A More Excellent Name

study, that our hearts would be soft, that we would be ready to listen, that the Holy Spirit would be moving us towards truth, that you'd be with Dwayne as he speaks, and that you would be glorified through our study this morning. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, good morning everyone.

Go ahead and be seated. Go ahead and grab your Bibles as well. I just want to say good morning to the district church. We're glad that you're here today. Um, if you have not met me yet, my name is Dwayne. I am one of the pastors here and uh we started this church just over 10 years ago.

And by God's grace, he has just been sustaining us and growing us slowly uh because we do something very specific. We treasure Jesus and we help others follow him. And so, uh, beyond that, there's nothing else really that we are meant to do. We treasure Jesus and we help others follow him. That's the mission of our church. We want to keep things about him, not about us.

And so that's why we exist. That's why we're here. That's why we're here this morning. We want to sing songs to him. We want to pray prayers to him. And we want to hear what he has communicated to us.

And so if you've got your Bibles, uh we want to open those up because that's how God speaks to us. That's how God reveals uh what it is that he wants us to believe about who he is and at the same time who we are in light of it. And so we're going to be in Hebrews. Uh we're walking through the book of Hebrews. We're a church that we preach verse by verse mainly because God's creative and I am not. And so uh we want to hear what he has to say, not what I have to say.

And so we walk through verses of the Bible verse by verse to be able to see uh how just infinitely wise God is and how he's set up this whole thing that is called creation uh from the very beginning to the very end. What's the purpose of it? Why does it exist? Why do you exist? Uh and ultimately we see that everything is from Jesus. Everything is for Jesus.

And so we want to just continue studying all that God is doing in that whole thing. And so Hebrews is a wonderful book for us to be able to read because uh and study because it does one thing. It tells us who Jesus is. I mean just out of the gate, it's like we want to make sure that you don't miss anything in regards to who Jesus is. And there are some drastic claims that are made right out of the gate. And specifically speaking, um, when we're talking about some of these claims, what we're going to shift to now, because we've been in the first three verses for quite some time, as we shift now to verses four and five, he's going to tell us the name of Jesus.

And you're like, well, I thought his name was Jesus. Yes, but it's not always been necessarily Jesus. There's a greater name that he embodies that we are going to let in because the name matters. for example, I mean, I'm named Dwayne. Um, and though for however old I am now, 39, 40 years old, um, I've really never liked my name. I don't know why.

I've just never liked my name. Uh, my parents named me Dwayne because at first Wayne was the middle name of every male on the Gibbs uh, side of things. And then, so I have an older brother who's Corey Wayne. And when I was born second, my mom, for whatever reason, was like, "We're going to stop that." And so she was like, "We don't want him to have the same middle name as his older brother." So my name was going to be Dallas Wayne.

And they were like, "Let's just let's just combine that and just give him that name." And then it was like later they looked it up and it means small dark one. And they're like, "We'll just stick with it." All right. It just it fits. And so it was it was destiny at that point.

Um, so with my name, I mean that it doesn't really tell me who I am. But like if you give someone else another name, like if you meet someone and their name is King Charles III, you're like, "All right, well, Charles is his personal name." But but the fact that King's a part of his name, that that tells us a little bit more about who this guy is that we're talking to. If you walk into a company and you're working for a company and you've been working there for 10, 20 years and you know who the owner is, but then there's someone who younger comes in and bears the last name of the name that's on the building, that person likely is not going to have to work as hard as you've been working in order to get a position in the company because the name matters. And what we're going to be looking at today is the name that is given to Jesus that matters because it reveals more. And so we're we're going deeper into who he is.

It reveals reveals more of the fact that he's the son. And you're like, well, that sounds very simple. It is. It is simple, but it is also incredibly significant. And so as we move into this next section of Hebrews, the author is going to tell us that there's a name belonging to Jesus that separates him from every created spiritual being in the universe. It separates him from every created spiritual being in in the universe.

Because again, for the last several weeks, for those who are new, who who uh don't know where we've been, in the first three verses, he's been describing to us all of these declarations of the person of Jesus and what he is. Starts out by saying he's the prophet through whom God has finally spoken. So he's spoken through all kinds of prophets and all kinds of different ways, but finally he's now speaking by the son. And this speaking is complete. Meaning when we're done with Jesus and he ascends into heaven, we don't need any other word from God. We don't need any new books of the Bible.

We don't need anything else because by Jesus he is spoken finally and completely. He also says he's the heir of all things. Meaning everything that exists is moving towards Jesus. It's moving towards Jesus. So you might be saving up for retirement. Doesn't matter.

Everything's his in in the end. Whatever you're building in your life, it's ultimately all for him. He inherits everything. He's also the one through whom God created the world. So even though everything's going towards him, everything also came from him. So he's at the ends of everything that exists.

He's the radiance of God's glory. He does not just resemble God's glory or reflect God's glory. He radiates God's glory. He's both source and light. When we look at the sun and then we try to block ourselves from it so that it doesn't kill us. The sun radiates light.

But the light, the UV rays are not the sun. But when it comes to Jesus, he is both source and light. He radiates God's glory. He's the exact imprint of God's nature. So when he when we say to to see Jesus is to see God or when he says whoever has seen me has seen the father, we know that Jesus is not the father. So that's not what he's saying.

But but he is saying that I am God and to see me as God is to see the father as God because the substance that makes the father God is the same substance that makes Jesus God. So he is the exact imprint of God's nature. Even more than he's the one carrying the universe by the word of his power by simply the word of his power. Jesus is not sweating right now keeping you together just by the word of his power. He sustains everything. He's the priest who made purification for sins.

We mentioned that a couple of weeks ago that he fulfills all three offices that the Old Testament is giving us little puzzle pieces in regards to. Prophet through whom God speaks to the people. Jesus is the ultimate prophet by whom God speaks. priests. They're offering all these sacrifices in order to represent the people to God. Jesus comes and becomes the priest who becomes the sacrifice in order to represent the people to God on on his behalf and on our behalf.

But he's also king because when he's done with his sacrifice, as we saw last week, it says he then goes and he sits down at the right hand of the majesty on high. He's king. So he's prophet, he's priest, he's king. And that's what we've really that's just the best way to sum up the first three verses is this is who Jesus is. And it's the work that Jesus has accomplished. But if we were just simply looking at that, someone might try to dive in there and say, "Man, this guy accomplished a ton of things in 33 years."

And he did. But what he starts drawing on here as we move into verses four through five is he says,"I need you to remember that he wasn't just someone who existed for 33 years." That this that the name that he inherited is a name that he has been bestowed to and begotten with for eternity. For eternity. And so you need to be able to see this because what the author does in Hebrews is he now turns our attention to angels. And that might sound seem strange to us like why would we shift to angels now and in the weeks to come we're going to go a lot deeper into what we just call angelology because that topic I mean it's fascinated writers theologians it's fascinated Hollywood and so what I want us to do though is we're are going to go deeper into angelology over the next couple of weeks so I want to table that topic for just a bit but it is important because we have to remember who Hebrews Brews was originally written to in order to understand why he shifts to the idea in the topic of angels.

These are people who are deeply familiar with the Old Testament. Okay? Angels weren't cute little chubby babies with wings that they would paint on their nurseries. That's not what angels are. Instead, angels were these terrifying supernatural servants of Almighty God. Every time one shows up, they have to tell the people, "Don't be afraid."

Why? Because they were afraid. They were terrified. And if you aren't aware, angels appeared throughout all of Israel's history. So these original audience, they would have a big category for the angelic realm. And so he shifts to be able to help them understand that this big category that you have for the angelic realm, this Jesus whom we're talking about is greater than.

So don't want you to miss this because in their context they would understand angels are bigger and better than all of us. in the human in the human realm. And in this little moment here, they're thinking, "But hold up a second. We we walked with Jesus. We ate with Jesus. We slept with Jesus.

Like we we we we we we had our not like in that kind of way. Like I'm talking about actual sleeping. Just want to clarify so that that's not like pulled out in a little clip. Jesus to them was 100% in every way a human. And so part of the temptation would be he's below the angels. And he's wanting to make sure that he pulls in and helps them understand that hey, he he's he's greater than.

And that actually becomes the bigger theme that we've been walking through all of Hebrews. And what we'll see is Jesus is better than Jesus is greater than anything and everything that you would fill in the blank. And so what he wants to make sure that they understand here is don't confuse the servants with the son. Don't confuse the servants with the son. And so I want to read it for you as we dive into this. And I'm going to pull in just a little bit of verse three to make sure that you understand the context here.

But he says this in Hebrews chapter 1. After making purification for sins, he 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, "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 so what the author is doing here is the author is making a claim in verse four, but then beginning in verse five, he's going to prove it from scripture.

He's going to prove it from scripture. And to be honest with you, that is a great application for us because what we are called to do is go out and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And so we are to go out and make claims about who Jesus is. But a good way to do that is not to just make a claim, also prove it with scripture. Prove it with scripture. That's what we're doing.

So, for example, to give you an example, God created everything from nothing. That's a claim. If I were to talk to somebody and say, "Hey, just so you know, God created everything from nothing." That's a claim. Now, let me back it up with scripture. Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

So, it's taking a claim and it's making sure that God's word supports it. And that's exactly what the author is doing here. He's making a claim. Jesus is greater than the angels. And then he is backing it up with scriptural support. And what he's really claiming here is there is no one like the sun.

There is no one like the sun. That's the claim this author is making and he's going to use scripture to prove it. So the first point that I want you to be able to see here is that and this is just kind of working exoggetically through the text. The first point I want you to see is Jesus has become superior to the angels. Verse four begins with having become as much superior to angels. The word translated superior simply means more excellent which is where we get the title for the for the for this sermon.

a more excellent name. A more excellent name. And if you're paying attention, it's an important word in Hebrews because again, this is where this is where we derive the name of the series. Jesus is better. He's got a more excellent name. He's got more excellent work that he accomplished.

He's a more excellent sacrifice than the sacrifices of the Old Testament. He's got a more excellent word than any other word that's ever spoken in existence. Like Jesus is more excellent than everything. Therefore, Jesus is better than everything. So, if you ever are tempted to trust in something, what the author is doing for us is he's taking whatever you are wanting to trust in and he's putting Jesus beside it and he's saying, "Please choose the good portion. Please choose the better option.

Jesus is greater and better than anything that you would be tempted to trust in." Now, there's a word here that should stir up a question in you when you read this. Look at it again. Having become superior to angels. Now, wait a minute. What do we mean by become?

How did Jesus become superior to the angels? Because I thought we're just literally saying he's better than the angels. So, how was there at some point where he wasn't better than and he became better than? We got to figure out what the author means when he says, "Having become as much superior to the angels." Because what he's not describing here is a change in Jesus's divine nature. We just spent three verses over the course of two months arguing that he is divine, that he is the radiance of God's glory, that he's the exact imprint of his nature.

So how can we all of a sudden now shift to saying he's less than? So surely he's not saying in this specific text here that Jesus was less than and then somehow became better than that somehow he earned divine status in his 33 years. That's not what we're actually getting at here. rather what he's doing and this is so important for us to understand in the progression of God revealing to us what God is doing in eternity past and then stepping into our humanity and then where he'll be for eternity future. He's working through this this this this uh sort of chapters if you will of what God is accomplishing among us. And so rather what he's doing here is he's describing the exaltation of Christ's incarnation.

That's what he's establishing here. He's establishing the exaltation of his incarnation. Now, what does that mean? Follow me here because this is so beautiful. This is so beautiful. We've been talking about treasuring Jesus.

Anytime I'm able to put in front of you something that should build your treasuring of Jesus, I want to highlight it. This is one of those moments where when what I'm about to talk about this should produce in you. Yes, that guy, that guy, I'm all in on. That's worth treasuring. That's worth treasuring. All right.

So, listen to this. Here's what he is revealing to us. The eternal son humbled himself by taking upon himself our humanity. He's working us into this progression. Wes Huff puts it this way. The second person of the Trinity stepped out of eternity and by his own humility put on our humanity.

That's what is happening in the incarnation. The incarnation. God stepping out of eternity into our finite humanity. He's stepping into it. He then continued as he steps into our humanity and takes on our flesh, he then continues lowering himself. lowering himself by taking upon himself again our humanity to the point of suffering.

Suffering for eternity past, God has never suffered. God has never lacked. Never. But in the incarnation of sending his son Jesus to step into our humanity begins to suffer. And he's choosing to do this, and we'll get to why in just a minute, but to the point of death. And then after death, he rises again.

And the God man is now exalted and enthroned in the position belonging to the victorious Messiah. Again, Paul describes this same movement in Philippians chapter 2. It says, "Christ existed in the form of God. Then he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. This is what we're talking about. This is how we get the language that he becomes lower than the angels.

He takes on the form of a servant by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And you're like, why was he why would he point out even death on a cross? Because that is the most humiliating thing to endure and experience in first century Roman Empire. Basically, he's saying there is nowhere else you can possibly go that's lower than experiencing death on a cross. Death on a cross. And yet the infinite, highly exalted, highest position you could ever possibly be.

This is what Jesus came and entered into and became. to the point of humiliation, death on a cross. And it says then in Philippians 2, therefore God has then highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. And so notice the movement there from glory he steps into humanity into full humiliation and from there comes back into his exaltation. That's the movement that we that we are seeing where God eternal the son steps into our humanity, takes on our flesh, remains God, but is now, as we talked a few weeks ago, takes on the form of the hypothatic union. What in the world is that?

It just means that he remains fully God, but is now also fully man. Fully man. And in his incarnation as fully man has lowered himself to the point of the deepest level of humiliation you could possibly go. And in that place he is lower than the angels. And from there because of after making purification of sins he is now becoming more superior than the angels as God is now exalting him and resurrecting him back to his rightful position. And again, Jesus didn't become God.

Some some other world religions try to use passages like this to say, see, he was never God. But if you work hard enough and you work well enough, you can actually earn your own deity. You can earn your own position as becoming a God. That's not what we're saying here. Jesus did not become God, but he did empty himself and lower himself in becoming a man. Those are different things.

God became a man, not a man becoming a God. And he temporarily positioned himself below the angels. That's the idea here. So the claim is Jesus eternally as superior as God the son then became inferior once the son stepped into humanity and put on flesh and then back to superior as the God man. That's the claim. And Hebrews 2, as we'll see in the coming weeks, is actually going to provide the scriptural proof of this as it says Jesus was made for a little while lower than the angels.

Now, just notice that for a little while that we're talking about the 33 years that he was here. For a little while, he was made lower than the angels. That's the incarnation. But then Hebrews 2 goes on to say, he was then crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering death after making purification for sins. That's then the exaltation. That's the exaltation.

He goes lower. Denier is exalted because he is his divine nature never changed. It never changed. But because the eternal son assumed our humanity, accomplished redemption in that humanity, rose in that humanity, ascended in that humanity, he now reigns and victoriously as the God man. And Hebrews says this basically there isn't an angel anywhere that comes close to him. That comes close to him.

That's the point. He's saying, "We've got this category for all these angelic beings that we're terrified of and that we esteem so much higher than us." And he's saying, "Don't let the man crucified on that cross. Don't let anyone else tell you that he is something that he is not. He is superior. He is greater."

And it's because of this one thing. As we move next, he possesses a more excellent name. He possesses a more excellent name. Verse four continues, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Speaking of the angels, again, we're dealing with Christ and his incarnation. Now, because you can't say that the eternal Jesus inherited a name, the eternal Jesus did not inherit a name.

He's always had the name. He's always had the name. He's always had the title. He's always been the son. But the incarnate Christ, the fully man, is now also receiving the same name that he has had for eternity. It's given to him.

And and the the the author here is making sure that we understand who else has received that name. Who else has he ever given this title, this position? He's saying when he walks into creation, his name's written on the building because he just proved that in the first three verses. It's through him that everything was created. It's his. He's the heir of all things.

And so, if we're going to call this man something, call him the name that he is, that he's always been, the son. For to which, look at verse five. For to which of the angels did God ever say, "Here's the name. You are my son. You are my son." No angel's ever been given that name.

No other man has ever been given that name. Now, don't misunderstand that. Again, son doesn't mean Jesus began existing at some point. We've already established that. Jesus himself says in John 17 verse5 again this is the incarnate fully man Jesus praying to God he says this father glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. So this Jesus who is a man is in that moment declaring in his prayer that I've always been.

I've always been. So Jesus does not begin at the conception of Mary, but his incarnation does. And we're now attaching to his incarnation his eternality. That's what's going on here. Jesus is eternally the son. But son, that title, and that's why I'm kind of going with that idea of the building and name on the wall, that carries enormous messianic and royal significance for us.

It's why the author immediately when he gives the claim provides scripture to support it and he goes straight to Psalm chapter 2. He goes straight to Psalm chapter 2. Hebrews is quoting essentially Psalm 2:7 where in Psalm 2:7 it says, "You are my son. Today I have begotten you." Today I have begotten you. Now Psalm 2, this is a royal psalm.

All right? It begins with the nations raging against God and his anointed one. All right? The one who's rightfully going to be king. And it says in verse two, "The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed." If you if you're ever wondering why the world hates Christians, it's because we are serving the anointed one.

We are serving the true one. We are serving the true king. And sin and sinners hate it. Satan hates it. It's why when you look around the world, rarely do you ever see anybody writing negative articles, especially if they're coming from a liberal, secular, progressive ideology. They never go after each other.

They go after Christians. They go after Christ. They set themselves against him. But God is not worried. I actually love Psalm uh 2:4. It says, "He who sits in the heavens laughs."

Laughs because he's rigged the whole thing. He knows how it's going to end. He knows who's going to triumph. He knows who's going to be victorious. He knows that you actually cannot thwart the plans of God. And that should build our faith.

That should build our trust in him that no matter what anybody comes against Christians with, we don't have to worry about it. God's in heaven actually laughing about it, saying, "Don't be nervous. Don't be scared. Don't be concerned. Whatever the Lord decrees and wills will come to pass. It will come to pass.

We don't have to worry about it." But he says this down in verse six of Psalm 2. As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. So this whole Psalm 2 is about a king that is anointed and appointed that he is going to bring about. And in verse 7, he says, I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son today I have begotten you. So he's saying that this son that is going to come from the line of David is going to be the king.

And here in Hebrews, he's making sure that you understand this is the one he was talking about. This is what Psalm 2 has been pointing forward. This is what they've been waiting for. It's royal language. The son is God's appointed king. And it helps us understand that phrase, today I have begotten you.

Because it cannot mean today you began to exist. Instead, Psalm 2 is describing the public declaration and installation of God's Messiah, King. That's what's being installed here. And there are two truths we need to hold together, keep them together. Jesus possesses eternal sunship. He has eternally existed as the son in relationship with the father.

And Jesus possesses the messianic sunship. The eternal son became a man and was born in that Davidic line so that Psalm 2 could be fulfilled and a son of David would rightfully take the throne. Again, God's rigged all of history. The son who's rightfully been ruling and reigning for all eternity now comes incarnate as the one born in Mary's womb and eventually will rightfully take the throne of David. Now I want to click on that and just take it a little step deeper. Hebrews reaches for another passage in verse 5.

He says this, "Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son." Now, that one he pulls in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Chapter 7. And I want to do something here um that we don't do often, but it's going to take some time. And I just want you to just receive this. All right.

This is why it's so important we talk about shadows and substance. We talk about the Old Testament being the shadows and Jesus being the substance. And ultimately what that means is when God speaks by his son Jesus and he's radiating his glory and the light that is shine on Jesus. Basically think about it in a theater. It's like if there's the person on stage and the rest of the room is dark and the light hits that person and you see the shadow coming off the back of him. The whole Old Testament is the shadows that are just depictions kind of we can see the figure here of who Jesus is and what he stands for and what he's accomplishing.

And 2 Samuel 7 is one of those puzzle pieces that Nathan is receiving as the prophet and as he's declaring and and and helping David understand what God is doing. It's actually not about David. It's all about Jesus. And it's not about the house of God. It's actually about the church ultimately and what he is building. And so this is where it's so good that when you read the Old Testament, read it through the lens of Jesus.

How is this puzzle piece revealing to us who ultimately Jesus is and what he accomplishes? So I actually want to read second Samuel chapter 7 for you. And I just want you to be able to see all that God is declaring to them that ultimately becomes fulfilled in Christ. This will build your faith. Here's what he says starting in verse one. Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, "See now I I dwell in a house of cedar."

Basically, he's saying to I've got an awesome log cabin, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan said to the king, "Go do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you." But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"

Like God's not worried about what they're building for him. Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of Hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formally.

From the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom." Now, I love that because if you're paying attention, he's talking about lots and lots of children, offspring. But he draws in. He says, "I will make his kingdom, the throne of his kingdom forever.

He, that messianic one, that promised one, he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." So, he's essentially telling David, "Don't worry about building something for me. I'm going to build it. I'm going to plant you where you are to be planted. I'm going to take care of you and lead you and guide you and do all those things for you. And there's going to be one who comes who will take the rightful throne and he will be the one who constructs the house.

Listen to this. I will be to him, here's our verse. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. when he commits iniquity, which is an interesting one, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I did take it from Saul, whom I put away from before you." Right there, he's talking about Jesus ultimately going to the cross and bearing our iniquity. But he says,"I will not remove my anointing from him, even though he bears all of the sins of the world.

I will keep it with him. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever." I mean, he's just encouraging David here. Don't worry about what's going to happen with your children. don't worry about their children because in all honesty what we're going to if you were to just keep reading they lose everything.

I mean at some point they're like there is no more Davidic throne. They've lost it all. But he's making sure that they understand it was actually never about anything that they built physically. It was simply the lineage that would eventually deliver for them Jesus who would take the rightful throne. He said, 'In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, David or Nathan spoke to David. And then I got to I got to finish it because David goes into a prayer here that is just hopefully the prayer of our hearts.

Then King David went in and he sat before the Lord and he said, and I just hope this is our our the posture of our heart as well. Who am I, oh Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, oh Lord God. You have spoken also of your servants's house for a great while to come. And this is instruction for mankind, oh Lord God.

What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, oh Lord God, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, oh Lord God, for there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. Again, remember what we talked about earlier on. Do not harden your hearts when you hear his voice. This is the exact same thing that he sang.

And who is like your people, O Israel? The one nation on whom or on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods. and you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, oh Lord, became their God. And now, oh Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house. And do as you have spoken, and your name will be magnified forever, saying, "The Lord of Hosts is God over Israel, and the house of your servant David will be established before you.

For you, oh Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, "I will build you a house." Remember where we started? David was like, "Hey, I I want to build a house for the Lord." And now David's declaring, "You're the one who will build the house, so do it." Therefore, your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, oh Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.

Now, therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, oh Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever. Forever. So rich. There was an immediate fulfillment in Solomon and the Davidic kings. But the promise reached beyond Solomon.

The promise reached beyond the Davidic kings. His throne didn't last forever. As I mentioned, the kingdom divided. David's dynasty eventually appeared to collapse. But God's promise ultimately remained because the son of David was coming. was coming.

And Hebrews here is telling us he's arrived. He's arrived. This is the name that was given to him. What Nathan was telling David had nothing to do with Solomon. It had everything to do with Jesus. It had everything to do with Jesus.

And so, what was God teaching these original hearers to believe? You can trust Jesus. you can go all in on him because remember their situation. They're under pressure. Some are suffering. Some are tempted to retreat.

This idea of Christianity. They're looking backward towards the familiar world of Judaism. They're looking at the law. They're looking at Moses. They're looking at angels. They're looking at temples.

They're looking at sacrifices. They're looking at the priests. And Hebrews is telling them, don't go backwards from the sun to the servants. Don't reverse it. Whatever role angels played in Israel's history, they were never the son. They were never the son.

Whatever majesty angels possessed, they don't possess his name. Whatever authority they exercise, they exercise it with his authority. whatever words that the angel showed up and spoke, they were speaking Jesus's words. That's the point he's making here. And he's saying you can trust everything that he offers. And I think there's something here for us as well.

Most of us aren't tempted to abandon Christianity because of Michael the Archangel. Like many of us aren't tempted because we don't necessarily see angels that show up like what they were showing up like in the Old Testament. If you've seen one, I'd love to we that's a bonfire check. Like let's make sure we have that on the calendar. But but what we are constantly tempted to take is something good that God created and give it a place that belongs only to the sun. That's what we are tempted.

Good gifts make bad gods. career, family, marriage, money, politics, comfort, success, hobby, even ministry. Good gifts, but they make terrible gods. Good servants make terrible saviors. And so, he's telling them, don't jump back into the things that were just servants. Trust the savior.

Trust the son. Whatever it is that you're tempted to put your trust in, the author here is telling you, let's put Jesus beside it and let's do a little bit of comparison. Jesus is better. Jesus is better. And yet, what did the son willingly do? I want to begin closing out with this.

Philippians 2 5-11 explains it for us. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God, the son's been eternally God. Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. you could put in there. Lowered himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the progression that we're seeing in this. Think about that for just a moment. Like really meditate on this. The one who possessed the highest name willingly took the lowest place.

I just want you to think about that. The son became a servant. Not because he ceased being the son, but because he came to save servants like us. He humbled himself. He took on flesh. He be he became obedient unto death.

He went to the cross and there the son of God made purification for our sins and then God raised him, exalted him and seated him at his right hand. And so when we come to this table, as we come to it at the end of every service every week, as we come to this table, we're remembering the humiliation of the exalted son. Because right now he's exalted. He's sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. He's where he belongs. But he instituted, "Don't forget what I condescended and descended down to.

Don't forget what I accomplished in your place." The bread reminds us the eternal son took a body and broke it. The cup reminds us the eternal son shed his blood. And we don't come to this table hoping that our sacrifice will be enough. We're not coming to this table to, "Hey God, look what I did for you this week. Hey God, look what I accomplished.

Look how I broke my body. Look how I shed my blood. Look at all the good things I did. Look at all the bad things I confess. Look at all Look at all the things. He's saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're not the one to build the house. I'm the one building the house. You just get to be invited in and dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of your life." We come because his sacrifice was enough. The son has accomplished what no angel could ever accomplish. No angel would do this.

Actually, contrary, what was Satan? He was an angel. A very beautiful one, a very magnificent one. You think he's willing to descend? No. Actually, what he wanted was to ascend to the throne.

And the one there descended and came to us. There's a big difference between Satan and Jesus. Satan would never do this. But Jesus did because there's no one like him. There's no one like him. And if there's no one like him, there's no one else in whom we should place our hope.

And that's why we plead with you every single week as Romans 10:9 says, "Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved." You'll be saved. Don't put your hope and trust in anything else. Look at Jesus and who he is and what he accomplished and put your trust there. Because if you're trusting in yourself, it's never going to be enough. It's never going to be enough.

Trust in who Jesus has always been. Trust in the work that Jesus came and and did for us in the incarnation. And trust that God then exalted him and sat him down at the right hand of the throne of God. And there he resides today. Trust who Jesus is. And you will be saved.

You will be saved. Go all in on Jesus. Follow him. He's building a house. Are you living in it? Are you living in it?

Let's pray. Father God, we come to you today. We thank you so much for all that you have accomplished in sending your son Jesus to come and do all that we could not do for ourselves. God, you created everything from nothing. And it was so good. And then we rebelled in dis in disobedience.

We brought death into this world. And we honestly we deserve that death. We deserve that punishment. but being rich in mercy. By the grace of God, by the grace of God, Jesus came and lived the life that we could not live. He died the death that we deserved.

And because he made purification for sins, the wrath of God towards our sin was satisfied, God rose Jesus from the grave three days later and exalted him to the right hand of the throne where he sits and he rules and he reigns and he upholds all things. Right now, I pray if there's anyone in this room who has never believed that, I pray right now by hearing God's word, you would not harden your heart, but you would surrender your life to Christ. You would bend your knee to his son, Jesus. Confess your sins. Confess that you have sinned against him. Confess that it was your sins that nailed him there.

But it it was his sacrifice that now frees you and forgives you and grants you all of his righteousness. And we therefore get to now be adopted by the father and brought home into his house and get to [music] live and abide with Christ for all eternity. Right now as we are praying to the Lord, I pray that there might be someone in this [music] room who just prays that prayer. Lord, forgive me of my sins. I trust in you. I trust in your son, Jesus.

I trust in his work and not mine. Would he forgive me? I want to follow him all the days of my life. And it's in Jesus name we pray. that powerful name, that name that no one else bears. It's in that name that we pray.

Amen. Amen. Would y'all stand with me as we come to our time of communion? Communion is an invitation for those who understand that his body has been broken and his blood has been [music] shed. You're not you're not bringing a sacrifice to an altar. You're coming to remember that he brought himself to the altar and sacrificed himself.

And it's an act of worship for us to partake of this as we dwell in the presence of God. His body broken for you, his bloodshed for you, to remove all of the sins of your life, past, present, and future. and we thank him and we worship him and we proclaim his death [music] so that we might have life. So that we might have life. So if you believe that, I invite you to come down, [music] grab the elements, bring them back to your seats, and at the end of the song, we will all partake together. Come on down.

All [singing and music] shining like the sun, a fortune I inherit