Drift: More than a Messenger
Drift • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 2 viewsOur beliefs of angels are all over the place and the ancient context probably had a diverse understanding of God's messengers in the world. In this passage Jesus is compared to the angels and found to be superior. His mission was not to just deliver a word but to gather all those suffering and bring back to God.
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son;
today I have become your Father”?
Or again,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”?
And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
In speaking of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels spirits,
and his servants flames of fire.”
But about the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
He also says,
“In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will roll them up like a robe;
like a garment they will be changed.
But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.”
To which of the angels did God ever say,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet”?
Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
Hebrews
Read
Read
Angels are weird.... well our belief about angels are weird. The modern belief and the ebb and flow of fascination over the course of history. What comes to mind when you think of an angel? What is the image? Think about the movies over time you have seen with angels. Can you name them....
Michael (beer drinking cigarette smoking angel)
Last week we introduced this new sermon series
Angels in the outfield (ghostly, way too creepy for a children’s movie, baseball fan angels)
Meet Joe Black (this one is probably closer to what we see in the bible. The appearance as one of us and yet something still quite off. That is of course until Joe Black hooks up with the main character.)
Today we will talk a little bit about angels as the author compares Jesus to angels. Buckle up.
Last week we introduced this new sermon series, Drift. If you missed it, I really encourage you to go back and take a listen from the archives in the podcast or on the website. This book of the bible which we will spend the next few months exploring is written to a people, perhaps, at the height of Christian persecution before the ransacking of the temple in Jerusalem. The message is simple… it is do not drift. And he did this in a sermon....
Last week we introduced this new sermon series, Drift. If you missed it, I really encourage you to go back and take a listen from the archives in the podcast or on the website. This book of the bible which we will spend the next few months exploring is written to a people, perhaps, at the height of Christian persecution before the ransacking of the temple in Jerusalem. The message is simple… it is do not drift. And he did this in a sermon....
Goals for the sermon:
1. To elevate Jesus as superior to anything and anyone else. Showing that Jesus is worthy of all their devotion
2. challenge the readers to remain faithful to Jesus despite the persecution
Warning motif:
He will do this through some parenthetical warnings. These breaks in the narrative as we see this week and next week, are like the preacher pausing to make sure we are getting something important. So the pattern for our series will be some teaching and then a warning or application to the audience. It is homiletics at its best here. First teaching about the superiority of Jesus and then the challenge in the warning.
More than an angel
Today we turn our attention to the first comparison of Jesus. His superiority to angels. And this is a challenge to us I think. I struggled to get behind the text and explore what the context might be that Jesus be explicitly set apart from angels.
First I need to do a little teaching about the worldview of the biblical writers. Some of this is uncomfortable but it is important. Michael Heiser writes....
You might find that experience uncomfortable in places. But it would be dishonest of us to claim that the biblical writers read and understood the text the way we do as modern people, or intended meanings that conform to theological systems created centuries after the text was written. Our context is not their context . Seeing the Bible through the eyes of an ancient reader requires shedding the filters of our traditions and presumptions. They processed life in supernatural terms.
Today’s Christian processes it by a mixture of creedal statements and modern rationalism.
Today’s Christian processes it by a mixture of creedal statements and modern rationalism. I
Heiser, Michael S.. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (pp. 14-15). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition.
Heiser, Michael S.. The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (pp. 14-15). Lexham Press. Kindle Edition.
Biblical authors saw the world through supernatural lens. They believed in spiritual beings and encountered spiritual beings in different ways. They believed in a cosmic and spiritual war that parallels the battle that we see in the flesh, even is the driver of the battle over the human heart. They believed in angels and demons, they encountered angels and demons and wrote about them. Allow me to give you one example of this supernatural worldview....one of the words for God in Hebrew is elohim.
When we see that word it is quickly translated to God in our english bibles, but what do you do with a verse like
God presides in the great assembly;
he renders judgment among the “gods”:
Elohim presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the elohim....
Who is the subject here? the first Hebrew word Elohim is singular and most certainly refers to Yahweh, but who is the “great assembly” and who is He rendering judgment over, the other elohim. The other plural gods… what could this possibly mean.
elohim is not simply what we translate as capital G God. It is more likely to be spiritual beings of sort. Casting a picture that Yahweh is the supreme uncreated supernatural being.
The hebrew writers believed in a supernatural world where this is the reality. Paul writes....
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
What do you think Paul is talking about here? It’s not that he watched too many horror flicks.....This is their worldview.
“The story of the Bible is about God’s will for, and rule of, the realms he has created, visible and invisible, through the imagers he has created, human and nonhuman. This divine agenda is played out in both realms, in deliberate tandem.” ― Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible
And they believe in good spiritual beings, like angels. An angel or the hebrew and the greek equivalent is not so much an identity marker as it is a job description. It would be like me calling the person who fixes my leaky sink a plumber like it is his name. Angels are messengers. They are all throughout the bible for one purpose, that is a mission of God. They are to point to God and accomplish God’s task. Angels have the coolest roles in scripture....
A major function of angels is as messengers and instructors. The thought of angels speaking to someone was not foreign to the audience of the NT (). As well as by a direct presence, angels often deliver their message in a dream (; , , ) or a vision (; ).
Moses received the Law from an angel (, ; ; ). Angels were witnesses to the incarnation (). Paul assumes that angels can preach a gospel () and the Pharisees assume that an angel could have spoken with Paul (). Angels are harbingers of the births of John the Baptist () and Jesus (). They advise Joseph about the nature of Mary’s child (). They proclaim the birth of Jesus to the shepherds (). They warn Joseph to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus () as well as when to return (). They give instructions to the women at the tomb ( = = ). Two angels speak to the disciples at Christ’s ascension (). An angel speaks to Moses in the burning bush (, , ), advises Philip where to travel () and Cornelius to send for Peter (, , ; ), and reassures Paul that he would stand before Caesar (). As typical of apocalyptic writings, an angel escorts John through his visions (e.g., ).
Watson, D. F. (1992). Angels: New Testament. In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 1, p. 254). New York: Doubleday.
Angels are messengers from God to the people in their time of need or a place to help when they are struggling and in need....writing to these people struggling the author says you dont need just another messenger at this time. The greatest messenger has already come!!!!!! His name is the supreme name, the name above all supernatural beings, above all of God’s messengers, he was there in the beginning and all things have been created by him and he sustains all things.
This is the first section that we read. The author is weaving together scriptures from the old testament to show the power, sovereignty, eternality of the messiah Jesus.
Raymond Brown writes:
Christ cannot be relegated to the rank of angel because the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. Their name means ‘messenger’, and nobody will deny that at times they were wonderfully used as God’s heralds. They were prominent not only in Old Testament Scripture but also in New Testament experience. Jesus was strengthened by angels, both in the wilderness at the beginning of his earthly ministry, and in the garden of Gethsemane at its close. They did not only come alongside the Lord Jesus in moments of crisis as messengers of God’s love and strength, but they also came to the help of Christ’s people when they entered the hostile realms of adversity and peril. They were sent by God to release prisoners, to instruct preachers, to encourage believers, to judge blasphemers and to help travellers. But, inspiring as all these events were, the angels concerned were but messengers; that was their name and that was their function. Christ has a name superior to the best of angels. He is far more than a mere messenger. He is the Son of God.
Brown, R. (1988). The message of Hebrews: Christ above all (pp. 39–40). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
More than a messenger
More than a messenger
Why is the important to those suffering? Why the comparison to angels? Because this is being spoken right in their time of need. To show that Jesus is greater than a messenger is to not only elevate Jesus but to also elevate tho believer....that is what the second part is about.
It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
and put everything under their feet.”,
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
Hebrews 2:
Stop right there, the author is referencing psalms again, acknowledging creation, and stating that God created us to rule and that all things would be subject onto us that we would be co-creators, co-rulers with God. He created us to be His image bearers.... but what he says right here at the end...
“At present we do not see everything subject to them.”
We know in our bones things have gone wrong. That things are not how they should be. Our best relationships are hard work. Selfishness, deceit, greed, are at the center of most of our experiences. illness, disasters, etc.
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
Hebrews 2:9-
This messenger did not just come to deliver a word or to bring some courage or to set in one person free, this messenger came to defeat death and evil once and for all. This messenger became low, lowest of low. He stepped off his throne to become a brother. And as all things are put unto his authority, we get to experience that very thing.
What does this all mean JW?
First, stop saying weird things when people pass away. That is not their angel promotion. That would actually be a demotion. “God just needed another angel...” No.
Second for those that are walking through something difficult. Jesus has chosen to walk through death, evil, suffering so that you will conquer. Draw on his strength. Do not waste your energies looking for it in other places. the word again is to focus on Jesus. See him. Even good things can get in the way....
Second for those that are walking through something difficult. Jesus has chosen to walk through death, evil, suffering so that you will conquer. Draw on his strength.
Finally, think about the power of this statement this week.... “He became one of us to make us like Him.” If this is true then He is worthy of all of your devotion. Does he have it?
Finally, think about the power of this statement this week.... “He became one of us to make us like Him.”