Hebrews 2 (Part 1)

Here we are back in Hebrews chapter 2. I was kind of planning, as I got into this, to do the whole chapter. But as I began to study it out, I just couldn't because I felt like there was too much here to talk about. So we're going to read the first 9 verses and then we're going to pray and then we're going to dig into this. So follow along with me:

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 "1Therefore". You guys probably remember that anytime 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 2, based on what he said in chapter 1. And when we went through the second part of chapter 1, I know that there was a lot of doctrine there and it wasn't super devotional. 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 1. And 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 catch that study. But since that is the case that Jesus is superior to angels, that was the essence of what he covered in verse 1. He now begins here in verse 1 of chapter 2 saying since that is the case, "we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." 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, oh, I was such a daydreamer as a young boy. And I could sit and I could look at you, if you're a teacher, I could be 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 big issue for me. In fact, if they had to pick a theme song for the early years of my life, it would be Drift Away by Dobie Gray. 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. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that just simply means you're young. Don't worry. You'll get over it. But Drift Away. That was where I lived as a kid. But the words drift away that are used in verse 1 of this passage are rendered from a single Greek word that was really used in 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 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 us 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 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 me 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 backslid, or whether you've just drifted away from regular reading of the word or regular prayer or even church attendance or something like that. We can all relate to some aspect 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 probably all relate to that as well. I've said many times that this principle of keeping your walk with the Lord fresh, keeping your walk with the Lord intimate and real, it's the same principle you use with your yard. I never understood what it took to keep a yard green 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. Nobody has sprinkler systems or underground sprinklers 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 kinda like, yeah, it happens. But you have to really work at it here in the desert, don't you? And I didn't realize that when I first moved here and I practically killed my lawn because I thought, oh, 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, and said, you need to 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 2,4-D was. I used to get it mixed up with R2-D2 and I just didn't know. It's like 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 was just . . . . 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 would happen to your yard if you stopped watering it, if you stopped any kind of broad leaf weed killer. What would happen if you didn't put on weed and feed ever and you just 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. Tozer, 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 wanna share with you some excerpts from his writings because I think they're so insightful. He says: (slide) 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 the jungle or the wasteland. The bias of nature is toward the wilderness, never toward the fruitful field. That, we repeat, every farmer knows. - A.W. Tozer Now, he goes on to say: (slide) To the alert Christian 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. - A.W. Tozer And then he finally says: (slide) 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 universally throughout our fallen world. - A.W. Tozer Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? What a powerful insight that we get of just 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 gotta get the weeds out. Or what did Jesus tell us? They're going to choke out the word of God (Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19, Luke 8:14). There's things that you and I have to do in order to maintain that semblance of order, and godliness, and so forth. And 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: (slide) Matthew 26:41 (ESV)

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, we'll 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 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've got to do a lot of weeding. You've got to do a lot of cultivating. And when you recognize the weed, you've got to go there with your little 2,4-D bottle and spray the dickens out of that thing 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 exist. 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 head weed, that we track into the house when we go for a walk. 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 me 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 don't even appear on my radar of temptation. But the things that would absolutely bring me to my knees might be just, you never even thought about it. So 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 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 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,

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 people of Israel. And the angel of the Lord 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 for any areas of disobedience, you can just imagine what the gospel message, 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) "4while 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 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,

If you wanted to take a verse 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 sums up the entire book. 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 ruin it for you. Okay. The whole book of Hebrews is all this 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 them, Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only way. But obviously, he's not the only biblical writer that says that. Jesus Himself said it.

The apostles said it in their letters. Let me show you a passage from John 3:18. It says: (slide)

You see 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 Jesus" (Romans 8:1). But if you reject Jesus Christ, that condemnation remains because there's no other. You've rejected the only means of getting rid of condemnation. So you know what the author is doing in this chapter, and really throughout this letter 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 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? And I'm kind of like, oh man, talk about majoring on the minors. That is just 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. People are saying, 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. 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 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? They're going to go to hell? It's like, oh, you make me tired. We always keep coming back to ask the 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. 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) "and it was attested to us by those who heard," so forth the eyewitnesses, but it didn't end there. Look at verse 4, "4while 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. 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 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 1, the writer of Hebrews was emphasizing the deity of Jesus Christ. And he was saying that because 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. Mankind, that's us. I know that sounds sexist today to call everyone mankind, but I'm sorry. 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 Hebrew thinking, and that's who this writer is appealing to, it was a challenge at times to believe in Jesus as God, but 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 scripture is that He was 100% God and 100% human (John 1:1, 1:14). Which is challenging for us to hold onto. 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 the marks of His crucifixion to His disciples. Look, look at my hands (John 20:27). 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 (Revelation 5:6). He still bears those marks. 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 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, "5For 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 1000-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 1000 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 verse 5. All right, so he says "5For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come,of which we are speaking." He's simply telling us no angel was ever given that right to rule in the millennial kingdom. So in that sense, even as a human, He's still superior to angels. He goes on verse 6, "6It has been testified somewhere," (and that somewhere is in Psalm chapter 8) ""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. So when Psalm chapter 8:4 says, "4what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man" , that's not referring to the son of man as in Jesus. 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? That's the essence of what's being said. He goes on to say in verse 7, "7You 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 incorruptible 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, "7You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor," (and that's speaking of the original creation of man) "8putting 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 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. That's what the word dominion means, to dominate. There was nothing outside of his control. This is the original design. Wouldn't it 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 now have a sinful nature. And if we had that kind of dominion, it would be swallowed up in a lust for power because now we lust after things. You can only give 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. 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 and we go, well, that'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 verse 8, we're kind of in the middle of verse 8. I'll start at the beginning, "8putting everything in subjection under his feet." But then he says, "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him." And here he's acknowledging the fall of man and the fact that we lost the dominion that God gave us. We lost it. We had it. We lost it. Where did 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 (John 14:30).

14:30). 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 9. Very important, "9But we see him" (namely Jesus) "who for a little while was made lower than the angels," isn't that interesting? He's talking about the human flesh He took on in the incarnation. A little lower than the angels, but now "crowned 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 is a powerfully insightful group of verses because once again, it reminds us 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. God's never intended people to die. 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 (1 Corinthians 15:26). 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 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. 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 powerful thing the scripture testifies to, even in parables. Let me show you a parable that Jesus said from Matthew chapter 25. Remember the parable of the talents. What did he say to the faithful servant? (slide) Matthew 25:21 (ESV)

His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' I will set you over much. You know what that means? 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: (slide)

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, no. Goes way beyond that. No, I've made you children. I've made you co-heirs, joint heirs (Romans 8:17), and I will restore the dominion that you once had, but that you lost. And I want those words to kind of sink in, especially during these turbulent times. Because we're living in turbulent times. Oh, good grief. I mean, the last week, hasn't this been a fun week? 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 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 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,

.