in the book of Hebrews this morning. We've been here in Hebrews for four weeks now, and we've made it through three verses, although we did spend a couple of weeks on the introduction. But we haven't been moving too fast. This morning, I wanted to change that, and I had hoped to get through the end of chapter one this morning. Well, that's not going to happen. But we're going to make some good progress. We're going to get about halfway there with the goal of finishing chapter one next week. And this is how I suspect it's going to go as we continue throughout this book. There will be parts of Hebrew that will be very slow in. And then there will be other parts that will move through a little more quickly. So let's begin this morning by reading. And I am going to read the entire first chapter. Hebrews chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds. and his ministers a flame of fire. But of the Son, he says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you. with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. but you are the same and your years will have no end. And to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? So let's quickly review the first three verses. We've covered these, but our text this morning builds on them. So it's good to have them fresh in our minds. In verse one, the writer, or the preacher, remember Hebrews is more a sermon than it is a letter. He begins by telling us how God previously revealed himself to us. God used to speak by giving his message through specific men, the prophets, who then relayed it to the people. At many times, and in many ways, he progressively revealed himself and his plan more and more, all leading up to the time when God revealed himself in a much different way, and a superior way. In these last days, which refers to our current age, He has spoken by His Son. And this is superior, not because the old way was flawed, but because it was incomplete. In the old revelation, we were told about God. In this new revelation, God himself has visited us in the person of his son. And here the writer asserts that the son, the person we know as Jesus of Nazareth, was God in every way. He had all the authority of God. That's what it means when it says that he was appointed the heir of all things. He was the creator of the world, and that makes Him God. In verse 3, He has the nature of God, and that is reflected in His glory. He also exercises sovereign control over the entire universe. He upholds it by the word of His power. that he makes purification for sins, hints at his high priestly role, that he represents us to God, and he is perfectly suited for that because he is God. And in this last statement in verse three, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And this includes elements of both his kingship and his priesthood. As he is there at the father's right hand, in position to represent us and to make intercession for us. And all of these qualities of the Son, His authority, His role in creation, His nature, His sovereign control, His priesthood and His kingship, this is the God who revealed Himself to us when the Son became a man. And this new revelation is better than the old revelation. And that brings us to verse four. And verse four leads us into the rest of the chapter. Verse four says, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. And then the rest of the chapter is mostly Old Testament scripture that the writer uses to explain and expand on this truth. But why angels? Why does the writer bring them into this and make this comparison? When I introduced Hebrews a few weeks ago, I suggested that angels are the greatest created beings. They are the next greatest thing after God. Abner Chao calls them the runners-up. And they are that. but they're a very distant second. So it makes sense, if you wanted to show the superiority of the sun, to compare him to the next most impressive thing that exists. Not that the angels make a good comparison for the Son, because he so far exceeds them. As Tim pointed out in the call to worship, he is categorically better than them. He's not just like them, but better. He is significantly different from who they are. But there's nothing else, nothing that's closer to the Son than the angels. But there's something more that's going on here than just that. There's something about angels that ties in with the previous verses. In those verses, the message was that the sun is greater than the word given by the prophets. Then here in verse four, as part of the same flow of thought, the message is that the sun is greater than the angels. And these two ideas are related. The angels have a connection to the word given through the prophets. So when the writer says here in verse 4 that the sun is superior to the angels and has a more excellent name than they have, it's a continuation of the truth that he's been stating from the beginning. new way of speaking through the Son is superior to the old way, which is by the prophets, but also in some way associated with angels. So how? How are the angels related to the word given in the Old Testament? What's the connection there? Well, the first thing we might note is that angel means messenger. Now, the word angel came to include all heavenly beings, regardless of their function, but this word that is applied to them, angel, means messenger. And we might recognize that, but I think most of us think of the messenger role of angels as being, or as relating to the handful of instances in scripture where an angel is sent by God to deliver a message to a specific person. In Luke 1, for instance, it says that in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin who was Mary. And then the angel gave her a message from God. The angel was the messenger. And we've seen similar things with an angel delivering specific messages to Daniel the prophet, or to Joseph, Jesus' earthly father, or to the shepherds in the field. But were the angels also involved in giving the Word of God beyond these specific instances? Now some of the writings of the rabbis show that they believed that the angels were involved in giving the law. They weren't suggesting that the angels contributed to writing the law or anything like that. But they believed that angels played a role in delivering it to Moses. And their writings reflected that. And the Jewish Christians, who Hebrews was written to, they certainly would have been familiar with that teaching. So they would have easily made this connection between angels and the Old Testament revelation. But it's not just that the word angel means messenger and that there were some rabbinical teachings that connected angels to the giving of the law. The New Testament supports this idea as well. In Galatians 3, verse 19, Paul is discussing the role of the law. He writes, why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. In other words, God gave us the law to show us our sin, to prepare us for the offspring, who is Jesus the Son. But then look what he says. And it, that is the law, was put in place through angels by an intermediary. Now, that's as much as Paul says about it here. He didn't explain how it was put in place through angels, but it's clear that the angels were involved somehow. Stephen said something similar at the end of his sermon in Acts 7, verse 53. He said, Now, it wasn't the point that Stephen was making that the law was delivered by angels. So he doesn't elaborate on it. But he does affirm it. In some way, the law was delivered by angels. Both Paul and Stephen said that it was. And we can be confident that the writer of Hebrews is thinking in these terms too, because he says so in chapter two. Listen to what he writes, starting in verse two of chapter two. For since the message, declared by angels, proved to be reliable. What message? What message is he referring to? Well, it's the same message in chapter one, verse one. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. That message. Only here he characterizes that message as being declared by angels. And then he contrasts that message with what was declared at first by the Lord and then attested to us by his apostles. In other words, what God has spoken to us by the Son. The two ways of speaking in the opening verses of chapter two correspond to the two ways of speaking in the opening verses of chapter one. And we'll deal with that in more detail in a couple of weeks, if the Lord wills. But I want you to see that the point the writer is leading up to has to do with the message associated with angels from the Old Testament and the message associated with the Son from the New Testament. This is why he goes to such lengths in the rest of chapter one to show that the Son is superior to angels. Because if you thought it was important to stay true to the law of God declared by angels, How much more important is it to remain true to the gospel of the Son, the Lord Jesus, who is as much superior to those angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs? That's where he's going with this. Now, broadly speaking, there are two ways that the Son is categorically greater than the angels. And these two ways encapsulate everything. One way is positionally, and the other is practically. Jesus' position is described when the writer says that the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. As God, as the Son, his position is infinitely greater than that of an angel, and it's reflected in his name. But it's not just positionally that he's superior, it's also practically. It's real, it's actual. And this is what the writer means when he says that the son is as much superior to the angels as his name is more excellent than theirs. In practice, he is as superior to them as he is in position. That is essentially what verse four is saying. That the son has proven himself to be worthy of his position. He is high and lifted up. He is highly exalted and has the name that is above every name, including angels. And He deserves it. He is worthy of it. In our world today, a lot of people will look at someone who is in a privileged position, who enjoys certain benefits because of that position, and they might think, they don't deserve that. It's nothing but happenstance that he happens to be in that position while somebody else is less privileged. When it comes to the Son of God, nothing could be further from the truth. He is as much superior to the next best thing, the angels, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. So both are true. The Son is greater in position and in practice. And the writer is going to spend the rest of the chapter using scripture to elaborate on this point. In verses five through nine, he's gonna focus on how the son's position is greater than that of the angels. And then in verses 10 through 14, he will focus on how the son is superior in practice to. So the rest of chapter one can generally be divided this way. But even as he's affirming the superiority of the son, both in position and in practice, the writer is also proving the other statements that he made about the son in verses two and three. In verse two, he said that the Son was appointed heir to all things. In verses five through nine, he shows from scripture that he is the begotten Son and everything that that entails. Also in verse two, the Son is presented as the creator. It was through the Son that God the Father created the world. And in verse 10, he quotes Psalm 102 to show that the sun created both the earth and the heavens. In verse 3, the writer highlights the sun's glory, that he is the exact imprint of God's nature. In verses 11 and 12, he shows, again from Psalm 102, that the Son is eternal by nature, as only God is. Still in verse 3, he says that the Son sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And in verse 13, he quotes Psalm 110. The father said to the son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The writer has quite masterfully composed this section to prove scripturally every claim that he made about the son in the first four verses. If you have any regard for the Old Testament, as the Jewish Christians this is written to certainly did, then you can't help being persuaded of the truth of that opening paragraph. So during the rest of our time this morning, we're going to consider verses five through nine. And then next week, if the Lord wills, we'll finish the chapter. So let's start out in verse 5 of Hebrews 1, where he quotes from Psalm 2, verse 7. He's beginning to establish the son's rightful and superior position, and to show that he is indeed the heir to all things. He introduces the quote by asking, rhetorically, for to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? And the answer, of course, is none. This honor, this standing, this position is reserved for the second person of the Trinity, God the Son. This passage from Psalm 2 is challenging. Now, if it only said, you are my son, and stop there, then we wouldn't have any trouble with it. We understand that as much as a man can understand that. We're familiar with this relationship between God the Father and God the Son. We hear about that all the time. But when he adds, Today I have begotten you. Then it becomes a challenge. So what did he mean? Today I have begotten you. Begotten is a verb here. That means it's an action. It means that someone does something. Now, in other familiar passages, like John 3, 16, begotten is an adjective, his only begotten son. And so there, it's easier to conclude that it only describes the relationship between the father and the son, the way that they relate to each other. But as a verb, It means to become a father. That's the dictionary definition of both the Hebrew word in the original Psalm 2 and the Greek translation of Psalm 2 that the writer used here in Hebrews. And when he specifies, today I have begotten you, that, at least on the surface, seems to suggest that this was an event that took place at a point in time. So how are we supposed to understand that? The key is going to be to understand how the writer of Hebrews is interpreting the word today in the psalm. Whatever today means is going to go a long ways in explaining what it means that the Father has begotten the Son. And there are at least six different possibilities that are proposed. First, the birth of Jesus is an obvious suggestion, that He became the Son when He was born. Second, at both Jesus' baptism and His transfiguration, the Father seems to quote the first part of Psalm 27. He says, you are my beloved Son, and then at the transfiguration, this is my beloved Son. So either or both of those have also been suggested. Third, in Acts chapter 13, the Apostle Paul preached a sermon. And in the sermon, he quoted this same passage, Psalm 2 verse 7. And he says there, in verse 33 of Acts 13, this he has fulfilled, by raising Jesus. So Jesus' resurrection is another good suggestion. Fourth, others have pointed out that Psalm 2 seems to have been used at the king's coronation in Israel in the Old Testament. and that the king, in some sense, became the son of God when he became king. So, some have suggested that Jesus was given the title God, I'm sorry, the title son, when he ascended. That is, when he was seated at the father's right hand. And that is when he was given the name that is above every other name, the name that is more excellent than the angels. And that name is Son. Now I want to point out that most of those who hold to any of these four viewpoints are quick to say that they are not suggesting that Jesus wasn't always and eternally the Son. This wouldn't be Jesus becoming the Son, but rather it would be an affirmation. or the inauguration of some specific role that he took on as the son. And that's important. Jesus was always the son, even with these interpretations. A fifth suggestion is what's called the eschatological now. And that refers to this present age, these last days. And this view would be that there's no specific day, no specific time that Psalm 2, verse 7 refers to, but that Jesus' sonship is particularly important in this age. Now all of these are really interesting. And there are some very good, and in some cases, biblically sound arguments to be made for each of these. And I would love to spend the next three or four weeks exploring them with you. But we're not gonna do that. I will just say that there are aspects of each of these that are related to Jesus being the Son. But the problem with understanding any of these to be specifically what the writer has in view here in Hebrews is that they really don't advance his argument. They don't make his case. The writer is not saying that Jesus became the Son or even was affirmed as the Son as a result of what he did. Instead, the writer's argument is that Jesus could only do these things because he was the Son. His being the Son had to come first. That is why he is the perfect revelation of God. Because he is, and always has been, the Son. So there's a sixth possibility. And this is what I believe is intended here. There is a doctrine called the eternal generation of the Son. Generation here does not mean a group of people who are about the same age. And it doesn't mean a period of time, the way generation is used in other places. In this sense, generation means the act of generating something. The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son states that the Son is eternally generated by the Father. And this doctrine was affirmed by the Nicene Creed. It was affirmed by the London Baptist Confession, the Westminster Confession, the Belgic Confession. It's Orthodox Christianity. It doesn't mean that the son is continually being bodily born or that he's constantly regenerated or anything like that. Nor does it suggest that the son is an extension of the father in any way that denies the son's personhood. What it does mean is similar to what we mean when we say that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Father and also from the Son. In fact, Jesus said that about the Spirit in John 15, verse 26. He called the Holy Spirit the helper, The Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father. Now, he's not describing something here that happened at a point in time, but rather something that has always been true. The Spirit proceeds from the Father eternally. And the Son, likewise, is begotten by the Father eternally. So today is today, and every other day, and all days together, and before there were even days. The father begets the son. That is why he is the exact imprint of the father's nature. It's not that it just happens that they have identical natures. This is why he could tell Philip, if you see me, you've seen the Father, because the Son is eternally begotten by the Father. The second Old Testament quote at the end of verse five seems, at least on the surface, to just largely restate the first, an affirmation of Jesus as the Son. But really it's saying something significant beyond what the first one says, or in addition to what the first one says. Because it comes from the Davidic covenant. That is, the covenant that God made with David that deals with the coming Messiah. So this is not an affirmation of the eternal sonship of Jesus, as the previous passage was, but rather that the Son of God is the Son who fulfills the messianic promises that God made in the Old Testament. And this is a specific example of what the writer said in verses 1 and 2. Long ago, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, just as He did in 2 Samuel 7 when He spoke this covenant to David by the prophet Nathan. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. as he has done when the Son came as the Messiah. And this current revelation, the Son coming as Messiah, is superior to when Nathan merely relayed the promise. So positionally, he is eternally the Son of God, and he is anointed the Messiah. One has always been, you are my son, I have begotten you. The other is forward-looking, from when it was spoken in the Old Testament. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. Now, this is barely scratching the surface of the Davidic covenant. There are two sermons on our website from 2 Samuel 7 that deal with this in more detail if you're interested. In verse six, the writer calls the son the firstborn. Now, this is not so much a statement of birth order as it is about standing. The firstborn is the heir. To call him the firstborn further bolsters the son's position. He is the eternal son, he is the Messiah, and he is the heir of all things, the firstborn. Another thing that I want to point out here in the first part of verse six, the word again in the Greek is best understood as modifying brings. The sense of it is when he, the father, again brings the firstborn into the world. It's a reference to the second coming, not to Jesus' birth. And that, when the Son returns, that is when He says, let all God's angels worship Him. Not that they aren't worshiping Him right now, because they are. But when the Son returns, that is the time when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. And that is why the writer shows us here that the most majestic of all created beings are going to worship Him then as well. And all worship is due Him because of who He is, because of His position, because He is eternally the begotten Son, because He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, because He is the firstborn, the heir of all things, and he is the rightful king who will one day return to establish his fully realized kingdom. That is quite a contrast to angels. Not only are these angels called to worship the sun, but their role, their position is seen in the next verse, in verse seven. Of the angels, he says, He makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. And this comes from Psalm 104, verse four. When God makes the angels winds and a flame of fire, it's probably a reference to a role that they will play in judgment, the wind and the fire. But there's also a sense of evanescence here. Evanescence is something that doesn't change. To be evanescent is the opposite of eternal. Winds and fires can be tremendous, but they lack permanence. They fade away. And not that the angels are going to fade, but they are not eternal by nature, not in the way that God is, that the sun is. The other thing in this verse is that it's God who makes them do what they do. He directs them. They are His ministers. That is their role. That is their position. That's not to disparage them. They have a privileged role in serving God as they do. but they do serve. They are nothing like the sun. But the writer's point is not to contemplate angels, nor should it be ours. So he quickly returns the focus to the sun. And here, using Psalm 45, verses six and seven, he shows that the sun is far above the angels. In this passage, we see more affirmation of the deity of the Son. He is God. We see his permanence, the stability and the constancy of his rule, his eternality. And we see his anointing as the Messiah. And then, at the end of this quoted passage, something interesting, his companions, Who are these companions? Well, they aren't angels. It would make no sense, after insisting on their inferiority to the sun, to now call them his companions. So who are they? They must be those that Hebrews 2 verse 10 refers to as many sons. The many sons that he brings to glory. The next verse, Hebrews 2 11, says that he is not ashamed to call them brothers. And if you look at Hebrews 3.14, he refers to those who come to share in Christ. The word share here in Hebrews 3.14. Other translations have it partakers in Christ. It's a form of the same word as companions back in chapter one. That is who these companions are. It refers to those who share or partake in Christ, those whom he has brought in as sons, those he calls brothers. The point is that he is beyond or above his companions, but we are his companions if we share in him, if we share in Christ. And the writer here is laying groundwork for the exhortation that's to come in chapter two, when he warns us not to neglect this salvation. That completes the first portion of this text. where the writer proves from scripture that the son is positionally superior to the angels. Eternally the son, the Messiah, the firstborn heir of all things, and the rightful king who will soon return to establish his throne forever. Next week we're going to continue, and we'll see from the Old Testament Scripture that the Son is also superior in practice, in every conceivable way, to the angels. But now we're going to transition to a remembrance of the crowning achievement of the Son's entire ministry, the focal point of all redemptive history. That is our Lord's death. He asked us to remember his death and to remember it often. He gave us a specific way to do so. He gave us this supper. He gave us the bread to represent his body, which he willingly sacrificed in our place. A perfect, spotless lamb was the only sacrifice that could atone for our sin, and he was the only one that could provide it. And he did. He gave us the cup to represent his blood. Scripture says that blood must be shed in order that sin can be forgiven. That is the penalty for sin, and it must be paid. Jesus shed his blood for our sin. The cup reminds us of that. The Lord gave this remembrance to believers, to those who are in him, partakers in Christ. If you have put your faith in Him to save you from your sin, if you have received the free gift of salvation by His grace, then this is for you. But partake in a worthy manner, consistent with Jesus' purpose in giving it to us, to remember Him, to remember His death. Don't make it into something different. And don't cheapen it by partaking flippantly, without really considering our Lord and what He endured on the cross. So now I'm going to pray.