Becasue Of Who Jesus Is Series

Hebrews

Christianity – A Superior Way of Life

Because of Who Jesus Is

Because Jesus is God…

…His Message is Vital to us(Hebrews 2:1-4)

His message has consequences if Ignored

His message is confirmed by Eyewitnesses

His message is authenticated by Miracles

Slide

Intro

Have you ever had instructions that you didn’t follow?

If you are a man, that answer has got to be yes.

We tend to think

we don’t need any instructions or

we know a better way or

the instructions might not be all that important.

When putting things together we think we can just take a look at things and instinctively know how it should go, so we should be able to put it together.

Well, I have tried that more than once and found that I have put things on backwards or upside down or in the wrong order only having to take things apart and start over.

All because I didn’t follow the instructions because I didn’t think it was that important.

However, there have been times when opening something that has instructions, I will see a plastic bag with a warning to

READ THIS FIRST in big bold letters.

When I see that, I usually do read that first and it has saved me countless hours in put together projects.

Wouldn’t it be great if everything came with that warning or reminder to do that. Maybe then we wouldn’t forget or we might remember again how important they are.

Well, that is what the author of Hebrews does at the beginning of Chapter 2. (turn there)

Slide

He gives us a warning to heed the message given and he gives us several reasons and reminders as to why we should do that.

So let’s continue on in the book of Hebrews and see why we should listen to this message being given.

Hebrews 2:1-4

1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Ok, so look with me for a second at verse 1

Notice in verse 1 the “therefore.” The author is pointing back to chapter one.

What did we learn in chapter 1 of the book of Hebrews?

That God sent the best messenger ever.

He is better than the prophets

He is better than the angels

He is the best because He is the Son of God, God in the flesh.

And because of Who Jesus is,

Because Jesus is God, His Message is Vital to Us

Slide

So we better listen to what He has to say.

God didn’t send His very Son to give us some message that we can ignore and things still turn out alright.

He sent His Son because the message He brings is vital to us.

The author spends the entire first chapter showing us that Jesus is the best messenger ever because He is the Son of God, God in the flesh so he can tell us how important the message is.

And what is his message?

It is the message of salvation.

Hebrews 2:3

He says “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation.”

This message is vital because

His message has Consequences if Ignored

Slide

This is a message that holds in the balance a persons life or death.

Eternal life or eternal damnation.

To the Jewish people that the author was writing to, it was not an easy time to be known as a Christian.

It would have been a lot easier to be one of the crowd, Jews just living a Jewish life.

Apply

We could say the same thing about our society today.

It is not easy to be living the Christian life. It would be easier to just go along and be a “decent” person in secular society.

Writing to Professed believers

I want to remind you again that the author is writing to a group of people that are professed believers, much like any church today. There are people who are true believers and there are people who have been seeing the truth of Christianity and beginning to be part of the group, but have not yet become Christians.

There are times in life that it is very hard to tell if a person is a Christian or not.

I can’t see everyone’s heart here. This is why about 90% of the time that I preach, I give a gospel presentation at the end of a message. There may be some here who have come for a long time who may be trying to live Christianity but have never really received Christ as Savior.