We live in a World Full of Choices
Best Buy: Thousands of Possibilities – Get Yours
Consider all the choices we have in the world today. I read somewhere that there are over 900 different models of automobiles for sale in the United States. The average supermarket has 45-50 thousand different kinds of items on their shelves. Just buying ketchup means having to choose from several different brands, sizes, and packaging choices. It’s not easy to figure out! I went to the Best Buy this week and saw no less than 40 different HDTV’s for sale – all different sizes, formats, brands, technologies, and prices.
The choices are many and the confusion is great.
Is it any wonder that so many people are coming to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter. Just chose something and go on with your life! Now that may be true for some things – like transportation to get around town, condiments for your hot dog, and for watching the Super Bowl – but it’s not a good idea for eternity. But that is exactly what is happening.
Today we’re going to look at the second chapter and learn that not only is Jesus not an angel – he became a man – who is also not an angel – but a created being made just a little bit, a tiny little bit, a hairs breadth smaller than an angel.
After he so powerfully argues that Jesus is not an angel and that they have nothing of the authority, position, power, or potential of Jesus, the writer delivers a very clear warning.
Drifting Away
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.
Hebrews 2:1–4
He warns us to not drift away from Jesus and the salvation he offers. Considering all of the pressure on us today this morning to accept so many competitive philosophies and ideas this warning is one that we should be listening to very carefully!
That word “drift” has some interesting connotations. One is the idea of drifting along in a row boat on a lazy summer afternoon. That is kind of an appealing idea to me! No, I think the author is trying to draw us a different picture. Think of that row boat drifting along down a lazy river, that begins gradually – O, so gradually – to pick up speed until it suddenly and without much warning at all simply drops away and plummets to the rocky and jagged bottom of a mighty water fall.
Over the last couple of centuries there have been several people who drifted down the Niagara River, traveling faster and faster until they suddenly shot out over the falls to their deaths. This is the image that the author is inviting you to imagine and our father God is on the shoreline yelling – “hey… you are drifting down the river and you are going to go over the falls!!”
I’d like you to take note of some key words that are used here.
Violation – The word refers to a transgression of law, a breaking of the rules, or a flagrant disregarding of the warning. Imagine that you are standing on the bank of the Niagara river upstream of the falls and notice a sign that says, “Warning, No Swimming because of Dangerous Current”. You would be a fool to see such a sign and to ignore it wouldn’t you! That would be flagrant, foolish, breaking of the rules and a transgression of the law and it would have a consequence. You’d fly out over the falls and down to a certain death, crushed against the rocks by the pounding water.
Disobedience – The second word is “disobedience” which means, literally, to “hear amiss” or to “miss hear” what has been said. Think of God shouting from the bank – “Get out of the river, you are going to go over the falls”, and you hear “
Ignore – The third word is “ignore” which means, literally, “to neglect or make light of.” Think of God shouting from the bank and you just laughing it off. What doe God know about this old river? Why it’s been flowing just fine for miles and it will just keep on going like it has for ever. Not so! There is a great destruction coming!
If we ignore the warnings of God we will suffer the same destruction – and it will be eternal.
You are no exception! If the angels are bound by the message… so are you! This is for real. This really counts.
But God has done more than just stand on the river bank and shout warnings… God got into the water.
God became one of us.
Jesus became a Man
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 7You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8and put everything under his feet.”
Hebrews 2:5-7
Two facts come through.
First, Human kind was made just a little lower than the angels. The word that is used here is “Brachus” and it means literally, “for a little while”. We are not angels but we are not only just under them in terms of the order of things in the universe but our position is temporary. We are made in God’s image and for his glory. We are just a made lower for a little while than the angels.
There is a second fact that is very interesting. We may have been made a little lower than the angels but we have been given dominion over all the earth. We have been crowned with glory and honor, and everything has been put “under our feet.”
These are not the author’s words. He is quoting King David who wrote in the Psalms and put it this way…
Psalms 8
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalms 8:1-9
We have dominion over this world. We are the stewards of the earth – not angels. We have the rights and privileges of owners – although we are not owners but possessors.
And what is really exciting is that this is just the prequel.
We Will have Dominion Over the Unseen World to Come
…In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Nowhere in the Bible does God promise the angels that they will rule in the world to come. This world was not made for them and the next world is not for them. It’s for us!
But there is a problem. There’s a small hitch, a catch, a fly in the ointment. In fact, it’s not such a little problem. It’s a huge impenetrable barrier – Death.
I was watching the TV show called “House” this past Tuesday evening when Dr. House went off on a rampaging monologue like he does every so often. This monologue happened because one of his patients said that she wanted to be left alone and to be allowed to die with dignity. He went off on her and raged about how there is no dignity in death. That death is ugly and never good.
House got this one absolutely right. There is no dignity in death. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:43 of death that we are “sown in dishonor, … and in weakness…”
When God made man a little lower than the angels or, literally, “for a little while lower than God.” The suggestion seems to be that Adam and Eve were in a period of probation.
They were not created to remain less than God, and had they refused to sin, they would have ultimately shared God’s glory in a wonderful way. Satan knew that they would be lower than God only “for a little while,” so he hurried and promised them glory ahead of God’s time. Sin came into the human race and robbed Adam of his earthly dominion. He ceased being a king and became a slave. That is why v. 8 says, “Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him [man].”
We need help! We’re going to go over the edge of the falls unless someone rescues us. God got into the water for three reasons.
Jesus Came… to Be the Last Adam
10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Hebrews 2:10-11
Jesus came to be the last Adam. That is he came to be the last perfect man. The first perfect man screwed it up and introduced us to sin and death. The second Adam, the second perfect man was God in flesh and he got it right!
By his death and resurrection, He undid all the ruin Adam caused when he disobeyed God. For a little while, Jesus was – like us – just a little lower than the angels, even to the depths of death.
Jesus had to have a body of flesh in order to die for the sins of the world. Men crowned Him with thorns on earth, but now He has been crowned with glory and honor.
Jesus Came… to Declare You to Be Part of His Family
12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
Hebrews 2:12-13
The author quotes Psalms 22:22 when he declares that through Jesus there is now a new family in the world: Christ is bringing many sons to glory. Adam, through his sin, plunged his descendants into sin and death; Christ now changes Adam’s children into the children of God when Jesus can now “declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.”
There is great significance and meaning to the idea of being born again. We leave the family of Adam and enter into the family of the last Adam – the firstborn of God – Jesus. In baptism we take his name and he declares ours as part of his family!
This week I have been engaged in several meetings with our staff, elders, ministry leaders, and life group leaders. We’re working on a long-term master plan for ministry with one over arching goal… Helping People Find the Way Home.
This summer as you come into your first time of worship in our new building you will notice something about the auditorium. You’ll notice that on one side of the platform there will be a pool of water. I promise you… it will be ready every Sunday. It will be clean. It will be warm. It will be ready for you and all others to enter into and to make your pledge to Jesus, to take his name, and to enter into his resurrection. I challenge you to join with me in praying and working for those waters to be stirred every week by someone who is coming home!
Jesus Came… to Defeat Death
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.
Hebrews 2:14-17
God hates death. God is not about death. God is all about life. Death came into the world because of the first Adam and the sin he introduced into our world.
Death and the fear of death were the consequences of Adam’s sin (Gen. 2:17; 3:10). The fear of death has been Satan’s strongest weapon. He hates God and he hates you. He is dangerous because he holds the power of death. He is weak because he does not hold authority over death.
Satan seized this “might of death” to get control over God’s creatures; but by His death on the cross, Christ “made inoperative” (destroyed) this power and thus delivered those who were in bondage because of the fear of death. Christ had to have a human body in order to die and thus defeat Satan. See also 1 John 3:8.
Satan does not have “the power of death” absolutely. If you have read the story of Job you will remember that Satan could do nothing without God’s permission (Job 1–2). The word for power in v. 14 means “might” rather than “authority.”
Satan has might over sinners and darkness, but Jesus has delivered his brothers and sisters from the power of darkness (Col. 1:12–13). We have nothing to fear because Jesus didn’t do this for angels – he did it for us!
In v. 16 the writer makes it clear that Christ did not take on Himself the nature of angels, but rather the seed of Abraham. In other words, Christ did not become an angel; He became a man, a Jew. He did not die for angels; He died for humans.
Fallen angels can never be saved, but fallen men and women can be saved!
Jesus Came… to be Your Friend
17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:17-18
This is the last reason Jesus took on Himself a human body. God knew that His children would need a sympathetic priest to help them in their weaknesses. He permitted His Son to suffer; and through this suffering, He equipped Him for His priestly ministry (v. 10). Christ’s person needed no perfecting, since He is God; but as the God-Man, He endured suffering to prepare Himself to meet our needs. He was made flesh at Bethlehem (John 1:14); He was “made like unto His brethren” during His earthly life; and He was “made sin” at the cross (2 Cor. 5:21). Now He is a merciful and faithful High Priest; we can depend on Him! He is able to succor us when we come to Him for aid. The word succor means “to run when called for” and was used of physicians. Christ runs to our aid when we call Him!
This section completes the argument for the superiority of Christ over the angels. The writer has shown that Christ is superior in His person and work and in the name the Father has given Him “above every name.” The conclusion is clear: since Christ is superior, we must heed His Word and obey it. We must beware of drifting through neglect.
Are You Drifting Down River… or Are You Pushing Against the Current?
I went to a movie in November that was called “The Martian Child.” In this story a young man was contemplating the adoption of a strange young boy. One day he sat in his car watching the young boy from a distance want a little girl came up to his window and startled him. He jumped and said “Jesus!” The little girl said, “He’s a great teacher but there are many others like him that we can learn from.” And the movie went on with it’s main storyline.
Why was this little message in the movie? It was there simply to tell the audience – you, me, and others like us that there are many choices when it comes to spiritual things and they all lead to God.
The author of Hebrews does not agree with this premise. His contention is that Jesus is unique. He is superior. He is better. He is best. He is not just another teacher, philosopher, leader, or prophet. Last week we explored the firs chapter in which the writer says powerfully and persuasively that Jesus is so much more than an angel.
Make a conscious decision. Do it today. Determine to follow Jesus. He’s no angel and neither are you. He came here to help you find the way home.
Are you a believer and follower? Hold on to Jesus. Don’t drift.
Have you decided to follow Jesus? I want to urge you to take his name and be baptized into his family. You don’t have to wait for our new building. We have a pool here at CMS we can use!
Let’s stand and praise God for what he has done. If you would like to pray – come. If you would like to declare your decision to follow Jesus – come.
