Grace Fellowship 10/15/06 The Son vs. the Angels Heb 1:4-14
I want to ask a review question before we begin today's message. Last week, we looked at the first three verses of the book of Hebrews, and we said that Christianity is superior to Judaism as well as every other religion inn the world. Why is that not an arrogant or prideful statement? Because it is a statement about the superiority if Christ, and not of Christians. We all know Christianity is superior in spite of us, and because of who Jesus Christ is.
Today, we launch into the first of several comparisons that Hebrews presents in order to display the superiority of Christ. The author begins these comparisons by proving that Jesus is superior to angels. So turn with me please to Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1-14. Let's read these verses together.
There is much emphasis today on the topic of angels, demons, spirits, ghosts, etc. There are all kinds of TV shows and movies that use angels, both holy and fallen angels, as their main characters. Many books have been written to turn our attention to these spiritual beings, and very few of them are actually biblical. So it seems that not much has changed since the first couple of centuries when it comes to emphasizing these exalted angelic beings.
For most of us, when the author of Hebrews speaks of Christ's superiority to angels, he is preaching to the choir. We have no problem believing that. We understand, just as has been stated in verse 2, that Christ is the Creator of all things, including angels. We understand the deity of Christ, as it is also stated in verse 3. So for the writer to spend the next eleven verses proving the inferiority of angels to Christ from the Old Testament scriptures is, to us, somewhat of a statement of the obvious. We might get to the end of this chapter and say, "Tell me something I don't already know."
So why does he spend so much time on this subject that isn't really much of a problem for most Christians? Because what may be obvious to us was not so obvious to his readers, his fellow Jews. How many of you have heard of that obscure little book, The DaVinci Code? You are probably aware that that book and the subsequent movie were the result of one man's overactive imagination and a heavy dose of Gnosticism. During the first few centuries of the church, Gnosticism became a very serious doctrinal threat to the spiritual health of the Christian church. There were many Gnostic sects throughout the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. According to one source, a partial list of known Gnostic groups during the first three centuries include the Simonians, Menandrianists, Basilidians, Carpocratians, Saturnilians, Marcionists, Valentinians, Ptolemaeus, Marcosians, Barbelo-Gnostics, Sethians, Ophites, and Naassenes.
All of these various sects had peculiar beliefs that set them apart from one another, but one of the more commonly held beliefs between them is their belief in angels as the creators of the world. Here is an excerpt which will give you an idea of what kinds of false doctrines were being espoused among the Jews in the years during and shortly after the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews:
"Basilides taught that there is an unborn and nameless Father, from whom proceeded by emanation a whole series of principalities and angels, who occupy 365 heavens. The angels who dwell in the lowest heaven, namely, that which is visible to us, formed all the things that are in the world, and made allotments among themselves of the nations that are on the earth. The chief of these angels is thought to be the God of the Jews. This God desired to make the other nations subject to his own people; hence the other nations resisted him and were at enmity with his nation. The Father, therefore, sent his first-begotten Nous ("mind") -- who is called Christ -- to bestow on those who believe in him deliverance from the power of those who made the world. Christ appeared on earth as a man, and wrought miracles. He did not suffer death. Simon of Cyrene, who bore his cross was transformed to look like him, and was crucified. Jesus received the form of Simon and, standing by, laughed at them. Then he ascended, invisibly, to him who sent him. Those who know these things are freed from the power of the principalities [i.e. "angels'] who formed the world."
Take that sort of religious fiction and multiply it by fifteen or twenty different groups. Then spread it out over a period of three or four hundred years all around the Mediterranean seacoast. Now you can easily see how difficult a task it would have been to actually know the truth about the Lord Jesus during the early years of Christianity. This explains to some degree why it took the church over three hundred years to proclaim the deity of Christ in writing as official church doctrine. It tells us why the writer of Hebrews begins this letter by stating that God has already spoken in the past, the Old Testament scriptures are a record of what God said, and that it is by means of that written record that we know who Jesus Christ really is. Scripture is the final authority. All doctrine must be weighed against that standard, the record of God's revelation.
Verses 4 through 13 are all citations of Old Testament texts. Each one speaks to the superiority of Christ over angels. So we conclude from this that angels were a major issue. False beliefs about Christ in regard to angels were a real threat. According to The MacArthur Study Bible,
"The Jews held angels in very high regard as the highest beings next to God. The sect of Judaism which had established a community at Qumran taught that the archangel Michael's authority rivaled or surpassed that of the Messiah."
There were other problems with false doctrine regarding angels. Turn with me please, to Colossians chapter 2, verses 1 through 19. In this letter of Paul, we see some of the very earliest hints of what became Gnosticism as well as some of the same points in regard to the superiority of Christ that are made in Hebrews chapter 1.
As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
This text speaks in the same way as Hebrews 1 of Christ's divinity, of His authority over all "principality and power" (which is a reference to angelic beings), of His triumph over Satan and his demonic forces, and His fulfillment of the types and symbols found in Old Testament law. Then in verse 18, Paul mentions those false teachers who glory in a self-imposed sense of humility in which they worship angels as their intercessors, rather than approaching God directly through Christ. These false teachers are far too humble to think they could speak directly with God. So they call upon angels to speak to God for them. That is the typical interpretation of this verse. Paul calls it the "worship of angels."
So there was an evil influence that was infiltrating the church of the first century which encouraged believers to think less of the Lord Jesus and more of angels, even to the point of worshipping them as prayer intercessors to God.
John Gill puts it this way:
". . . They would have been thought to have been very lowly and humble, and to have a great consciousness of their own vileness and unworthiness to draw nigh to Christ the Mediator immediately, and by him to God; wherefore, in pretence of great humility, they proposed to make use of angels as mediators with Christ; whereby Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, would be removed out of sight and use; and that humble boldness and holy confidence with God at the throne of grace, through Christ, which believers are allowed to use, would be discouraged and destroyed . . . ."
The Geneva Study Bible says, "For these angel worshippers blamed those of pride who would go straight to God, and use no other means besides Christ."
So these ideas of angels being objects of worship, creators of the world, and superior to the Messiah were all circulating throughout the Jewish and Roman world. This is why the writer of Hebrews talks specifically of the inferiority of angels to the Son of God.
In Hebrews 1:4-6, Christ has obtained a better name than angels, because God has never referred to an angel as His Son. The rhetorical question is asked in verse 5, "To which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are My Son,' or "He shall be to me a Son?'" The answer is, "None." In other words, to be the Son of God is to be superior to angels, particularly since the Son has actually created angels.
Further, specifically because of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Creator, in verse 6, angels are commanded by God to worship the Son. How can they be superior to the Messiah if God commands them to worship Christ?
Then he goes on to speak of angels in verses 7 through 13 as created, but Christ is eternal. Angels are ministers, or servants of God, but the Son is exalted as equal to God. The Messiah is to be seated at God's right hand, while angels minister to the saints, to those of us who will inherit eternal life. So in some sense, angels are even inferior to us, not to mention inferior to Christ.
So we come back to the question, "Why is this important to us?" The first century church had a problem with angels, but we don't. So why are you telling us about this?"
I want to remind you of what I said last week. I once had someone say to me that we Evangelicals often make too much of Christ to the neglect of other things. But the clear message from this chapter of Hebrews is that it is a very dangerous thing to minimize Jesus Christ. When people begin to add other intercessors to God alongside Christ, it exalts the one to the neglect of the other. Jesus Christ becomes less than what He really is, and other people or creatures become more than they are, and the Lord Jesus is robbed of the glory He is due. That is idolatry.
Secondly, I do not want us to miss the obvious. The arguments among the Jews of the first century regarding the nature of angels and the nature of the Messiah all boil down to one thing: What has God said? God has already spoken to this. The Jews understand they possess the revelation of God in the form of the Old Testament scriptures, and the word of God is not vague in this matter. That is why the writer quotes Psalm 2:7, 2 Samuel 7:14, Deuteronomy 32:43, Psalm 104:4, Psalm 46:6-7, Psalm 102:25-27, and Psalm 110:1. These are all found in verses 5 through 13. His argument is authoritative because it is biblical, because it is based upon what God says, not on what some traveling so-called evangelist says, inventing things as he goes.
According to Simon Kistemaker, the Old Testament is quoted in the book of Hebrews thirty-one times. "In the words of the writer, 'the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword (4:12).' And that Word has been quoted, alluded to, and used in Hebrews more than in any other New Testament book."
The Scriptures are the final word in any doctrinal or theological debate. To not know what God has already said in His word inevitably leads to bad theology. Bad theology eventually leads to bad living. When a group of people decide that the Scriptures are incomplete, or they need some kind of supplemental revelation, or that the Bible ios full of errors and contradictions, then we lose the one inspired authority that has been given to us, and we place ourselves at the mercy of the most persuasive false teachers and leaders. With no theological anchor, we drift and are tossed to and for with every wind of doctrine. In some cases it leads people to believe that suicide and murder is a means of acceptable service to God.
So maybe the loudest point being made here is, "Read your Bible." It is the Word of God. It is a lamp to our feet, a light to our paths. It shines a very bright light on Jesus Christ. To neglect Christ, to not make much of the Lord Jesus, is akin to blasphemy. It leads to idolatry. We make much of Christ because God the Father makes much of Him in His word. Christianity is superior because Christ is superior. God says so.
Regarding Colossians 2:18
Jamieson, Faucett and Brown - Under pretext of humility, as if they durst not come directly to God and Christ (like the modern Church of Rome), they invoked angels: as Judaizers, they justified this on the ground that the law was given by angels. This error continued long in Phrygia (where Colosse and Laodicea were), so that the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 360) expressly framed its thirty-fifth canon against the "Angelici" (as AUGUSTINE [Heresies, 39], calls them) or "invokers of angels." Even as late as THEODORET'S time, there were oratories to Michael the archangel. The modern Greeks have a legend that Michael opened a chasm to draw off an inundation threatening the Colossian Christians. Once men admit the inferior powers to share invocation with the Supreme, the former gradually engrosses all our serious worship, almost to the exclusion of the latter; thus the heathen, beginning with adding the worship of other deities to that of the Supreme, ended with ceasing to worship Him at all. Nor does it signify much, whether we regard such as directly controlling us (the pagan view), or as only influencing the Supreme in our behalf (the Church of Rome's view); because he from whom I expect happiness or misery, becomes the uppermost object in my mind, whether he give, or only procure it [Cautions for Times].
Matthew Henry - It looked like a piece of modesty to make use of the mediation of angels, as conscious to ourselves of our unworthiness to speak immediately to God; but, though it has a show of humility, it is a voluntary, not a commanded humility; and therefore it is not acceptable, yea, it is not warrantable: it is taking that honour which is due to Christ only and giving it to a creature. Besides, the notions upon which this practice was grounded were merely the inventions of men and not by divine revelation,--the proud conceits of human reason, which make a man presume to dive into things, and determine them, without sufficient knowledge and warrant: Intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind--pretending to describe the order of angels, and their respective ministries, which God has hidden from us; and therefore, though there was a show of humility in the practice, there was a real pride in the principle. They advanced those notions to gratify their own carnal fancy, and were fond of being thought wiser than other people.
People's New Testament - 18. Let no man beguile you. Rob you of your reward by his guile. He will do so if you become unworthy of it by a voluntary humility. By a humility that is willed, and therefore is affected rather than real. It is probable that the false teachers made a great pretence of humility, and taught a self-abasement, like that of monks clad in sackcloth, or who go barefoot. And worshiping of angels. One feature of the heresy against which Paul warned them was angel worship. See Rev. 19:10. Angel worship, the worship of saints, dead or living, of pope, or any created thing, is forbidden. "Worship God," said the angel before whom John bowed. Church history states that at a later period Michael the archangel was worshiped.