Sojourn New Albany Podcast

I talk with my mom typically on a weekly basis.  Our conversations are related to five basic questions with a few others mixed in.  First question, how are you?  Second question, how is the family?  Third question, how are the plants?  She is good with plants and I would like to be good with them.  Fourth question, who have you run into that I know?  Fifth question, how is the money?  I only talk with my mom about this one because my father is no longer living.  Since he is no longer with us, I help her navigate some of her financial decisions but typically I direct her to professionals that can help her navigate these decisions.  I am neither a financial professional nor the son of one for that matter.  So I direct her to such people.  

A few months ago, my mother began speaking with me about the need to meet with a lawyer.  She started articulating the need for a lawyer because of the inevitably of life and her possessions.  My mom found a lawyer in Bloomington and this man began writing up documents.  She asked that my younger brother and I look over the documents and provide feedback.  Much of our discussions have been related to inheritance.  

I have had these types of discussions with my mother and members of her family since I was young.  I remember walking through a hay field with my mom growing up and us talking about her desire that I inherit the 17 acres of land that I grew up on.  My mom’s mother, my grandmother who I speak about often used to talk with me about the lack of inheritance that I would receive from her.  In essence she would say, “My son I have nothing but if I have anything it is yours.”  She had nothing to pass down to me but I knew that because I was her grandson and she loved me, what she had was mine.  And this summer, my uncle, my mom’s brother and I were talking on the phone.  I asked him if he still had property in Egypt.  He said that he did not.  He sounded upset as he began to speak about it saying that he had to sell the property though he tried to pass it on to family members.  He wanted to provide members of his family with property instead of selling it to someone outside of the family.  

In all of these instances, I had multiple conversations with members of my family about passing on an inheritance.  The possession of family belongings, typically in the form of land, house, or apartment, etc.  And the criteria for the inheritance.  The passing on of these estates was based on who someone was.  You might say their identity.  In my interactions, it was based on who I am in relation to the person who possessed or in the case of my grandmother, did not possess, something.  The inheritance was related to who I am.  And not what I have done.

In Christianity, we Christians speak about inheritance.  One of the key elements about being a Christian is you become more and more familiar with the reality that you will die.  And you have an inheritance waiting on you.  A Christian has an eternal inheritance because they belong to the Lord Jesus and he has an eternal inheritance.  Similar to us, his eternal inheritance is based on who he is.  And similar to us, it is based on his relationship to God the Father.  With respect to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he has an inheritance based on who he is, the Son of God, but also what he has done, he has completed the work that God has given him to do.  

And what are the reasons from this passage that show us that the Lord Jesus is better than the angels?

First, because of what he became.

Second, because of his superior work.

Third, because of his superior inheritance.  

Explanation --  Have you ever climbed to the top of a mountain and then looked out from that spot?  Have you ever been able to look out on top of a very high point and see the scenery below?  Have you ever been able to capture a vista or some high point in nature?  If you have, you know that there is something about being high up that gives you clarity from that vantage point.  There are high points in the Bible that provide that type of clarity.  The three highest points or the three highest peaks in the New Testament in my opinion are the Gospel of John, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and the book of Hebrews.  And in the book of Hebrews, these first openings are the highest point of this mountain.  These verses summarize everything in the Bible for us.  And in a few words in this verse, the writer of Hebrews summarizes everything that our Lord Jesus did in his earthly life.  Look with me at the beginning of verse 4, “So he became…”  

In these three English words, the writer of Hebrews summarizes the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We know from the opening three verses, that the Lord Jesus is the Creator of all things.  He made the universe.  He is the eternal God who made all things both visible and invisible as Paul says in Colossians 1.  But at some point in time, this eternal God became a man.  He took upon himself flesh as the apostle John says in John 1:14.  He was born of the virgin Mary.  He would grow up being raised by two faithful parents.  He would have had to learn to walk and learn to talk.  This eternal God at some point in time.  At a real point in time.  Became a man.  He took on human flesh.  Or as Hebrews says it, so he became.  

Illustration -- TBA

Argumentation -- These three words summarize the core content of the Christian message.  Something actually happened and it wasn’t an accident.  God became a man not because of some whim that he had.  He didn’t become a man as if he wanted some new experience.  He didn’t become a man because he had an idea pop into his head.  It wasn’t that God had a thought to become a man but never followed through with it.  No, God promised that he would become a man and he followed through on the promise in real time and space.  And he had a purpose in becoming a man.  He planned on being born in Bethlehem to fulfill a promise he made to his people and it actually happened.  He planned on being born to a virgin teenage girl because of a promise that he made to his people and it actually happened.  He planned on growing up 96 miles north of Bethlehem to keep a promise he made to his people and it again, it actually happened.  He planned on traveling with his mother and adopted father to Jerusalem to keep the Jewish Feasts that Moses, his servant, instructed the faithful Israelites to celebrate.  He planned on walking past blind men, dead girls, and those possessed by demons to keep a promise he made to his people.  Christianity is built on three words that summarize the entire purpose-filled and factual life of the Lord Jesus.  So he became.  

Application -- We learn from these three words something that is true about the Christian faith, it is a factual faith.  Christanity hinges on a fact.  God actually became a man.  A real man.  And he lived in a real place.  At a real time.  Christiantiy is not based on the fanciful ideas of people.  But on what really happened in time and space.  Our faith is a factual faith.  It is a story but it is a true life story of a Jewish man who was the adopted son of a carpenter who was married to his earthly mother and he grew up in northern Israel.  We learn from these three words that our faith is a factual faith.  The fact that God became a man is true regardless of what you and I say about it.  The fact that God became a man is true regardless of what you say about it.  

Truth and facts have been under attack since the serpent asked the question, “Has God really said…” in Genesis 3.  At this particular moment in time, what a person wants to be true is all that really matters or so people claim.  So there is this impulse that says, “I get to decide what is true for me.  And the way that I decide what is true for me is based on my desires.  Based on my personal preference.  And no one can call that into question.”  Your personal preferences matter at one level.  I have a personal preference for spicy food and thus, that matters when I sit down to eat something.  My preference in foods is like my preference in preaching, it must hiss with heat.  But my personal preference for all types of spice has limits to it.  What I prefer for my taste buds doesn’t and shouldn’t matter to you and your taste buds or lack thereof if you don’t like spicy food.  But there is a limit to what I can determine and decide for myself.  If I decide that I am 6 years old that doesn’t change that I am not.  Based on the fact that I was born in 1978, which may seem like it was 6 years ago but it is not in fact 6 years ago.  The truth is, based on the facts that regardless of what I have decided for myself, I am not in fact 6, I am 44 based on the fact that I was born in 1978.  

Christians are people who have a factual faith.  We have placed our faith in the fact that God became a man.  And one of the values that Christians have is that we are people who hold that something is true regardless of what we or another person says about it.  What I prefer has limits to it.  We need to resist the impulse of our day that says, “You decide what is true for you.”  There are limits to what we can decide is true.  The fact that God became a real man at a real moment in time is a truth that is outside of me.  It is a fact and those who are wise well embrace a fact that is summarized in three words, “So he became.”

Explanation -- As this verse continues, Hebrews will begin doing something that will continue throughout this entire book.  He will make a comparison.  Look with me again at verse 4, “So he became as much superior to the angels.”  This comparison and contrast of the Lord Jesus to angels will be the focus of the rest of chapter 1 and will continue again into chapter 2 of this book.  And that is a comparison between the Son of God and the angels of God.  Here is says that our Savior and Lord is superior to the angels.  Now that may be something that is true but what is the reason he would say that?  What relevance does the angels have to these people?  Angels are fine and all but what difference would they make to these people?  

These are Jewish Christian from a Jewish background.  Their Jewish faith and upbringing placed an emphasis on those who served God in a special way.  And the angels served God in a special way.  So special that the Jews during the time of Hebrews would speak about the law of Moses that it was given to them through the angels.  The words of Stephen in Acts 7:53 show this is the case, “You who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”  Stephen was speaking to the Jewish high priest and the other Jewish religious leaders of his day.  The angels were highly regarded at this time because they were messengers of God’s message.  You may remember that in Daniel 9, the prophet Daniel is praying to God and the angel Gabriel shows up to deliver a message that God had heard his prayer and then Gabriel delivered him a message about future events that would come to pass including the life of the Lord Jesus.  The angel Gabriel was also sent by God to an old man named Zechariah in Luke 1 to tell him that his wife Elizabeth would have a son who would be known as John the Baptist and he would prepare the world for the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus.  And the angel Gabriel was sent by God with another message, this time to a young teenage girl named Mary to tell her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and he would give birth to a son, the Savior of humanity, the Son of God, and she is to name him Jesus.  Gabriel is just one of the angels that had important work to do.  Gabriel is the angel that God chose to deliver very important messages at important times in history.  

Illustration -- TBA.

Argumentation -- But Gabriel is a servant of God chosen from time to time to speak.  He is not God himself.  The other angels are given an assignment from time to time to serve God in other ways.  To serve our Lord Jesus after his temptation by the devil according to Matthew 4:11.  To worship the Lord in the heavens like Isaiah witnessed in Isaiah 6:1-3.  To execute judgment on the Egyptians according to Exodus 12:23.  Angels serve the Lord and his people when they are called upon.  And though they serve God and God’s people well, in comparison to the Lord Jesus, they are inferior. 

The angels are given an assignment by God but they are not God.  But Jesus is.  They are created by God but they are not the Creator God.  But Jesus is.  The angels live and work in the universe but the Lord Jesus is the one who upholds the universe.  The angels when they are chosen serve humanity but the God the Son chose himself to become a human.  The angels are not worshiped by Christians because they have not done work worthy of our worship.  But Jesus has.  When you compare the servants of God, the angels, to God himself, Christ Jesus, there is no real comparison.  

Application -- Christian we can be thankful for those who serve God.  But our thankfulness is directed towards God for a gift that he has given.  That gift might be a servant of the Lord.  But that is what they are, a servant of the Lord.  We resist the temptation to make anyone or anything created by God a substitute for God himself.  We are people who serve a God who became a man.  He took upon himself a responsibility that he never handed over to an angel.  And that is to deal with our sins.  God calls on others to serve him and we can express thanks for those who serve but we keep them in the right places.  They are servants of the Lord, given an assignment by God to fulfill his plans at a specific time and place.  I am not saying that you can’t express thanks or give a word of encouragement to another person and their acts of service.  And for that matter, I am also not saying that you have to quantify any expression of thanks with the most theologically accurate language.  “I am thankful to God for your service.  Though it is not you who serve because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.  And this is not of you because you didn’t have anything to do with it” and so on.  What I am saying is within your heart of hearts, place the servants of the Lord, whether they are angels or people, in their right place.  They are servants.  But they are not Jesus.  Anytime a Christian places one of God’s servants on the pedestal of their hearts.  Exalts them on the throne of their hearts, they walk away from the situation dejected, disappointed, and hurt.  And some of those people walk away from the Christian faith all together.  Whatever work a servant of the Lord has done, what the Lord Jesus has done for you is better.  He speaks to you.  He made you.  He sustains you.  He died for you.  And he lives for you.  

Illustration -- A couple of months ago, I received my copy of a collection of legal documents.  My mother’s last will and testament, durable power of attorney, and a document identifying me as her health care representative should she need one.  I looked it over and my brother and I were appointed to make sure all her debts and taxes are paid from her estate.  Because you know, the government has bills to pay too.  And then there is paperwork that identifies me as having certain decision making responsibilities in particular circumstances and under particular conditions.  If I can’t make them for whatever reasons then my brother has been selected to make those decisions.  I looked over portions of these documents multiple times recently and I was selected and identified as one of my mother’s children.  The inheritance I and for that matter, my brother would receive is based on who we are in relationship to her.  And there was no mention of what I have done to earn an inheritance.  I was selected to be the initial person to make decisions for my mom should she need that and my brother was selected as the alternative not because of anything I have done in comparison to him.  What I have done to earn the right to make decisions on her behalf should she need that was never identified.  No mention of the ways that I have made decisions in the past and how that demonstrates that I am a man worthy of making decisions in the future.  No, I was selected simply because of who I am and not what I have done.  

Explanation -- Now the writer of Hebrews will say that the Lord Jesus is greater than the angels because of who he is and what he has done.  Look with me at this verse in its entirety, “So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.”  Here the writer of Hebrews says that the name that the Lord Jesus has inherited is superior to the name of the angels.  Now what does that mean?  As I mentioned in the first point, the eternal Son of God took upon himself human flesh to complete a mission.  In Matthew 1:21 one of the angels was given an assignment to tell Joseph, the man engaged to Mary the mother of our Lord, that his soon to be wife would give birth to a son and he was to give him the name of Jesus because he would save his people from their sins.  His mission was to save his people.  And he accomplished that mission.  The Lord Jesus died on a cross.  He dealt with sin, Satan, and death by his work on the cross and through his resurrection.  He has been raised from the dead and now.  As in right now, he is exalted and is seated at the right hand of God.  He finished the work that God gave him to do while he was here on the earth.  And there is nothing left to do on the earth for the sins of his people. .  

Argumentation --  The work is finished.  The Lord Jesus is exalted at the right hand of God.  He is alive right now but his work on the earth is done.  And he has inherited a name.  God the Father has given the Son a title.  An inheritance that he has rightly earned.  He has done something that no one else has done.  None of God’s human servants have withstood the temptations of the devil.  But the Lord Jesus has.  None of God’s angelic servants have died for sinners.  But the Lord Jesus has.  None of God’s servants have been buried in a sinless state and then been raised from the dead by their own power.  But the Lord Jesus has.  And because he has done this work.  He put in the time and he deserves all that is rightly his.  And that is all our worship.  All our praise.  And that is having every one of us and for that matter everyone everywhere confess what is the truest of truths, that Jesus Christ is Lord.