Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Whenever I was a child growing up my dad served as the children and recreation pastor at FBC Springfield and I had my dad as my children’s pastor which was really cool at times and really inconvenient at other times!

One of the things that we’d always do as a family on Saturdays was we’d go to Daylight Donuts in Springfield and they’d donate their leftover donuts in the afternoon and we’d take them to the church for kids to have on Sunday morning.

As a young boy, free donuts were just about the coolest thing in the whole world and I’d take one for the team to make sure that they were still edible and I’d usually eat my favorite at that time: A chocolate long john.

I loved the chocolate and the normal glaze part of the donut and thought these donuts were the best you could find… Until one Saturday I was eating my long john and I made it to the center of the donut and what did my taste buds discover unexpectedly?

It was a filled long john and at the center of this delicious glaze and chocolate donut was a creme filling that about made me gag.

Ever since, I’ve been skeptical about eating long johns because you never know what’s in the center of the donut.

The center of things is usually important.

Whether its the center of our planet or the center of our lives or the center of a donut, the center is important and impacts everything around it.

The center of the Bible is no different and, thankfully, the center of the Bible is no surprise!

At the center of the Bible is Jesus Christ.

“We find Christ in all the Scriptures.

In the Old Testament He is predicted, in the Gospels He is revealed, in Acts He is preached, in the epistles He is explained, and in Revelation He is expected.”

- Alistair Begg

Jesus stands at the center of Scripture as its King.

This is what we read in our men’s and women’s Bible study books this week if you’re participating in that study and this is also what we saw last week we began looking at the book of Hebrews.

We studied how Jesus is fully-God and full-man and how He created the same earth that He would eventually come to be born into.

The same Savior who created all trees found Himself being hung upon the very tree that He created.

The same God who sustains all things, dying in the place of sinners He breathed the breath of life into.

This same Jesus who came, lived a perfect life, and died a sinners death is the same God who is sitting today on His throne as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords today!

Even though we have difficulties and adversity in this life, Hebrews reminds us that our God saves and our God reigns.

In Lindsey’s song earlier, we were reminded that Christ is ours forevermore.

If you are in Christ this morning, you have a greater hope than anything this world has to offer.

You have a greater joy, a greater peace, a greater comfort, and a greater purpose than anything or anyone else around you who is not in Christ.

The theme of Jesus being greater is found 13x in this book!

This is a big deal that this anonymous preacher keeps circling back to.

This is the reminder that we need to tell ourselves often as well.

Jesus is greater than my temporary happiness, His way is better than my way, He is better than comfort, and He is better than any other religious system out there.

He is the center and He is the King over creation.

As we continue looking at Hebrews we find ourselves in an interesting part of God’s Word.

Hebrews 1:1-3 is straightforward passage as we are given rich truths concerning Jesus and Him being our great sacrifice and source of salvation.

Today, though, we continue the theme of Jesus being greater but He isn’t being compared to the sacrifices, priests, or prophets of old… Now He will be compared to God’s angels.

Why would this need to be said in the first place?

What is going on in these verses?

What makes Jesus better than the angels?

Let’s study from God’s Word this morning and see what our great Savior has done!

The Old Testament law was mediated through the angels and was from God - it was good - see Galatians 3:19 and Acts 7:53 to demonstrate the fact that God gave the OT law to the people through angels, yet God’s people couldn’t keep it.

Jesus does keep the law in its entirety, though!

Jesus is greater than the angels.

He is greater than the OT prophets and sacrifices, meaning that His message is greater too and we must respond to what He has done!

Jesus Has the Greater Name (4-5)

Names matter!

If you’ve read Matthew 1 or Luke 3 around Christmas you understand how important names are as we see lots of names leading up to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Our names sometimes tell a story - some people are named after a relative or a close family friend, other people are named after a famous person or Biblical figure.

Some people have a relatively simple name and other people have a more complicated name and if you’re a teacher in the school system you probably wish that you could have a talk with some parents and ask them what they were thinking whenever they gave their child their name because it’s impossible to pronounce!

Names matter and names tell a story.

We looked last week in Hebrews 1:4 at the fact that Jesus inherited a more excellent name than the angels.

What name did Jesus inherit?

Let’s think of some options here about this name.

Luke 1:31-33 gives us some background information about Jesus as Gabriel tells Mary this before Jesus’ birth

We’ll touch more on this message later, but we see clearly that Mary and Joseph named Him Jesus for a reason - God told them to.

Is this the name that is more excellent than the angels?

Is there something special about the name of Jesus?

Absolutely we know that there is power in the person and work of Jesus Christ, but Jesus is a relatively common name in our world today and it was a relatively common name 2000 years ago.

Literally, the root word for Jesus in the Hebrew is Yeshua and this is the same root for the name Joshua.

Is that the name that is more excellent than theirs?

Probably not - it’s significant but there’s a name that’s even more significant to the preacher of Hebrews’ argument here.

What about the name Lord? Philippians 2:5-11 shares with us that Jesus is exalted and given the name above every other name and that at the name of Jesus everyone will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord!

In other words, Jesus Christ is King!

See Colossians 2:18 - some worshipped angels and believed that they were greater than they truly are.

They’re tempted to make the wrong thing the most important thing, and we better not make the same mistake!

New Testament angels are only messengers… Jesus is God’s Son.

He is given the name of Son and the title of Lord!

He is reigning over Creation!

That’s an important name for Jesus as well but there’s an even stronger option in the text before and after verse 4...

The greater name the preacher of Hebrews says that Jesus inherits is likely the name Son.

God has spoken to us through His Son.

God has saved sinners through His Son.

God is changing the world through His Son.

Why is this designation so significant?

What’s the big deal about Jesus being the Son of God and the Son of Man? Think about authority for a minute.

In the ancient world, who had more power?

The king or a scout?

Obviously the king does because he’s the king and he’s the ruler.

That same power and designation extends not only to the king but also to his family - meaning that his son is also extremely powerful.

The king’s son is more powerful than a soldier or a scout or a servant not because he’s bigger or stronger but because of the authority in his nature - he IS the son of the king.

Think of Jesus in this regard - Jesus as the 2nd person of the Trinity always has existed but whenever He came to the earth as the God-man, He came to do the will of His Father as His Son.

We find this truth in Galatians 4 as Paul writes this

Aren’t you thankful that the Son of God came to this earth to save sinners like you and me and adopt us into God’s forever family?

This is good news and the only reason that it’s possible is because Jesus is God’s Son.

See, the angels in God’s army are messengers.

They have a role and purpose to play in the Old and New Testaments as they share God’s message and goodness with others… they even shared the law with Moses as Galatians 3:19 tells us

If angels are God’s messengers and they have a role to play in God’s perfect plan in giving the people the law - how much more do you think that Jesus, as God’s Son and the promised Messiah, has good news for God’s people?

He is the Son of God and we must listen to His Words and submit to His rule.

The preacher of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 2 and 2 Samuel 7 (which is referred to often in this book) in verse 5 to demonstrate that Jesus is not only the Son of God but that He has authority due to that name.

He is the King - He is not a messenger.

He is God’s Son - not God’s soldier.

Most popular Bible verse is John 3:16 which shares this truth about who Jesus is to us

We must respond to that name and give Jesus the respect that He deserves as the Son of God.

Jesus is the Greater King (7-14)

The preacher of Hebrews continues in verses 7-14 to tell us how the Son of God rules as King and how this makes Him different from the angels and every other king in human history.

The preacher of Hebrews draws on several Psalms in this text to make His overall point that Jesus is the greatest King because of His power and nature.

Think about the government for a minute - we know that God is on His throne and that there are not governmental surprises to Him as God’s Word tells us that God is the One who gives power and God takes it away.

God raises Kings and nations up and God brings them crashing down.

Consider some of the different nations and governments that have been in power over the years.

If you go way back you have the Egyptians who were a major world power for over 2,500 years and were ruled by the Pharoah.

You have the Greeks who ruled for a much shorter period of time - several hundred years - but Alexander introduced Greek culture to much of the known world and paved the way for the Romans to set up a massive empire that lasted for over 1,000 years.

Each of these governments had some form of a monarchy or republic setup and their rulers ruled for a period of time but eventually kings died and these nations passed away.

This has been the way of our world and it will continue to be that way.

The promise in Scripture is that Jesus is not going to be a president who can be voted out of office.