Christ's Supremacy Over Angels: Worship and Revelation

Now, again, remember that angels are heavenly beings, and they come from the very presence of God; but even as heavenly beings, they are still creatures, and to ascribe worship to a creature of any importance or of any rank, is to be engaged in the sin of idolatry. [00:01:41]

The first commandment, the second commandment, the third commandment, the fourth commandment, all prohibit, one way or another, any involvement in the worship of a creature. And so let's turn now to the book of Hebrews, to the very first chapter, where we read in verse one these words: "God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world." [00:02:40]

This is not the only place in sacred Scripture where Christ is revealed as the Creator of the universe. In John's Gospel, the Logos, who was manifest in the incarnation of Jesus, is the one by whom and through whom all things were made. The book of Colossians also stresses what we call the "cosmic Christ," who is the Creator of the universe; and so the things that spell -- that call attention to the uniqueness of Christ in this opening word here, is the reason why He's the consummate revelation of God. [00:03:29]

Now, Christ alone is the appointed heir of the Father. We become joint-heirs with Him by virtue of our adoption, but only Christ has -- as it were -- has the natural, or essential relationship to the Father as the only begotten of the Father, as the rightful heir of God. So he says, "He has been appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He made the world" -- and then the next verse, which is a marvelous verse -- "who, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power." [00:04:25]

When we think about the glory of God, the refulgent majesty that blazes from time to time through biblical history, where that glory, such as in the Shekinah cloud, or the glory that surrounded the appearance of the angels around Bethlehem that we've spoken of, the glory cloud that takes Christ up into ascension and so on, that there's this brilliant light that is associated with the glory of God; and what the author of Hebrews says is that the Son is the very brightness of that glory -- that is, He belongs to the essence of the divine being. [00:05:16]

And He's the express image of the divine person of the Father, and I think that that is an expression as the eternal Word, who is the eternal expression of deity, in the Word. That seems to be the context of what he's saying here in this text; but again, this is all anticipatory for what comes later, where he said, "He upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had, by himself, purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has, by inheritance, obtained a more excellent name than they." [00:08:34]

The elevation above the angels is the elevation of the incarnate Christ over the angels, because remember, in creation, as the Psalmist tells us, we -- you know, we -- the Psalmist asks the question, "When I consider the sun and the moon and all that Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him or the son of man, that Thou dost visit him? Yet Thou hast created him but" -- what? "A little lower than the angels." So human creatures are a lower order of creation from the angels. Angels are of a higher order. [00:09:39]

Now, they don't tell us what the name is here that is the more excellent name that Jesus receives. Now, it may be in light of the immediate context of the passage, that the name that is a more excellent name than the angels, is simply referring to the title, 'son', which is what the focus of attention here is. On the other hand, elsewhere in the Scriptures, we're also told of Jesus' gaining a name as a result of the perfection of His obedience, and that name is not the name 'son'; it is the name 'Lord'. [00:10:51]

And so what Paul is saying there is, "Look at this pattern that has been given to us by Christ, who gave up His privileges that He enjoyed in heaven to condescend to our lowliness, to take upon himself our humanity, and to bear humiliation in our stead." And so that's the way we should be behaving towards our brothers and sisters, willing, not to guard our own status or stature, but to give it away for the benefit of others. [00:12:13]

The author uses the rhetorical question here quite effectively because he says, "For to which of the angels did He ever say, 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you'." He doesn't call angels sons. Angels are servants, not sons. "And again, 'I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son'. But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says" -- now let me just back up again. [00:14:20]

And so the angels are subordinate to Christ because the angels are commanded by God to worship Him. And of the angels he says, "Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But to the Son He says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. And you, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the world'," and so on. [00:19:29]

They don't rule the cosmos, but the good angels are ministering spirits, sent forth by God; and they're not sent to minister to everybody. They're sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation -- to believers -- and whether we have one guardian angel or the heavenly host, such as surrounded Elisha, is a matter of continual debate. But we do have a great help. [00:21:28]