FROM SHADOW TO SUBSTANCE: The Superior Son

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. The Resurrection

Life Sunday Sermon is brought to you by Resurrection

Life Church in Apex, North Carolina, a congregation

of the Presbyterian Church in America. Resurrection

Life Church is pastored by Dr. Mark Kadesh, and

this week we continue our current series on the

book of Hebrews called From Shadow to Substance.

Now, here's Pastor Mark. that some of you may

be thinking like, Mark, you've had three weeks

to work on a sermon. This better be a good one.

So I want to turn your attention to Hebrews 1,

4, 2 to 5. I don't know how great the sermon

will be, but I know that this passage is fantastic.

It's beautiful. It's wonderful. And this has

been the first time I've done a deep dive in

the book of Hebrews. And it's just been... Just

a joy, last couple weeks, for those of you who

follow along with that take -home worship service

that we prepared, seeing the bird's -eye view

of things, especially last week, looking into

Jesus and keeping your focus on Jesus. This is

another one of those weeks. This is a theme that

we're going to come to over and over again, where

the whole sole focus is on Jesus. And you'll

see that as we read these words from Hebrews

1. 4, 2 to 5, where it says this. After making

purification for sins, Jesus sat down at the

right hand of the majesty on high, having become

as much superior to angels as the name he has

inherited is more excellent than theirs. For

to which of the angels did God ever say? And

then he quotes a number of Bible texts from the

Old Testament. You are my son. Today I have begotten

you. Or again, I will be to him a father and

he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings

the firstborn into the world, he says, let all

God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says,

he makes his angels winds and his ministers a

flame of fire. But of the son, he says, your

throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter

of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

Therefore, God, your God, has appointed you with

the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And

you, Lord, lay the foundation of the earth in

the beginning, and the heavens are the work of

your hands. They will perish, but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment, like a

robe. You will roll them up like a garment. They

will be changed, but you are the same and your

years will have no end. And to which of the angels

has he ever said, sit at my right hand until

I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out

to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit

salvation? Therefore, we must pay much closer

attention. to what we have heard, lest we drift

away from it. For since the message declared

by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression

or disobedience received a just retribution,

how shall we escape if we neglect such a great

salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord

and it was attested to us by those who heard

while God also bore witness by signs and wonders

and various miracles. and by gifts of the Holy

Spirit, distributed according to his will. Brothers

and sisters in Jesus Christ, let me begin by

sharing just a brief story that comes out of

the curriculum Christianity Explored by Rico

Tice. Rico Tice is an Anglican pastor. And several

years ago, they put together a video series that

was intended for evangelism purposes. We used

them very early on. In fact, the very, very first

program, Even before we had a name for this church

was Christianity Explored in our townhouse in

Raleigh with a bunch of people, a group of people.

And as we're going through this curriculum, one

of the videos, Rico tells a story of how one

time he was at a restaurant, he was at a nice

restaurant, and this is set in England. He was

early for his reservation, and so he was standing

out in a hallway, like actually in a stairwell.

And so he's there, and this other gentleman is

there as well. And this other gentleman, you

know, as Rico says it, he says, you know, like

good British, Englishmen, you know, they gave

each other a nod. And he thought the guy looked

somewhat familiar. But for five minutes, they're

just standing there in the stairwell, doing absolutely

nothing. And not talking and not associating

at all. Well, at that five minute mark, someone

calls out from around the corner to the other

man. He says, William, there you are. We're in

a private room over here. And he realized at

that moment that Rico was hanging out with his

future king without even realizing it. What a

moment that would have been, right? To realize

he was in the space for five minutes. looking

at his king, future king, and not even realizing,

not having any kind of relationship with him.

I love that story, probably because it's incredible,

but also to see how to see Jesus is to have a

relationship with him, to really truly know who

Jesus is. We need to dive into. what the whole

Old Testament says about him and what the whole

New Testament says about him to get us to understand

that he is very much alive, very much active,

very much ruling in heaven today. Today, we're

going to focus on how Jesus is more superior

than the angels. My hope is by the time we finish

today, you will not only just understand what

it means to be in the presence of Jesus, but

you will understand, you will know him and you

will see him more clearly so you're not blind

to who Jesus is moving forward. That you could

leave this place today and be like, I have a

better understanding of who Jesus is and he's

my Messiah, he's my king, he's my prophet, he's

my priest, and I want to have a strong relationship

with him. So that's what we're going to set out

to do today. The way we're going to do this,

we're going to focus on three main points. You

may have caught it reading this passage, and

I encourage you to keep your Bibles open to read

because we're going to refer back to it several

times today. We're going to focus on this exposition.

There's this large, eloquent exposition, this

teaching of how Jesus is more superior than the

angels because that's who we need to see. But

then we get an exhortation. We get this like,

preachable aspect of this text. Chapter two starts

where it's like, okay, well, we have all this.

Well, then so what? And then we're going to talk

about this kind of nifty word, rheology, which

we'll talk about. And we're going to just apply

it to our own lives. So let's get started. The

son's superiority. In verse five, it says, for

to which of the angels did God ever say? And

then he goes on and he quotes seven different

Old Testament texts. He starts and he ends with

what we know as these Messianic Psalms, Messiah

Psalms, these Psalms that focus on the coming

one. Very famous, very prominent, even in the

first century. And so the first and the seventh

focus on who Jesus is or who the son is, and

then all the verses in between kind of serve

that purpose, this assumption that all these

verses are talking about Jesus. And I want to

break it down this way, because there's a lot

of information here, but we're going to break

it down simply here. Verses, references one and

two, and when I say references, I mean the quotes

from the Old Testament. So again, please follow

along so you understand what I'm talking about

here. In references 1 and 2, which are Psalm

2 -7 and 2 Samuel 7 -14, no one else in the entire

Old Testament did the Father call Son. That's

his point. The angels, they were referred to

as sons. But there's never that definite article,

the Son. And he wants to make that clear. Reference

three, Psalm 97 .7 or Deuteronomy 32 .43. Let

all God's angels worship him. So how could the

angels be on par with Jesus if they are worshiping

Jesus? So again, the author is trying to get

us to see who Jesus is in comparison to the angels.

Reference four. From Psalm 104, verse 4. It says

Psalms 104:4

that angels are merely just, they're ministers.

They're flames of fire, so they're really, really

powerful. But they're not at the status of son.

Okay? Reference 5. Jesus is uniquely appointed.

From Psalm 45. God, your God, has appointed you

with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

So the Son is uniquely anointed. The Son is the

Messiah, which means anointed one. That's Hebrew.

Greek is anointed one. Christ is Greek, which

also means anointed one. And so there's no other

one that's uniquely labeled that way, appointed

in that way. All right, so reference six. Jesus

is eternal. Angels are creations. Jesus is eternal.

Psalm 102, 25, 27, it says, you are the same

and your years will have no end. And so again,

he's comparing angels are creatures. They're

flames, they're ministers and they're important.

They have a function, but nothing, nothing near

the sun. Verse seven is sort of like the climactic.

verse here. Psalm 110 verse 1 says, the Lord

Psalms 110:1

says to my Lord, the Lord says to my Lord, which

is always kind of a funny way to start a psalm,

right? A statement. The Lord says to my Lord,

sit at my right hand until I make your enemies

your footstool. So the son rules. Jesus reigns.

Angels don't reign. Jesus reigns. And so angels

are servants, Jesus is the son. Angels are messengers,

Jesus is the Messiah. Angels are functionaries,

Jesus is forever. It's breathtakingly eloquent

Christology. It's absolutely beautiful. Now,

what are some things we can learn from these

passages before we get to our second point here?

I discovered that all the Old Testament quotes

in the book of Hebrews, save for one, God the

Father speaking. This is not merely just quoting

Old Testament text. This is quoting, like not

any just random Old Testament text. This is the

quotes from God the Father about Jesus. All but

one. And they give us permission to read the

Psalms with that Christ focus. Especially the

Psalms, because most of these are Psalms. So

when we're reading the Old Testament, we could

read it as, as one author wrote, as a Christian

book. When we say obsolete, it doesn't mean delete.

It's still useful. It's still active. It's still

breathing. Paul was referring to the Old Testament

when he was writing to Timothy that all scripture

is God breathed. Revealing to us who Jesus is.

I love that because it gives us permission to

make the connections. Yes, it's important when

you're reading the Old Testament to focus on

the history, the grammar, literary techniques,

and all that. Those are important. But we always,

always must see it through the New Testament,

through the person of Jesus Christ. So it helps

us read our Bible better, these verses. It teaches

us how to read the Old Testament. And one unique

example is 2 Samuel 7, 14. So here we have King

David talking about his son. It says in 2 Samuel

7, I will be to him a father and he shall be

to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will

discipline him with the rod of men, with the

stripes of sons of men. So imagine being a...

a Roman Christian Jew in the first century reading

these words that the author of Hebrews is writing

about and thinking, okay, but those have to do

with King David referring to Solomon. You're

saying that we could read the Bible in such a

way that we could even read a verse like that

and read it Christocentrically, having Christ

as the center? Absolutely. And so the Old Testament

contains true stories, history, songs, prophecies,

but encoded within, around, and through the text

is Christ himself. Well, we get a so what here

in verse 2, at the end of chapter 1 and the beginning

of chapter 2. I'm going to reread these verses,

so please follow along. Are they not all ministering

spirits, that is angels, sent out to serve for

the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

That's the question. Therefore, we must pay much

closer attention to what we have heard, lest

we drift away from it. For since the message

declared by angels proved to be reliable and

every transgression or disobedience received

a just retribution, how shall we escape if we

neglect such a great salvation? I'm going to

stop there, actually. We learned recently that

Stephen Langton, 12th century Archbishop of Canterbury,

was the one who delineated the chapters of the

Bible. And every once in a while I'll read the

Bible and I'm going, Stephen, what are you thinking?

Why did he separate chapter 1 and 2? It's so

important to see the connection between chapter

one and especially chapter two, one through four,

because he gives all this exposition, but then

there's a therefore. And like someone wise once

said, whenever you see a therefore, you gotta

know what it's there for, right? And so what

is it there for? It's connecting the superiority

of Jesus over angels. It's taking that argument

now and say, okay, well, so what? Pay attention

and don't drift away. There's three main arguments

that we're going to focus on. Three main arguments

in these verses that I've written out because,

again, they're a little complicated. They're

simple but complicated at the same time. Argument

number one. If angels were mere messengers sent

to serve Christians, how much more should we

pay attention to the Messiah who came to save

Christians? So angels... It's interesting. They're

sent to serve. They're sent. The word there is

a word where we get apostle from. They're sent.

Same words used for us when we're sent. And then

the word is to serve, which is where we get the

word deacon from, which is a word referred to

us too. So angels are sent. They're apostled

to serve us. Amazing, right? And we're supposed

to do the same. So they're serving us, but then

we have to serve God. And so the argument is,

if they are over here doing things for us, how

much more should we pay attention to the Messiah

who came to save us? His function, if we could

put it that way, was so much greater than the

angels. The angels are serving us. How much greater

should we then, Focus on who Jesus is as the

Son of God. The word drift here is interesting.

It says, pay attention, do not drift. That's

where we get that word rheology, which we're

going to focus on in a minute. Rheology is, and

I didn't know this before I was studying this,

but rheology is the study of flow. The study

of flow. So music can have rhythm. R -H -Y, which

has the same root as this word for flow. So,

rheology is a study of flow. Rhythm is like the

flow of notes. Okay? Another word that's cognate

with that is diarrhea. It has to do with flow.

And I bring that up, partly to be a little cheeky,

but also to recognize that there are negative

connotations to that. And there's negative connotations

to this word drift away as well. You're supposed

to pay attention. It's super important. It's

an imperative. Pay attention. Do not drift. Do

not drift away. Jesus is so much greater. The

second argument that he makes here, again, All

that we focused on with exhortation, what does

that mean for us? Argument two, if we trust the

Old Testament was a reliable witness given by

angels, how much more should we trust the reliable

witness of Jesus? He spoke it himself. It's amazing

in verse 2, it says, for since the message declared

by angels proved to be reliable, for the message

here, for since the message is the word logos

here, and we know that Jesus is referred to as

the logos in John 1 .1. So in the beginning was

the word, was the message, was Jesus, was the

logos. The angels mediated the logos. was the

logos huge difference and if that's true how

much more should we pay attention to what jesus

taught us the third argument if the old testament

recorded god's people neglecting judgment how

much greater judgment will you face if you neglect

your great salvation so so in the old testament

you know we see retribution you see judgment

happening because of what because of disobedience

Because of rebellion, right? They go to exile.

These are all examples of judgment that happened

in the Old Testament, right? So if the Old Testament

is true and it's reliable, given to us, and the

stories over here teach us a lot of lessons,

how much more should we learn our lesson? How

much more should we know our great salvation,

our mega salvation, our that much greater? Salvation.

Because we're not just talking about salvation

from Egypt. That was a shadow. The reality is

in Christ. The difference between being saved

from slavery and death is life itself. Life eternal

itself. How much greater should we value and

hold on to our great salvation? And so with chapter

one in mind and chapter two in mind, What we're

going to do now is we're going to take it to

heart and figure, okay, what does this mean for

me and how I live? In what areas can I drift

or neglect? So that's where we focus on our last

point here. We're going to focus on rheology,

the study of flow, your spiritual flow. And the

challenge is don't drift, but stay anchored.

Don't drift, but stay anchored. The focus. on

the supremacy of Jesus, ought to avoid us from

spiritual fade. That's the point. We have this

supreme leader, which then the logic naturally

flows that we should be supremely surrendered

to him. To quote the famous line from Michael

Scott, I am not superstitious. I am a little

stitious. Author of Hebrews is trying to get

us to see a superior Jesus, not a little or Jesus.

There's a sense of urgency to following a Christ

who is this powerful. We talked about the three

offices of Christ, and we're going to come back

to this over and over and over again in this

book, because this book deals with Jesus' different

offices of prophet, priest, and king. And if

you look at what we believe, About who Jesus

is. Jesus is our prophet. He's the one who calls

us out to repentance. Like the prophets of old.

Repent and believe. Now some people like to focus

also on the moral example. The moral standard

I should say. That the prophets demanded. Commanded

Israel to live out. God working through them.

Live rightly. Many people in our culture. Would

agree. That this is. a good thing to be good.

Not many people are going to argue against Jesus

as prophet when he says things like, you know,

love your neighbor as you love yourself. Most

people in the entire world would agree that Jesus

taught prophetic things and good things, things

that challenge how we behave. Christians also

believe that Jesus is a priest. Now the world

This is where things get a little tricky. The

world will look at our proclamation of Jesus

as priest and be like, oh yeah, sure, Jesus died.

And I know what you're saying, like Jesus died

for all your sins. That's a great example, Jesus,

that you lay down your life for another. There's

no greater love. It says right in your Bible

that there's no greater love. So yes, Jesus was

also a moral example as a priest, giving himself

up for others. It's up to this point. Many people

around the world would agree that Jesus was some

kind of prophet, that Jesus was some kind of

priest. But where there's a rub, all of a sudden

Jesus is a king. Because the king assumes that

he's still alive. And that he didn't stay dead,

but he rose again on the third day, right? And

ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand

of God the Father Almighty. King is about a living

ruler, supreme ruler, a resurrected king. And

it's about authority and how his authority influences

our life. Now, when you look at your own life,

you could probably see areas where you have drifted

away from one of these offices. We see how culture

has drifted away from all three of them, really.

But for you, maybe you're just stuck in Jesus

as prophet concept, where you're drifting away

from king and priest. Because if a prophet was

calling people to repentance, maybe you're really

good at judgmentalism. You're really good at

calling it. You're really good at legalism. You

know what's right. You know what's wrong. You

call other people out. And your identity as a

Christian is to know what is right and to know

what is wrong and to call that out in the world

and tell them what's what. You're kind of a lone

wolf out there. You're going to go out just like

those prophets did, and you're going to tell

them the world that they're full of sin, and

that's it. You stop there. There's not a lot

of room for grace in this if that's all you're

going to do. So if you're drifting away from

priest and king, that influences how you behave.

If you look at priest, if you overemphasize priest,

there's no obedience. Like we could say, oh,

Jesus was a priest. Guess what? He was also a

sacrifice. So as a priest, he died for my sins

and I'm forgiven. And so you could live a life

of license. It's not so much about legalism at

this point. You're thinking, hey, I could do

whatever I want to do because my sins are forgiven.

Thank you, Jesus. I could do whatever I want

to do from a Monday to Saturday. As long as I

keep saying, I'm sorry, Lord. I know I've got

my savior. He died for me. If you just focus

on that, then there's no obedience. If you look

at a way in which you could possibly drift away

from the concept of priest and prophet, you may

struggle with pride. You may not have much humility.

I think of Acts 1, you know, where Jesus was

resurrected king. And all the apostles, they

see him and they're worshiping him. And they

ask him this question. Are you now going to restore

the kingdom of Israel? Are you now going to place

us on positions of authority on literal thrones

in Jerusalem where you are going to rule as king

and dethrone Rome and change all the structures

in place? Are you going to finally make this

change? And Jesus just doesn't. He's like, I'm

going up. You can see how if we drift away from

one of these offices, how it impacts our discipleship,

how it impacts how we follow Jesus. Now, the

book of Hebrews, the author is trying to get

us to see all three offices from a Christocentric

perspective, that he's just not any prophet.

He's a gospel prophet. He's proclaiming the good

news. The kingdom of God is at hand. And when

we focus on the high priest, he's just not talking

about, hey, he's not talking about just any high

priest. He's talking about the last one. He's

talking about the final sacrifice. And when we

talk about resurrected king, we're talking about

the son who's sitting beside the father in heaven.

And so the gospel writer of Hebrews is trying

to get us to see not just any Jesus, the supreme

Jesus, and how that requires total surrender

in all three offices. And there is no room for

drift here. Pay attention to all three. Because

he's about to tell us. He's about to go chapter

after chapter after chapter after chapter of

how great Jesus is. And if Jesus is great, how

much greater should our following of him be?

And so as we wrap up here, just to focus on how

to do that. How do we avoid the spiritual drift?

And I think it's just really kind of fitting

that if you look back at our passage, it focuses

on... Really two things. Stay anchored in your

great salvation. Well, what does that mean? Don't

neglect your great salvation. Or to put it positively,

remember your great salvation. I love the story

in the New Testament. You know, the ten lepers

in Luke 17. Ten lepers get healed from their

leprosy. From this terrible, terrible disease.

Only one remembered to go back and thank Jesus

that he was healed. We need to remember. Our

great salvation every day. Because what that

does, it's like it correct courses us. We don't

have to puff ourselves up. We don't have to put

ourselves down. We don't need to struggle with

the pride and humility and all these things.

No, it corrects us thinking, no, I was saved

from death. I've been resurrected with Jesus.

Not through my own power, but through Jesus.

Who rules over a spiritual kingdom who is spiritually

present right here and now. Chapter 2 verse 9

a little bit later on says this. But we see Jesus

who for a little while was made lower than the

angels. Namely Jesus crowned with glory and honor

because of the suffering of death. So that by

the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

He tasted your death. That's what we need to

remember. We cannot neglect that great salvation.

It corrects our thinking. Like if you needed

a heart transplant, would you ever neglect your

gratitude towards that donor? Or if you were

in a house fire, would you ever neglect your

gratitude toward the firefighter who pulled you

from it? No. You do not quickly forget those

people who have given you access to grace, who

have saved you, who have provided for you a great

salvation. We remember even the little things.

I remember when I was 16 and I was doing the

written test for my license. And I had to fill

out all those bubbles. And I remember you couldn't

get four wrong. You could only get three wrong.

And so after I took my test, I went up to the

officer and he's correcting my test. And he goes

to me, hey, Mark, if you were to, and he gave

me an example of driving. And I know based on

his tone that he was trying to get me to answer

it differently. Would you do A or would you do

B? And I was like. Be. I would do be. And so

he just erases a bubble and fills in another

one. He's like, oh, you only got three wrong.

Here you go. You passed. I won't forget that.

That is a little, little grace. Little grace.

Probably undeserved, but that's what grace is,

right? How much greater should we every day remember

our great salvation? That is our anchor. To remember

him as our prophet, priest, and king and how,

what he did. In those offices for our salvation.

Second thing, stay anchored in the word. This

great salvation, it was declared at first by

the Lord and it was attested to us by those who

heard. Well, God also bore witness by signs and

wonders and various miracles and gifts of the

Holy Spirit. So God has given us everything we

need. We have his word. It was declared by the

Lord. If you do not read your scripture, you

are going to lose your anchor. And it's an experiential

thing too. It's not just reading and something

is declared and we read and we hear it, but it's

also God bore witness. That word bore is in a

present tense, which means it's ongoing and all

the time. God bore witness by signs and wonders,

various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit

distributed according to his will. We're getting

a little bit out of the gospel in here, aren't

we? This is amazing. God is still at work and

we get to still experience him today. So find

your anchor in the word in order to find out

how to live as a Christian. Dive deeply into

the truths that scripture gives us through the

lens of Jesus as our prophet and our priest and

our king. Don't fade. Don't slip. Remember your

great salvation and anchor yourself in the word.

Bask in your great salvation and gratitude to

Jesus. as your prophet and priest and king. Let's

pray. Gracious Lord, we thank you for this passage

that is so rich and so much going on there with

Old Testament texts, exhortation between verses,

weaving in and out seamlessly through these verses

from different books of the Old Testament. And

then, boom, pay attention. Pay attention and

do not drift. Do not drift away. Do not neglect

our great salvation. Lord, we pray that your

Holy Spirit, who we see in these words at the

end of our passage, is working today alive and

well, bearing witness to our souls who you are

as our prophet, priest, and king. We pray, Lord,

that we will continue to experience this on a

daily basis, that the Holy Spirit will give us

the discipline that we need to study your word.

get anchored into it, to not neglect our great

salvation, regardless of where we may be. Wherever

we find ourselves this week, Lord, whether it's

at work, at home, whether it's at play, at a

hobby, at grocery store, shopping, whatever the

case may be, Lord, we pray that we will not neglect

our great salvation. Keep us anchored. Through

your word, by the Spirit we pray, in Christ's

name alone. Amen. You have been listening to

the Resurrection Life Sunday Sermon from Resurrection

Life Church in Apex, North Carolina. Resurrection

Life currently meets in the Apex Middle School

Auditorium at 400 East Moore Street near downtown

Apex with additional parking off of Highway 55

East Williams Street. Resurrection Life Church

is pastored by Dr. Mark Kanesh of Apex and Associate

Pastor Jeff Smith of Cary. Resurrection Life

meets for worship every Sunday morning at 10

a .m. Join us this Sunday. And if you found this

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I confess tomorrow because he lives. All fear

is gone because I know he holds the future and

life. Life is worth the living just because he

lives.