the sacrifice.
He didn't complete an act of priestly service.
He is the great high priest.
He is the service.
He literally is the liturgy.
Number eight, he is the scepter of God's right hand.
He is the one who sat down at the right hand of God.
The Hebrews knew this as the place and the source of what is called tikkun olam, the redemption of all things.
And they even had segments of Judaism, even had a teaching as to who sits at the right hand of God and who brings about this restoration.
It's none other than Melchizedek.
Hmm.
Just one of the main subjects the writer of Hebrews is actually going to talk about, because it's a part of the inheritance.
All that is his will come to him because it is his.
So the writer of Hebrews lays out these eight reminders for the Hebrew readers that this is the one whom they have come to trust and their Redeemer and their Messiah.
This is how he has spoken to us in these last days.
But the writer knows if you're gonna speak about the God who speaks, it would be good to quote exactly what God has said.
Now before we reference these, what I'm gonna call the seven sacred texts, the writer is introducing, the Hebrew writer is introducing a very Hebrew method of juxtaposition, meaning he's gonna compare some things.
And he's gonna ask you some questions, he's gonna ask the reader some questions.
So let's look at verse 4, because it introduces the juxtaposition between the angels and the Son of God.
Now if you go read a Christian commentary, inevitably you're gonna read something about, "Well, the Jewish people had a lot of myths and traditions about angels and the worship of angels.
" Okay, that's not entirely false.
All right?
The Kabbalah and some of the mystics have, I mean, they have names for angels and you're like, "Well, where'd that come from?
" I mean, they have all sorts of traditions and things they've passed down.
So somewhere in the context of what it meant to be a Hebrew, there is a lot of tradition that was passed down about the angels.
But that tradition has to be clarified in light of what God has said.
And so verse 4 introduces a juxtaposition between the angels and the Son of God.
The verse continues in verse 4, "Having become as much better than the angels as he has inherited a more excellent name.
" So the point is that having sat down at the right hand of God, the Son has been revealed as superior in every way, even before the angels.
And he has inherited a more excellent name.
You know that I love God's Word.
You know that, right?
The writer of Hebrews uses an adjective to describe the Son who has taken dominion over the world because of who he is.
And here's why I just think it's so beautiful about God's Word.
The writer of Hebrews uses a Greek adjective that we translate better.
And it's the Greek word kraton.
Who cares?
But it's from the Greek word kratos or kratos, which means dominion.
Now wake up and think about this with me.
Whenever you read the writer of Hebrews, and he's gonna say repeatedly throughout the book, "Jesus is better.
" What is that word for better?
Where does it come from?
It comes from the word which means dominion.
And dominion is a kingdom word.
Dominion is a strength word.
That which is better is that which endures more, is stronger, is greater in significance.
That's what makes something better.
If it's better, it has greater dominion.
He literally uses an adjective to express the idea of better, and that very word takes us to the thing which says why Jesus is better.
Because he's the greater King of a greater kingdom.
Do you understand why I love God's Word?
The adjective itself points to the very topic that we're looking at.
And that's why sometimes we have to stop and I have to tell you what the original word meant or said.
Because sometimes our English just leaves some of those things out.
When something is better, it's better because it's stronger.
Now let me just insert here an important clarification.
Sometimes the English words we use to translate a word has assumptions that we attach to it that the Greek does not.
And I really want you to hear this point.
Let me give you two examples.
When the writer of Hebrews writes that the Son has become so much greater, when you and I hear the word "become," we hear a before and after statement, don't we?
Right?
It's natural.
I'm not throwing things at you.
Because that's how we use that word in the English language.
Let me give you another example from verse 2.
"Whom he appointed heir of all things.
" In our English thinking minds, when we hear the word "appointed," we also hear a before and after scenario, don't we?
Before the judge was appointed to the Supreme Court, he was not a Supreme Court justice.
So if we say he was appointed, there is a before and after because that's how we use that English word.
That's how the word "become" sounds to us.
That's how the word "appointed" sounds to us.
Church, please hear me.
That is not how the Greek words used here sound.
There is a before and after intended in this context.
But the before and after is not that God wasn't something and then he became something.
God never changes, and you better say amen.
The only people who have a before and after is us.
Come on.
We're the people who have a before and after.
So what is the Greek actually saying here?
The writer of Hebrews is talking about the before and after of the coming of that form of revelation that he is now.
There is a before and after.
In the previous days, he spoke this way.
Now in these days, he's speaking this way.
But guess what?
Same God, and he hasn't changed.
Oh, he just became the Word.
No, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning, and he was God.
Nothing changed.
What changed?
Him or us?
Us.
Because he chose to bring the revelation to us.
So the form of the revelation may be new to us, but it doesn't change who he is.
I hope that's helpful to you.
To be quite honest, it was very helpful to me as I was wrestling with this.
Because again, I know people wrestle with this topic, but these verses are not speaking about a before and after of who Christ is, but of how he was revealed.
Third question.
What has he spoken to and about the Son?
We're gonna look at seven sacred texts.
If you're taking notes, I'm gonna tell you which one it goes with each verse.
And we're not gonna go to the original text.
We're just gonna read what is written in the Hebrew, because we don't have time to parse out every one of these.
But look at verse 5.
It begins with a question.
"For to which of the angels did he ever say, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you?
'" Now you should know the answer to that question.
None.
Never happened.
He didn't say it.
So the writer of Hebrews is not only stressing what God did say, he's stressing what God didn't say by reminding us of what he did say.
Did you get that?
The writer of Hebrews asked a powerful question.
Did God ever say anything like this to the angels?
The writer of Hebrews is going to force the reader to consider a very pointed question.
How can God say this to a mere man?
How can a man be spoken to in this manner?
David wrote this Psalm, Psalm chapter 2 verse 7, and it is recognized as a messianic Psalm.
God asked, "Did you notice I don't say things like this to the angels?
" Now there's one thing I need to make sure you understand about Hebraic juxtaposition.
Hebraic juxtaposition isn't used to, you show the second to demean the first.
Are you with me?
A really good example of this is in John chapter 1 where we've all received grace upon grace, for the law came through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
The writer of Hebrews was using juxtaposition, not, he was talking about a chronology of one grace added and another grace even surpassing that grace.
It's not a conflict of grace, it's a chronology of grace.
So the writer of Hebrews isn't wanting to demean the ministry and service of angels, he's just wanting you to see it and understand it in the context of who they are and who Jesus actually is.
He didn't say to them, "Today you're my son.
" Second sacred text carries on, it's from 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 14, and again the writer of Hebrews says, "And again I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me.
" So both of these questions, these verses, are related to the fact that God who speaks never spoke such a question or made such a statement about the angels.
He only made such a statement about the Son.
So when we come to the third sacred text, Deuteronomy 32 43, that he's going to quote in Hebrews 1 6, it says, "And when he again brings the firstborn into the world," he says, "and let all the angels of God worship him.
" Now this is one of those verses where if you go to your English Old Testament and you say, "Well Brent just told me that's in Deuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 43," and I'm gonna flip over to my English version, Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 43, guess what?
You're not gonna find that verse.
What?
Oh my goodness.
There's a mistake in the Bible.
No, there's not.
I have to do a quick review.
The writer of Hebrews is quoting the Greek Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Torah and the Old Testament, which was translated 250 years before Jesus.
Okay?
So whenever you hear me talk about the Septuagint, you're talking about a translation that came from the Hebrew text into Greek 250 years before Jesus.
So if someone comes along and says, "Well he just added that so that he could make it sound like it was about Jesus.
" No, that verse was in the Greek text 250 years before Jesus was even born.
The English version you have is translated from Hebrew text that weren't finished until 900 years after Jesus.
And all he does is he expands the thought of the text.
You see the Masoretic text has the verse focusing on the Gentiles rejoicing, but the Septuagint adds that verse and let all the angels worship him.
Now why does that happen?
Is it because maybe 900 years later the Hebrew, the Jewish sages didn't have one of those older Hebrew manuscripts that included that?
We don't know.
But we know that we have a record of 250 years prior to Jesus of this verse which not only can celebrate the Gentiles rejoicing, but expands the idea of understanding that the angels would rejoice and worship him, which is exactly what Luke's Gospel says of that first night at the Tower of the Flock, Migdal-Eder, when the angels announced to the shepherds the birth of a king.
And the angels rejoiced.
So you're gonna throw that out because the Masoretic text leaves that one sentence out?
It's not worth it.
Trust the Lord.
He goes on with another in his string of pearls.
That's a rabbinic term where a string of pearls is where a rabbi will want to cite multiple verses, but he'll only cite maybe a phrase or a line and then kind of mush them together.
All right?
Sometimes that happens in the New Testament.
"Well he's misquoting that verse.
" No, he's just doing what the Hebrew Jewish rabbis do.
They mush them together to make the point.
I know you're wishing I would mush faster myself.
All right.
The fourth sacred text is from Psalm 104 verse 4.
Hebrews 1 7 says, "And of the angels," he says, "who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.
" So the writer highlights two points about the angels based on what God has spoken.
One, that they will worship the Son, and two, that the angels are servants and ministers.
They are servants and ministers.
They are not the Son.
Listen to me.
They are servants and ministers.
They are not the sovereign.
They are not the king.
In fact, they were created by him.
Genesis chapter 2, I believe verse 4 or 7 are in there, when he talks about how God created all the earth and their host.
If you go back and read rabbinic Jewish commentaries and writings about that topic, they will say that the host really means two things.
The physical stars of the universe and the angelic host of heaven who are to serve in this realm behind the scenes of the world that God has created.
The fifth sacred text is another Psalm, Psalm 45 67.
And the Hebrew writer uses it in verses 8 and 9 in this way.
"But of the Son," he says, "your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.
" Then he adds another pearl, the sixth sacred text, Psalm 102 verses 25 and 27.
And this is how he uses it in verses 10 through 12.
"And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain, and they will become old 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.
" I want you to think for a moment how the Hebrew writer is using that verse.
He is talking about the eternal nature of God, and he just referenced it to whom?
The Son.
And says this is what God said about the Son.
You know, all of this should be, hopefully, very reminiscent of what we were saying when we were going through John about how Jesus constantly said, "I only do what I see the Father doing.
I only say what I hear the Father speaking.
" When they ask him, "Well, what is the work that we should do?
" What did he say?
"Believe in the one whom he sent.
" It is the testimony of the Father about the Son.
The ministry of the angels in the creation and service of the creation is holy, but the ministry and service of the Son who created all things is forever.
Both Psalm 45 and Psalm 102 focus the Hebrew reader's minds on the eternal nature of the kingdom and its king.
The seventh sacred text is Psalm 110, and the writer of Hebrews uses it in verses 13 and 14 as he asks another question.
"But to which of the angels has he ever said, 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?
' Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
" There is so much we could say about Psalm 110.
This is the very Psalm that Yeshua stymies the Pharisees with in his last dialogue with them.
When Jesus finally gets fed up with their questions, he turns to this Psalm that says, "Today you are my son.
Sit at my right hand," and he starts asking questions they can't answer.
And I'll tell you why they couldn't answer.
They weren't listening to what the God who speaks was saying through his Son.
The writer concludes this section with two questions.
Which angels did God ever call to sit at his right hand?
That is the place every Hebrew thinker would know.
The right hand, that's where the tekkun olam comes from.
That's where Melchizedek sits.
That's where the King of Righteousness is.
That's where God exercises his power to redeem and save the world.
That's not the ministry of the angels.
That's the ministry of the sovereign whose kingdom is better.
How can you not see the greater way that God has spoken given the superiority of the Son to the angels?
This is what the writer of Hebrews is saying, and I repeat, because the angels are servants, but the Son is sovereign.
Later in Hebrews 8.
6, the writer of Hebrews will turn again to the topic of the greater ministry of the Son, Hebrews 8.
1, "But he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant," and he, parenthetically, if I might add, an eternal kingdom covenant, "which has been enacted on better promises," better kingdom dominion promises, because when he spoke to us through his Son, it was just better.
Worship team, you can come back.
So we close with our final question.
So what is the writer of Hebrews saying to us?
Well, he's implying a very specific question.
You have a heritage of being the people who heard the God who speaks.
I mean, I don't know who this man is, but as a Hebrew, I know this.
From his earliest childhood, he rose in the morning and recited, "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Achad," and before he closed his eyes at night, and it was the desire of every Jewish Hebrew person that the last words on their lips, even before death, would be these words, "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Achad," "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God," his whole heritage was about hearing what the God who speaks has said.
And now, having heard the good news of the gospel of Yeshua the Messiah, he gets to pen these words to his fellow Hebrew believers and remind them, "Don't stop listening.
That's our heritage.
Don't stop hearing what God has said.
Don't start believing that somebody else has replaced you in significance.
God is still looking for people who will worship him in spirit and truth, and the only way you can worship in spirit and truth is to be a listener, to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
The last phrase of chapter 1 are these words, "For the sake of those who will inherit salvation.
" You know, the writer of Hebrews could have chosen any other word, and there were many that would have fit there.
"For the sake of those who are inheriting the kingdom.
" He could have said, "For the sake of those who are inheriting eternal life.
For the sake of those who are in receiving peace from God.
" But instead he chose one word, the Greek word, "For salvation.
" How could a Hebrew reader, a Hebrew listener, not immediately hear that word, "Yeshua"?
Salvation.
The very name of his Son is salvation, and that word more than any other encompasses the entirety of what it means to inherit what the Father has created for those who are found in his Son.
We took time in the book of Philippians to read that amazing doctrine of the deity of Jesus, and how is our example of how to be disciples.
And I told you we would loop back to how Paul finishes out that section, and he does so with these words in Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11.
"For this reason God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that the name of Yeshua, Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
" He could have ended that sentence with any other word, but he chose the one that would immediately make the Hebrew reader, the Hebrew thinker, remember the name of the Son, who would remember God's final word.
Yeshua.
Salvation.
What?
What a beautiful name it is.
For there is no other name given in heaven on earth or under the earth whereby men might be saved, but by that beautiful name.
Shema Israel.
Are we listening to God's final word?
I invite you to stand, continue to worship with the angels as we celebrate the Son of God.