The Supremacy of Christ
Intro:
(funny gun video?)
4 having become so much better than the angels, to the extent that He has inherited a more excellent name than they.
5 For to which of the angels did He ever say,
“You are My Son,
Today I have fathered You”?
And again,
“I will be a Father to Him
And He will be a Son to Me”?
Q: Wasn’t Jesus always superior to the Angles? How then did he “become” better than the angels?
(take answers)
Jesus became better in the sense that He was made perfect (complete as our redeemer) through sufferings (Hebrews 2:10) — something no angel ever did.
-Guzik
Griffith Thomas linked together the descriptions of Jesus given in these first few verses, culminating in Hebrews 1:1-4:
Christ the Heir. (v2)
Christ the Creator. (v2)
Christ the Revealer. (v3)
Christ the Sustainer. (v3)
Christ the Redeemer. (v3)
Christ the Ruler. (v3)
Christ Supreme. (v4)
Q: Why was it necessary for the author to demonstrate the superiority of Christ over the angels?
(take answers)
Col 2:18
Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind…
The author was pushing back against at least two heretical ideas floating around at the time:
- The worship of angels
- Jesus himself was an angel
- The Jewish Christians STILL didn’t understand how different/superior/special the Messiah really was. (Jesus wasn’t Abraham, he was better than Abraham. Jesus wasn’t Moses; he was better than Moses. Jesus wasn’t David, he was better than David. IN fact, he is EQUAL to Yahweh, a truly blasphemous thought to Jews…)
Q: Why is the “better name” so important?
(take answers)
“The fullness of the glory of the peculiar name “the Son of God,” is unattainable by human speech or thought.
All appellations are but fragments of its glory beams united in it as in a central sun, Rev 19:12. A name that no than knew but He Himself.”
-Jamieson/Faucett/Brown
Rev. 19:12
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
Q: Why THESE two O.T. support verses?
(take answers)
Matthew Henry:
1. It was said of Christ, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee (Ps. 2:7), which may refer to his eternal generation, or to his resurrection, or to his solemn inauguration into his glorious kingdom at his ascension and session at the right hand of the Father.
Now this was never said concerning the angels, and therefore by inheritance he has a more excellent nature and name than they.
2. It was said concerning Christ, but never concerning the angels, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son; taken from 2 Sa. 7:14.
Not only, “I am his Father, and he is my Son, by nature and eternal promanation;” but, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son, by wonderful conception, and this his son-ship shall be the fountain and foundation of every gracious relation between me and fallen man.”
Application:
Let this teaching be a REMINDER.
Let this reminder be a WARNING:
Piper:
If you don’t embrace a Christ that is big enough and clear enough, you will be a sitting duck for Christ-diminishing, Christ-distorting philosophy, empty deceit, and human tradition.
If you don’t embrace a Christ that is big enough and clear enough, you easily mistake shadows for reality.
If you don’t embrace a Christ that is big enough and clear enough, you will stop holding fast to Christ as the great, all-supplying Head of the body, and take up sectarian strategies of self-improvement.