This Sunday’s text is going to be difficult. The writer of Hebrews quotes seven Old Testament passages to prove that Jesus is better than the angels. But the overarching question is why is this argument necessary? Any reader of the New Testament understands that Jesus is God the Son. Of course He is superior to the angels. And how does this argument help urge the Hebrew Christians not to return to Judaism and the Old Covenant law of Moses? Over the past week, I have reworded, reorganized, and restructured the sermon at least five times in order to make it easy to understand and not 50 minutes long. But this will be a complex presentation of why the writer of Hebrews presents this, and what all these Old Testament references show us in context. In a nutshell, the premise upon which the writer begins is that angels accompanied and ordained the giving of the law to Moses (See Acts 7:37 and Gal. 3:19). So by saying Jesus is superior to the angels, the writer is showing that the message given to us by the Son, is the consummation and fulfillment of all God’s previous revelation, whether through the prophets or angels. This is verified by the context in Hebrews 1 & 2. Hebrews 1:5-14 (our text for Sunday) is a dense list of seven Old Testament quotations proving Jesus is better than angels. Then the application of this argument comes to us in Hebrews 2:1-4 - He says THEREFORE (because Jesus is better than angels) we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, (gospel) lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Please read Hebrews 1:5 - 2:4 a few times before Sunday. It is a very dense argument and easy to get lost in the details. Ultimately, the writer is still urging the Hebrew Christians not to return to Judaism and the Old Covenant, even though doing so would free them from the suffering they were experiencing. The point is Jesus is better than the law of Moses even though the law was ordained by angels.

I pray that I am able to lay this case out contextually and faithfully, and also simply enough to be easily understood. I ask that you would pray for that as well. - And you may also want to drink some extra coffee before service.

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