Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus - The Letter to the Hebrews
Lanse Evangelical Free Church
February 1, 2026 :: Hebrews 1:5-14
Do not fix your eyes on angels.
Last time we were together, we opened our new series on the sermonic Letter to the Hebrews with the overarching theme, “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus.”
And that’s also our theme as a church for this year: “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus.”
The writer of this letter was encouraging these apparently primarily Jewish Christians in the first century to run the race of their lives focused on Jesus at the starting line and, especially, at the finish line. And he tells them to not take their eyes off of Jesus. Not for one second. To not get distracted. To not get discouraged. To not stop running towards Jesus. To not drift off or go backwards!
He says in chapter 12 of this letter, “[S]ince we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:1-2).
That’s the message of this sermonic letter, and that’s what we are focusing on in these days as a church.
Not on angels.
Do not fix your eyes on angels.
Why would you? Well, angels are pretty amazing! The Bible says a lot about angels. They are really fascinating.
For one thing, angels are real. We should not fall into the ditch on the other side of not thinking about angels as real things in our world. Angels exist. There are multitudes of them! They are numerous. Thousands upon thousands exist. Probably millions upon millions! Maybe billions upon billions?
I don’t know how many angels might be right here in this room? There is some evidence in the Bible that God gives every Christian at least one guardian angel (see Matthew 18:10, though there it says that they are in heaven). So there may be at least 170 right here, right now?
Chapter 12 says that we as Christians “have have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:22-23). Are we in the presence of thousands of angels right now? I don’t know. Maybe there’s just a few right here, right now. They’re invisible, so I don’t know. And that’s okay!
But they are real. They are all over the Bible.
Think about all of the angels in the Bible stories that you know. Michael and Gabriel in the Book of Daniel last year.
Gabriel coming to the virgin Mary to tell her about the Son of the Most High before that first Christmas.
The army of angels lighting up the sky and singing to the shepherds when Jesus was born.
There are angels from Genesis to Revelation. They are real. They are here. They are numerous. They are powerful.
Angels are supra-human personal worshipful spiritual beings. And they are often sent by God to deliver a message. Angels are supernatural messengers from God. God sent angels when He gave the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. That’s what chapter 2 is going to emphasize about angels.
And they do miracles! Think about how the angels helped Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter 3 (see Dan 3:28) and shut the mouths of the lions in Daniel chapter 6 (see Dan 6:22). And rescued the Apostle Peter from prison in Acts chapter 12.
They don’t just deliver messages. They deliver miracles! Angels are powerful.
And they are pure. Think about the seraphim in the vision of Isaiah chapter 6, flying above the Lord in the temple. Burning. “Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying” (Isaiah 6:2). Pure, fiery, awesome creatures that attend the very presence of God.
Angels are real, and they are scary! Nearly every time an angel appears to humans in the Bible, the first thing they have to say is, “Do not be afraid!” Because they are fearsome creatures.
Angels are not cute. We have gotten that all wrong. If you think about angels as little round cute things with their faces on their hands, you are not thinking about the real angels.
And they are not former humans. Angels are not humans who have died.
I love the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and I love the character of Clarence Oddbody, Angel Second Class (A2). He’s one of my favorite characters in a movie of all time. And he’s supposed to be a clockmaker that died like two hundred years earlier and then never got his wings. So he’s sent to help poor old George Bailey.
But as fun as that story is, that’s not how it works. You do not become an angel when you die. Your deceased loved ones are not angels. That’s not in the Bible. Angels are not ghosts.
Angels are supra-human personal worshipful spiritual beings that are created by God to serve Him and guard and guide God’s people (see Graham Cole’s excellent Against the Darkness for more biblical angelology).
Last year at Stay Sharp 2025, Greg Strand taught us about angels and about fallen angels. If you want to learn more, I would recommend going to back and listening to the recordings of that.
Kids coming to Snack and Yack today, Mrs. Sass and I are going to ask you to tell us some things you know about angels. What are they? What are they like?
Angels are real, and here, and numerous, and powerful, and pure, and scary. They are fascinating. They are wondrous. They are amazing, and they are inferior to the Son.
That’s what Hebrews said in the first four verses of chapter 1. What we studied last time. Let me read it to you again. Remember there were no niceties at the start of this letter. No mention of whom it’s from or even whom it was to. He just launched in and then rhapsodizes about the Son. Verse 1.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs” (Hebrews 1:1-4).
You can see where we get our title for today (v.4). “Superior to the Angels.”
We learned last time that the writer of this letter loves that word “superior” to describe Jesus. He’s going to use it at least 15 times in this letter, detailing over and over again the things that Jesus is superior to. Jesus is better; Jesus is greater; Jesus is superior to...the angels. And therefore, we should fix our eyes on Him.
Now, if you’ve got that, you’ve got the main point of this section. Jesus is superior to the angels. The angels are inferior to Jesus.
But the writer doesn’t just want to say that and move on. He wants to show that. He wants to prove it to these Jewish Christians by looking at their own Bible and pressing home what the Old Testament said about the Son.
So he gathers up at least seven quotations from the Old Testament and throws them at these Hebrew Christians one at a time in a quick succession.
You can tell by looking at your Bible and seeing how the spacing changes all of a sudden. In most versions, verses 1-4 are a block of text, a dense paragraph, that was all one long sentence in the original Greek. And there were like 7 descriptions Who Jesus is: heir of all things, co-maker of all things, sustainer of all things, the radiance of God’s glory and the perfect picture of His being, the purifier of His people, and the co-ruler of the universe!
And then, in verses 5 through 14, there’s all of this spacing that changes. You see lines of poetry and quotation marks in our English versions. The CSB has the quotations in bold print. And it’s bold all over the places for 10 verses. And your Bible may have footnotes that show where all of these quotations can found.
Psalm 2:7
2 Samuel 7:14
Psalm 97:7 (or perhaps Deuteronomy 32:43 or both)
Psalm 104:4
Psalm 45:6-7
Psalm 102:25-27
Psalm 110:1
This is how the writer to the Hebrews thinks. He thinks Old Testamenty. Remember, He said that, in the past, God had spoken to our forefathers “at many times and in various ways.” And we should hear and heed those past messages from God.
This afternoon, I recommend that you get out your Bible and go look up all seven of these quotations in their original contexts. Because I assure that the writer to the Hebrews did. He may only quote a verse here or a verse there, but he’s got the whole thing in his mind. And he expects his readers to have read these passage in their original contexts.
If we did that in these sermons, we might spend several years getting through Hebrews. Because he’s going to do this again and again throughout the book. We’re just going to scratch the surface. [This lecture by D.A. Carson goes deeper into three of them.]
The whole Bible is hyper-texted. Double-click on any part of it, and it will take you to another part. Hebrews is especially like that, because he wants to make his points about Jesus from the parts of the Bible that these Jewish Christians knew and loved.
So, he says in verse 4 that Jesus, “...became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.” What name is that?
I think it’s the name, “Son.” That’s the name He’s always had for all eternity, and it’s the name that He inherited when He was resurrected and ascended back to the Father. That’s the point of verses 5&6.
“For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’? Or again, ‘I will be his Father, and he will be my Son’? And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God's angels worship him’” (vv.5-6).
The writer starts with a basic question, “For” (which shows that he’s proving his point) “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father....?’”
What is the answer to that question? Which angels?
None of them, right? God has never said to any angel, “You are my Son.”
But He has to Jesus.
I have three points to summarize this section this morning, and here’s number one.
Jesus is superior to the angels by His:
#1. UNIQUE SONSHIP.
God has never said to any angel, “You are my Son.” But He has to Jesus.
Now, notice that this means that Jesus is not an angel. Jesus has not ever been an angel and never will be. This goes against the teachings of some of the cults out there. Do not believe anybody who comes to your door and says that Jesus is the archangel Michael or that Jesus was a brother angel to Lucifer. That’s not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that God has never said to any angel, “You are my Son.” But He has to Jesus.
We know He said it at Jesus’ Baptism and at His Transfiguration, but the writer to the Hebrews takes us back to Psalm 2.
Some of you studied Psalm 2 this last week because we sent a Worship at Home Guide for the snowstorm last Sunday and it included a sermon I recorded in December of 2020 on Psalm 2.
Psalm 2 an enthronement psalm, probably sung over King David’s sons when they took the throne. And they were all called “God’s Son” in a way. Not because they were God the Son but because they were taking up a special role representing God to His people.
That’s what the second quotation is saying in verse 5, “Or again, ‘I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.” That’s from 2 Samuel 7:14 where God promised to build a house for King David. David wanted to build God a house, but God said, “No, I will build you one.” David meant the temple, but God meant a dynasty, that there would always be a Son of David to rule over Israel. And that Son of David would have a special relationship with God, “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son.”
But we know that it was pointing to something much greater. We know that most of the sons of David did not live up to the name, “Son of God.” Remember all those disappointing thumbs-down kings in the Books of Kings and how it eventually led to exile in Babylon and Persia? They were poor Sons of God. So God had to do something about it.
We know that, one day, a Son of David would come and perfectly fulfill Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14. A Son of David that would be the perfect Son of God because He is God the Son! And even if He would die, He would come back to life and ascend to heaven to take up an eternal throne and, one day, bring the kingdom of kingdoms to Earth! Verse 6.
“And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, ‘Let all God's angels worship him.’”
That’s either Psalm 97:9 or Deuteronomy 32:43 or both. I won’t get into the complex textual questions. The point is clear either way.
The Old Testament calls on the angels to worship God. And the writer to the Hebrews knows that the Son is God. He’s the firstborn Son of God. The preeminent Son of God. The heir of all things from verse 2). And the angels are supposed to worship Him.
Now, it’s true that sometimes the angels are called “the sons of God” collectively in the Old Testament. But none of them are called by God, “My Son.” None of the angels are called “The Firstborn Son.”
But when God brings His firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Now, I’m not sure when that “bringing into the world” happens. It might have been at that first Christmas when the sky lit up with angels singing, “Gloria In Excelsis Deo.”
Or it might be still to come when Jesus returns with His holy angels like we learned about in 2 Thessalonians 1 a few months ago.
I tend to think it’s talking about when Jesus came back into the world from the dead and ascended up to the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. In my mind, the angels just went crazy that the Son had returned victorious. “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
It might be any of those or all three. Because Jesus is worthy all the time.
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Don’t fix your eyes on angels?!!! Fix your eyes on Jesus. The angels do!
Here’s the application for you and me today:
Worship Jesus with the angels.
Don’t worship the angels! Worship Jesus with the angels.
Now, I’m telling you if an angel appeared to us today, right here, right now, we would all be tempted to worship him. That happened to John the Revelator in chapter 19 of the Apocalypse. He ran into angel and fell down at his feet. It was glorious! But the angel said, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!” (Revelation 19:10).
Worship the Son of God! That’s what we came to do this morning, and we have done it, and we’re going to do it again. “Let all God’s angels worship him.” And let’s join them!
You see, the angels know that Jesus is uniquely the Son and so is infinitely superior to them. So they worship Him. And so should we.
Now, in verse 7, the writer picks out a passage that is about angels. He quotes Psalm 104, verse 4. Verse 7.
“In speaking of the angels he says, ‘He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.’”
Now, that does sound impressive. Angels can be winds. Angels can be flames of fire. Angels are powerful servants of God.
In the Psalm, it emphasizes how God controls the forces of nature and makes them do His bidding. Winds and lightning obey Him. But the flip-side is also true, God can send angels in the forms of wind and fire.
Angels are amazing, make no mistake. But notice how fleeting those things are. Winds and fire. Those things are here and then gone again. They are temporary and ephemeral.
But see how the writer contrasts Psalm 104:4 and Psalm 45:6-7. That’s verse 8.
“But about the Son he says, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy’” (vv.8-9).
Now, we could spend a whole message just unpacking Psalm 45. And in fact, we have. Five years ago, in February of 2021, I preached a Valentines’ Day sermon on Psalm 45 and showed how it relates to Hebrews 1. You might want to go back and listen to that.
Psalm 45 is a wedding song. It’s really different from any of the other psalms in the Psalter. And this part is addressed to the king, probably a Son of David on his wedding day. Maybe Solomon’s first wedding day. Maybe all of the Sons of David had it sung at theirs. And in that psalm, the singer seems to call the king, “God.” It’s really remarkable. It’s probably like Psalm 2 where the king is standing in for God because he’s supposed to be a Son of God. But it was prophetic as well. Because, one day, a King would come Who was not just like God but was God Himself! So that the song was truer than it ever had been before.
And the writer of this letter understood that. He knew that Psalm 45:6&7 was about Jesus!
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, [notice that! This God has a God! Sounds a lot like verse 3 to me! God, your God] has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy'" (vv.8-9).
Do you see the comparisons? The angels are fleeting and ephemeral. They are winds and fire. But the Son is eternal. His throne lasts “forever and ever.” And the Son is (v.9), “Set above your companions...”
He is greater! He is superior! Because He is God! And He has the Holy Spirit without measure. He has been anointed (He’s the Messiah) with the oil of joy. Which I think must be the Holy Spirit.
Now, I’m not sure if the “companions” here are the angels (which would further his argument) or His people (like you and me). It’s true of both.
The point is that Jesus is superior. Because He is God!
And because He is God, He is the Creator. That’s where he goes next in verse 10. Quoting from Psalm 102, verses 25-27. Verse 10.
“He also says, ‘In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end” (vv.10-13).
He’s saying the same thing as he did in verse 2–that Jesus, as God the Son, was there at creation, helping to create everything there is. And so, He is eternal.
In other words, Jesus is superior to the angels by His:
#2. UNCHANGING CREATORSHIP.
He was there at the beginning. He was the architect of creation. He was the master builder at the start of all things.
And one day, when He decides to remodel the universe, Jesus can just roll it all up like my wife rolls up our clothes and tosses them in the laundry.
How many times do we change our clothes? I change mine several times a day. I have the clothes I walk in the mornings. The clothes I feed the fire in three times a day. The clothes I wear when I’m at work and out in the community. And my pyjamas, the clothes I sleep in.
They all change. They all wear out. I don’t wear any clothes that I wore when I was a teenager except a few of my neckties. (They still fit!) And some of them are getting pretty old.
But Jesus never changes. His years never end.
Jesus will never wear out!
I don’t know if the angels get old?? But I do know that they are created. Verse 7 says that they are made. But verse 10 says that the Son is the maker. Even the angels can be changed. But the Son remains the same.
What did we sing this morning? Hebrews 13:8 does say, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Here’s the application of this truth. We should:
Trust Jesus to always be the same.
Don’t fix your eyes on angels?! Fix your eyes on Jesus. He never changes. We need Him to be like this! Everything in our lives is changeable and fleeting.
How many things have you trusted in that failed you? They changed on you. The terms and conditions changed on you. That’s life in this sin-sick world right now. And we’re never told in the Bible to put our trust in angels as amazing as they are. But we are told to put our trust in Jesus and that He will never change. Jesus will never wear out because He’s God! He’s the Creator!
Angels are just a part of God’s creation. Jesus is the Creator Himself.
Now, you might not be tempted to trust in angels, but I think that an awful lot of people are. Go to the book section at Ollies and look for all the books about angels and see if they are good biblical books that teach what Hebrews 1 teaches about angels.
Scroll through your social media feed or tap on a hashtag for #angels, and see all of the offers on hand.
“If you click on this picture of this angel, then you will be blessed this week with good health, with money, with restored relationships.”
All of the stories out there about angels. All of the shows. “Touched by an Angel.” “Highway to Heaven” (for those of us old enough to remember Michael Landon).
All of the sightings. All of the distractions! Do not fix your eyes on angels. They are wonderful, but they are wind and fire. Fix your eyes on the One Who made the angels and never changes.
In verse 13, the writer goes back to that same basic question, “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?”
What’s the answer to that one? Same thing, right? None of them.
God has never said to an angel, “Come up here and sit next to me.” But He did say that to Jesus.
The letter writer understands that the Father said that to the Son all the way back in Psalm 110. Which is one of the most wild and wonderful of all the Psalms. I have called it before “The New Testament writers’ favorite Psalm” because the New Testament authors just loved to quote Psalm 110.
This writer sure does. I think this is one of about 10 times that he quotes Psalm 110 in this little letter!
He keeps say, “right hand,” doesn’t he? He said in verse 4. He said in chapter 12, verse 2 in that same place he tells us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and...sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
That’s Psalm 110. We don’t have the time to study it in-depth. But we did do that about five years ago in June of 2021 when we were studying the Psalms during the pandemic. You might want to go back and listen to that this week some time.
Again, the psalm is prophetic and messianic. Maybe more than any of the other psalms. The Lord Jesus befuddled the Pharisees and teachers of the Law by asking them a question about it. “Whose Son is the Christ?” (See Matthew 22:41-46.)
The careful reader of Psalm 110 realizes that ultimately God the Father (“the LORD”) is inviting God the Son (“my Lord”) to sit on the throne right next to Him. And that’s a place that no angel could ever sit.
So Jesus is superior to all the angels by His:
#3. UNBEATABLE CO-RULERSHIP.
He sat down! He was victorious in His death and resurrection and ascended to the Majesty in Heaven. And took His rightful place! Co-ruler of all of the Universe! Because He is God the Son.
Now, notice that there is still some mopping up to do. “My Lord” is supposed to sit at the right hand “until [the Father makes His] enemies a footstool for [His] feet.”
The kingdom has not yet come in all of its fullness. We’re still waiting for that. We are still waiting for salvation to come in all of its fullness. We are saved. We are being saved. And we will be saved.
But Jesus is sitting. He’s not threatened. He’s not in trouble. He’s not even fighting. He’s got all of the coolness and calmness of The Ancient of Days. He is the unbeatable co-ruler of everything. Sitting at the right hand.
But angels? They are not sitting. They are being sent. They are being sent out to and fro. Verse 14.
“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”
What’s the answer to that question? Yes, they are. That’s what angels are. They are serving servants. “Ministering spirits sent to serve.”
Notice how superior Jesus is to them.
There many of them. There is only one of Him.
They are spirits. He took on a full human nature. He is embodied.
They do not send Jesus. Jesus sends them.
They are servants. He is the unbeatable ruler.
Now, obviously, He was sent. And He was a servant. But He was successful in His mission, and He returned to the Father and sat down.
They are being sent to serve...us! Did you notice that? The angels are sent to serve the Lord by serving His people. Verse 14, “...those who will inherit salvation.” Salvation is still on the way, but it’s coming.
And it’s coming to all who believe in the Son.
And while we wait for that salvation, the angels are being sent to serve us. They guard us. They guide us. I don’t know what other things they do. They do it quietly most of the time. I don’t need to know what they are doing. I just need to know that they are doing it!
This doesn’t mean that we tell the angels what to do. They aren’t our servants who obey our wills.
They are God’s servants who serve us at His will.
So, I think the application of this truth is:
Thank Jesus for all the help.
Thank Jesus for sending those ministering spirits to do their thing (whatever that is!) while we wait for the salvation to come.
Don’t fix your eyes on the angels. They’re invisible most of the time anyway. They’re doing their work there in the background. Be grateful for them. This room might be full of them right now. That’s wonderful.
But they are not the point. They are inferior.
Fix your eyes on the One Who is the point. The One who is sits at the right hand.
Fix your eyes on Jesus. He is infinitely superior.
Messages in this Series:
01. The Song - Hebrews 1:1-4
