Hebrews 2 (Part 1) :1-9 • But we see Jesus

here we are back in hebrews chapter 2 and i was kind of planning as i got into this to do the whole chapter but as i began to study it out i i just i couldn't because i felt like there was too much here to talk about so we're going to read the first nine verses and then we're going to pray and then we're going to dig into this so follow along with me 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 for it was not to angels that god subjected the world to come of which we are speaking it has been testified somewhere what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him you made him for a little while lower than the angels you have crowned him with glory and honor putting everything in subjection under his feet now putting everything in subjection to him he left nothing outside his control at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him but we see him 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 let's pray heavenly father use this ministry use your word to really touch hearts today and give us the grace to dig into these verses and understand them we believe lord that it is through your spirit the enabling work of your spirit the illuminating work of your spirit that we can grasp and apprehend the truths that are given to us here and we pray that you would give us that insight we thank you father in jesus name we pray amen now you guys probably remember that rule of the word therefore did you notice that verse 1 begins with therefore you guys probably remember that any time you run into the word therefore it tells you that the author is about to make a statement based on something that he had said previously and in this case the word therefore here in verse 1 points to really an application that follows here in chapter two based on what he said in chapter one and and when we went through chapter the second part of chapter one i i know that there was a lot of doctrine there and it wasn't super devotional you know we we covered a lot of specific doctrine about the deity of jesus christ and you'll remember that he talked and went into great detail about the superiority of the son of god to angels you remember in that second part of chapter one and uh we even talked about why that argument was necessary particularly to a hebrew audience because this letter was written to hebrew christians and so if you missed any of that you can go back and and catch those that that study but since that is the case that jesus is superior to angels that was the essence of what he covered in verse one he now begins here in verse 1 of chapter 2 saying we must pay closer attention since that is the case we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away do you remember when you were a kid your parents or teachers telling you to pay attention i heard it all the time i mean all the time because as a kid going to school i tell you i just oh i was such a daydreamer as a young boy and i i could sit and i could look at you and just if you're a teacher you could be i could just look you right in the eye and even nod and not hear a word you said because i'm thinking of something else and that was just a really a big issue for me in fact if you had to pick a theme song for the early years of my life it would be drift away by dobby gray the only only the people with gray hair in the room even know what i'm talking about and i probably just started the jukebox in your head but if you don't know what i'm talking about it that just simply means you're young don't worry you'll get over it but uh drift away that's that was where i lived as a kid but the words drift away that are used in verse one of this passage are rendered from a single greek word that was really used in the the greek language to describe a ship that missed its port it describes a ship that's out in the water that's heading toward its port in fact it might even be able to see it but it it just didn't navigate properly it didn't take into consideration the wind direction or the tides and the waves and for some reason it got off course and it didn't make it to its intended target and that's the idea that the writer of hebrews is trying to communicate to you and i about our hearing of the gospel and our paying attention to it in such a way that we don't miss the target that we somehow get pulled off course and that's an important reminder for believers it's it's it's a warning it's given to us as a warning that drifting away is a very real possibility it's what was happening to these christians that this writer was sending this letter to and it can happen to you and i if we don't pay attention we need to pay attention i seriously doubt that there are very many if any in this room who can't relate to what it means to drift away from the lord in some respect anyway whether you've drifted away and completely backslidden or whether you've just drifted away from regular reading of the word or regular prayer or or even church attendance or something like that we can all relate to some aspect of of drifting away but here's what's interesting do you know what's necessary to drift away nothing all you have to do is nothing and you will drift away and we can we can probably all relate to that uh as well i you know i've said many times that this this this principle of keeping your walk with the lord fresh keeping your walk with the lord intimate and real it's very it's the same principle you use with your yard i never understood what it took to keep a yard green and and weed free until we moved to the desert here 30 years ago because you know coming from minnesota i don't think we even noticed we had a yard it was just kind of whatever was between the house and the sidewalk and we mowed it but nobody made a big deal of it at all and then you know sue and i lived for a period of time up in seattle you don't have to worry much about your yard up in seattle it's not a nobody has sprinkler systems or you know underground sprinklers or and you never have to drag a hose around it's wet most of the time you have a period of time in the summer where believe it or not seattle has a dry period but people don't worry about it you know it's just kind of like yeah just it happens but you you have to really work at it here in the desert don't you and i didn't i didn't realize that when i first moved here and i practically killed my lawn because i i thought i'll water it once a week we'll be good once a week plenty and my neighbor finally came over and kind of gave me a little talking to you and said you need water every day in july and august and you're kidding me and then there's this weed control thing i didn't know what 24d was i used to get it mixed up with r2d2 and i i just didn't know it's like a broad leaf thing what is that we never had to deal with that in minnesota that was part of the lawn so you know it's just it but it takes work and it's the same with your relationship with jesus christ no we don't work to be saved but your walk with him if you let it go can you imagine what happened to your yard if you just if you stopped watering it if you stopped any kind of broadleaf weed killer what would happen if you didn't put on weed and feed ever and you just you said you know what we're not going to water anymore it would return to its original natural state wouldn't it and so do you a.w tosier my favorite author refers to this as the hunger of the wilderness and i think that's such a compelling term the hunger of the wilderness he writes about it in his book the root of the righteous and i want to share with you some excerpts from his writings because i think they're so insightful he says every farmer knows the hunger of the wilderness that hunger which no modern farm machinery no improved agricultural methods can ever quite destroy no matter how well prepared the soil how well kept the fences how carefully painted the buildings let the owner neglect for a while his prized and valued acres and they will revert again to the wild and be swallowed up by either the jungle or the wasteland the bias of nature is toward the wilderness never toward the fruitful field that we repeat every farmer knows now he goes on to say to alert christians this fact will be more than an observation of interest to farmers it will be a parable an object lesson setting forth a law that runs through all the regions of our fallen world affecting things spiritual as well as things material then he finally says the neglected heart will soon be a heart overrun with worldly thoughts the neglected life will soon become a moral chaos the law of the wilderness operates universal universally throughout the fallen world isn't that amazing and that incredible what what a what a powerful insight that we get of just this this bias this bent of nature of which we're apart to return to its original wild state if we don't take care of it if we don't nurture it if we don't cultivate it listen what we talk about as far as confession and repentance of sin that's like weeding your yard or your garden you got to get the weeds out or what's what did jesus tell us they're going to choke out the word of god there's things that you and i have to do in order to maintain maintain that that semblance of order and and godliness and so forth and that's that's the answer it's the same answer frankly that jesus gave to peter james and john after they fell asleep in the garden of gethsemane remember what he said let me put it on the screen for you from matthew 26 watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation he says you know the spirit has every desire and every intention of following along with the things of the lord but that flesh oh let me tell you let me tell you about that flesh that flesh is weak and that flesh if it is given the opportunity will take you down so the spirit's willing and we hear that in people's attitudes and hearts oh i want the things of the lord i want to grow in my walk with jesus and people will write me letters and just they're just oh pastor what do i need to do i want to walk with the lord but i find it so hard yeah it's hard you got to do a lot of weeding you got to do a lot of cultivating and when you recognize the weed you got to go there with your little 24d bottle or whatever you do and you know spray the dickens out of that thing you know so that it dies and it's the same thing with sin if it's not uprooted in our lives it's like puncture vine it'll just take over i never saw puncture vine until i moved here i didn't know it existed it gave me great insight into the fallen world i feel like puncture vine is like if god had to make something that depicted sins awfulness it's puncture vine right or as we like to call them goat heads that we track into the house when we go for a walk or something like that it's terrible but it will just take over and so will sin and this idea of the necessity of watching and praying refers to you and i staying alert to the things that are most likely going to take us down because here's the point what might take you down might not affect me at all but what might take me down might not affect you at all you with me we don't all have the same weaknesses yes we have the same flesh and the flesh is weak but we often don't share weaknesses sometimes the things that tempt you aren't even a don't even appear on my radar of temptation but the things that would absolutely bring me to my knees might be just you you never even thought about it so do you know do you know the areas of your life where the enemy is most likely to attack do you know the areas where you are the most weak i believe that it is important for us to regularly bring those before the lord in prayer and to ask him to turn those areas of weakness in our lives into strengths and i've lived long enough i think i think i know my areas i mean i've fallen to them enough that i think i know what they are the question is will i be diligent watchful as i go forward in my walk with the lord to say lord you've shown me you've allowed me to see the areas of my life that where i am weak where my flesh is most likely to be attacked by the enemy and by the temptations of the flesh and so forth so now i ask you in the name of jesus please bring strength into my life so that i don't drift away help me to pay close attention to what's going on and what i've heard and what i know from the word of god now as we move on the writer goes on to explain why we must pay closer attention he says in verse 2 for sense the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution how should we escape if we neglect such a great salvation when he talks about the message being declared by angels he's talking about in the old testament how the angel of the lord often went along with the the people of israel and the angel of the lord was is repeatedly seen in the old testament as declaring the message of god to the people of god and he says listen if the message that came from angels was binding and lawful and was punishable it for any areas of disobedience you can just imagine what the the gospel message what what what authority and what power the gospel message carries why he goes on to say here we're in the middle of verse 3. he says it and that refers to the gospel was declared at first by the lord that means the lord jesus and it was attested to us by those who heard talking about those closest disciples while god also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit distributed according to his will so he's he's reminding them of the progression of the way god gives his message and since jesus is as he's already said superior to the angels who gave messages in the old testament imagine now the importance of the message that comes from the very lips of the lord himself and he says and it's a beautiful verse in verse 3 how shall we escape how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation and that is if if you wanted to take a verse by the way and you wanted to say what is the theme of the book of hebrews it's verse 3. if you underline that in your bible and you just write theme somewhere maybe in the margin of your bible that's it right there how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation that that that sums up the entire book and the message is jesus is the only way there's no other way there's no other way that's the message the writer of hebrews is going to give i'll just i'll ruin it for you okay the whole book of hebrews is all this is it jesus is it jesus is the way he's the only way that's the message he's going to say it over chapter over chapter after chapter he's going to keep telling him jesus is the only way jesus is the only way but obviously you know he's not the only biblical writer that says that jesus himself said it the the apostles said it in their letters let me show you a passage from john chapter 3 verse 18 it says whoever believes in jesus is not condemned but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only son of god you see we're we're kind of born in condemnation we're born separated from god and when we come to christ that separation evaporates that condemnation is gone there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in christ but if you reject jesus christ that condemnation remains because i mean there's no other you've rejected the only means of getting rid of condom condemnation so you know what the author is doing in in in this chapter and really throughout this letter is is raising what is without a doubt the most important question that will ever be asked to all of mankind and that is how will you respond to jesus i mean that's it that's that's the essence right there it doesn't matter oh we get so messed up on small details just this last week i had a bunch of questions coming up about denominations pastor what do you think about denominations and why why am and i'm kind of like oh man talk about majoring on the minors that is just it's it's the kind of stuff we get distracted by people it's all about jesus i don't care what church you go to i don't care what denomination you're a part of i don't care do you have jesus bottom line pastor people are wrong pastor is it possible for a roman catholic to be saved i get that one every so often i think i even answered it on my blog yeah of course if they have jesus they probably have to reject a lot of the other stuff that's kind of going on within roman catholicism but even if they've got jesus we are saved through jesus christ and that's all but pastor what if i get this a lot what if a person believes in jesus but then they sin and then they never got a chance to to confess it and they died are they going to go to hell it's like oh you make me tired we always keep coming back to ask this simple question how are we saved we're saved by trusting in the finished work of jesus christ on the cross period we are saved by trusting in the finished work of jesus christ on the cross if every single sin must have a confession that goes along with it before we're able to go to heaven then that confession becomes a work and you are no longer saved by grace through faith you're saved by works you with me we're saved by trusting we're saved because we have confidence in the finished work of jesus on the cross are you confident that's the only thing that matters where are you with jesus it all comes down to him and so you know in the middle of verse 3 you'll notice he says it was declared at first by the lord and then he goes on to talk about this progression it was attested to us by those who heard and so forth the eyewitnesses but it didn't end there look at verse 4 while god also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the holy spirit distributed according to his will and he's talking about what we read basically in the book of acts right miracles signs and wonders gifts of the spirit we don't really start to see gifts of the spirit until the book of acts i mean gifts of the spirit that really truly are distributed to the church we see gifts of healing and things like that in the old testament but the gifts of the spirit poured out upon the church completely different dispensation or work of the spirit that begins in the book of acts and and it's carrying on today i fully believe the gifts of the holy spirit are still operational in the church today and so in that sense god is still attesting confirming to the truthfulness of the gospel through the presence of his holy spirit operating in the lives of believers so there's confirmations that are still being seen then verse 5 this is an interesting thought process because i want to just remind you that in chapter one the writer of hebrews was emphasizing the deity of jesus christ and he was saying that because he is the unique you know he he is divine that he is superior obviously to angels now he's going to change this emphasis slightly and he's going to talk about jesus and his human side and he's going to make the point and i'll just tell you this ahead of time he's going to make the point that even as touches his human side he is still superior to angels why is that important because we know jesus became a man but what do we know about men what do we know about mankind he's going to quote here psalm chapter 8 where he says that man was created a little lower than the angels you guys with me mankind that's us i know that sounds sexist today to call everyone mankind but i'm sorry that's what i don't have another name because people kind just doesn't sound right we were created a little lower than the angels jesus took on our humanity so somebody might possibly think well does that mean then even as a man jesus is now a little lower than the angels because he took on our humanity you follow the thought you guys got to understand that in in in hebrew thinking and that's who this writer is appealing to it wasn't it was a challenge at times to believe in jesus as god but it was also it was an equal challenge to them to understand god being a human and they came up with a lot of crazy ideas about it i mean are we talking about was he 50 god and 50 human or was he human on the outside and god on the inside how exactly does that work well what we understand from the scriptures that he was 100 percent god and 100 human which is challenging for us to hold on to but now we're focusing more on that human side because people do you understand and this is so important do you understand he's still human do you understand jesus christ is still human he took on that humanity our humanity but when he ascended to the right hand of the father he didn't cast that humanity aside he was able to show his the marks of his crucifixion to his disciples look look at my hands i believe he still bears those marks i believe jesus still bears the marks of his crucifixion to this day that's why john saw him in the book of revelation as the lamb standing in the midst of the throne but a lamb looking as if it had been slain he still bears those marks he's still guys do you understand there is a human sitting at the right hand of god who is fully human and fully god do you understand how our representation just went through the roof on this thing so keeping all those things is in our mind as much as we can i want you to look at verse 5 with me because he's going to begin to focus more on the human side he says for it was not to angels that god subjected the world to come and when he mentions the world to come he's talking about the millennial kingdom we've been talking a lot about that in our study of isaiah on wednesday night the millennial kingdom is a 1 000 year period of time that will take place upon the earth after the great tribulation jesus will return at the end of the great tribulation to the earth and he will establish his throne in jerusalem and from there he will rule the world for a period of 1 000 years that's why we call it the millennial kingdom it is if you will the world to come that is mentioned here in hebrews 5. all right so he says it was not to angels that god subjected the world to come through which he is speaking and he's simply telling us no no angel was ever given that right to rule in the millennial kingdom so in that sense even as a human he is still superior to angels he goes on verse six it has been testified somewhere and this that somewhere is in psalm chapter eight what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him now psalm chapter 8 is not written about the messiah it's written about mankind okay so when psalm chapter 8 says what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that's not referring to the son of man as in jesus that's just it means what is man or his offspring that you are even mindful of him and the psalmist is kind of saying you're god we're nothing so why do you even take notice of us right that's the essence of what's being said he goes on to say in verse 7 you made him and that's man for a little while lower than the angels so we've been created as human beings lower than the angels but notice that reference for a little while when we receive our resurrection bodies our new incorruptable bodies apparently we're going to be higher than the angels at that time which is a pretty trippy thought to consider but he says you made him a little lower than the angels you've crowned him with glory and honor and that's speaking of the original creation of man putting everything in subjection under his feet you see psalm chapter 8 remembers the original creation of mankind upon the earth and it tells us here that god when he created man he gave man dominion over the earth okay let me just let that sink in for a second we were given originally dominion all right he goes on to say now in putting everything in subjection to him he left nothing outside of his control in other words god left nothing outside of the dominion of man and if you can stop for just a moment and consider the implications of that statement when god created man on the earth he gave him dominion and that means according to what we're reading here there was nothing outside of his control not that's what the word dominion means to dominate there was nothing outside of his control this is the original design uh wouldn't that be great if we still had that well no it wouldn't it actually would not be good if we still had that because we had we now have a sinful nature and if we had that kind of dominion it would it would be swallowed up in a lust for power because now we lust after things you can only give dominion that kind of dominion to people without sin and originally we were created without sin and so because we were without sin god gave us total dominion nothing was outside of our control we don't see that today at all but can you this is why the disciples were so amazed when jesus would do things like stand up in the boat and rebuke the wind and the waves and it would just grow calm and they would go whoa and they'd say who is this who even commands the winds and the waves well you and i we tend to look at it we go well it's god but what we're actually seeing is a picture of man's original dominion because jesus came to be a man as well as god and he gives us this picture this snapshot of man returning to that place of dominion now that's what he goes on to say here in in in verse 8. we're kind of in the middle of verse 8 i'll start at the beginning putting everything in subjection under his feet but then he says at present we do not see everything in subjection to him and here he's acknowledging the fall of man and the fact that we lost the the dominion that god gave us we lost it we had it we lost it where'd it go well it was actually given over to the enemy we abdicated that role that place of dominion we gave it to the enemy and we made him the prince of this world temporarily jesus even referred to him with that term at the last supper jesus said the prince of this world is coming but he has no hold on me but he made reference to satan in that way how did he become the prince of this world we abdicated the dominion that god gave us in the original creation and now we don't see everything in subjection to us in fact we see very few things in subjection to us we like things in subjection to us but we don't see them in subjection to us do we what do we see then the author brings jesus back into the conversation look at verse nine very important but we see him namely jesus who for a little while was made lower than the angels isn't that interesting it's talking about the human flesh he took on in the incarnation a little lower than the angels but now crowned he says with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone and he's going to go on here in the coming chapters to talk about because of his death how we're also going to have things returned to us that were given to us but this you know this is a this is a powerfully insightful group of verses because once again it reminds us that the life that you and i live is not the way god intended it to be very simply we go to funerals because it's what we do when people die it was never god never intended people to die he did not death was not part of god's original creative order we know that death was introduced through sin and we know that one day it's going to be eradicated the bible tells us in fact it'll be the last thing to be eradicated the bible says the last enemy to be destroyed will be death it was never god's intention and so we're reminded that god's original design was lost due to sin but the author brings out the fact that even though we don't see man's dominion at this time we see another man jesus who took on our humanity being made a little lower than the angels but now crowned with glory and honor because of what he suffered on the cross and and we see the dominion that was given to man originally has been now given to another man it has been restored to a man and it will one day be restored to redeemed mankind okay we see it restored to a man the man jesus christ who is also god and through him that dominion and power and authority and rule will be restored one day fully to us at present we don't see things under our feet but we see jesus we see jesus and you know this is such a such a powerful thing the the the the the scripture testifies to even in parables let me show you a parable that jesus said from matthew chapter 25 remember remember the the math the the parable of the talents what did he say to the faithful servant the master said to him well done good and faithful servant you've been faithful over a little so i'm going to give you a vacation now oh wait doesn't say that he says you've been faithful over a little i'm going to set you over much i'm going to set you over you know what that means you will rule you will rule and if you think well now pastor paul that's a little strong to say he's going to rule well then let me show you a passage from revelation chapter 5 and they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you ransom people for god from every tribe and language and people and nation and look at this very carefully and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our god and they shall reign on the earth the redeemed of the lord shall reign on the earth during the millennial kingdom i'm not making this stuff up it's right there in the word of god isn't that crazy god might give you a town he might just give you a neighborhood i don't know we don't know exactly but we will reign with him that's the most bizarre idea i can think of but you know what it fits because it's just simply god returning to us the dominion that he originally gave man he gave man dominion on the earth and everything was in subjection to him but we lost it jesus came and got it back by paying the price of our sin and all who looked to him and put their confidence in that finished work on the cross that jesus earned for us are not just saved not just forgiven i mean that would be enough wouldn't it just to be able to say i am cleansed thank you god very happy about that no no no no goes way beyond that no i've made you children i've made you co-heirs joint heirs and i will restore the dominion that you once had but that you lost and i i want those words to kind of sink in especially during these turbulent times because we're living in turbulent times we're living oh good grief i mean the last week hasn't this been a fun week and and whenever election time comes you know sue and i were reflecting in 30 years pastoring here we've seen presidential elections come and presidential elections go and sometimes the person we voted for gets into office and sometimes the person we voted for doesn't and now we are so divided as a country now we're embroiled in you know election accusations of fraud and mismanagement and all these things all these things you know what it is you know what it is you guys it's man's attempt to get back in control the control he lost we've been trying forever since we lost control to get back into control but there's only one problem we've been using the very thing that caused us to lose that control to try to get back into it you see it was sin that caused us to lose our dominion and now we're taking our sinful nature and the very thing that caused us to lose that dominion and we're trying to gather up as much dominion as we can and so what we see is we see presidents and prime ministers and cabinet members and vice presidents and senators and governors and they're all going i want my piece of the pie and it's just man trying to get his dominion back but you can't do it jesus will restore it he will bring us back to where we need to be we can try all we want in the flesh to try to gain control back and it's not going to work jesus will restore the dominion that we once had and we know it for sure because he has already received a man has already received dominion one of the most beautiful things jesus said to his disciples was all authority in heaven and earth has been granted to me you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

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Length: 42min 11sec (2531 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 08 2020