Jesus Is . . . The Greatest!
SERIES: Jesus Is . . .!
Hebrews 2:1-18
June 18, 2017
I’ve never heard anyone say . . . when I grow up I want to be a drifter! We usually have something in mind about who we want to be and what we want to accomplish Even when we’re struggling to make a decision, if someone said, ‘so it sounds like you just want to be a drifter.’ We’d shout out “NO WAY! I want to do something with my life.”
That’s part of the problem which was confronting the audience in the book of Hebrews. We’re taking a journey through the book of Hebrews, and answering the question of who IS JESUS! We want to gain a better understanding of who He is and what that means for our lives.
We’re in week 3 and we’re going to tackle Hebrews 2 this morning. There’s a lot of meat in this chapter and I’m going to try to break it down section by section so we can gain a better understanding and belief of who Jesus is.
The writer starts out saying ~
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we DRIFT away from it. – Hebrews 2:1
That’s why I started talking about drifting. Have you heard of people relaxing on a raft in the ocean, and before they know it, they’ve drifted away from land? Drifting is not what we want to happen in our lives.
Have you had a parent, a spouse, a boss, a teacher, even a good friend look at you and say . . . “Hey, pay attention, what I’m telling you is really important.” I had a teacher who used to say give me your undivided attention. That’s what the writer is saying. Because if we don’t give our undivided attention, we will drift.
Professor D. A. Carson warns, “People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to the Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. No —
We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance.
We drift toward disobedience and call it freedom.
We drift toward superstition and call it faith.
We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation.
We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism.
We slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.”
Understand, when it comes to this spiritual drifting Carson talks about, we usually don’t realize it’s happening. But like the person who’s drifting out to sea, before we know it we’ve let go of our foundation — we’ve gotten off course in our journey toward Christlikeness.
That’s what was happening to these 2nd generation Jewish believers. To escape persecution for their faith in Jesus, many had drifted away - - - to the point where they were embracing the belief that Jesus was just a great angel. It would be easy to drift this way, since angels were an important part of the Jewish faith. God used His angels to do powerful things for the Israelites.
The writer wasn’t denying angels, instead he’s warning the Christians against drifting as they beginning to worship the messengers, not the Message.
People are obsessed with angels and look at angels as the Savior, not Jesus. It may be worse today than in the early church. Remember the program Touched by an Angel? The show was so popular because it glamorized angels helping people through difficult circumstances.
Doreen Virtue, wrote the book, Angels 101: An Introduction to Connecting, Working, and Healing with the Angels. She explained - - - angels love every person unconditionally. They help everyone who calls on them, regardless of their religious faith or lack of it. She wrote, ‘They look past the surface and see the godliness within all of us. Angels aren’t judgmental and they only bring love into our lives. You’re safe with the angels, and you can totally trust them.’
She says angels will ~
- Help you avoid lines at check-in, and work with sweet and competent personnel.
- Let you sail through airport security without being searched.
- Protect and deliver your baggage so that your suitcases are the first ones on the
luggage carousel when you’re there to collect it
She claims, ‘Angels make no demands on us; rather, they wait to be summoned to help us overcome every difficulty. You never have to be afraid that the angels would ever ask you to do anything that would make you feel afraid.’ She’s been on CNN, Oprah, and The View.
She has 398,463 followers on Instagram, 1.4 million Facebook followers. That’s just a few more than me. That’s just 1 person, so, consider the influence she has.
Now, think about what happens when we face suffering and persecution for what we believe is no good reason. We pray and we pray . . . and we expect God will grant to us exactly what we want. We rationalize and convince ourselves we will get what we want because we’re good people. But, when we don’t receive what we wanted, many people begin to drift away from faith. They don’t realize it, it catches them off guard. They attend worship less, pray less, read scripture less, and serve less.
It’s subtle and gradual and the writer of Hebrews wanted the people to understand you can’t drift away. In the midst of suffering we must pay even closer attention to what we have heard and learned and taken into our heart, spirit, mind and body. As Carson said, ‘nobody grows closer to Christ by drifting.’ It must be intentional! We must be intentional about our faith and growing more Christlike.
So, the writer concludes this section by stating ~
3 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, 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. – Hebrews 2:3-4
The writer wants us to understand that we cannot escape such a great salvation. The Lord declared it, then others proclaimed it - - and signs, wonders and miracles were performed. These all point to Jesus. They should all lead us to Jesus. And the writers ultimate point is that these angels could never do what Jesus did. Salvation will only come through Jesus and the angels are the ones who serve those who have received salvation.
If you recall in Hebrews 1, the writer wanted us to see how exalted Christ is. He showed over and over again that Christ is greater than the angels. But now the writer wants to prove something to us. So, while in chapter 1 he showed Jesus was higher than angels, now he shows that Jesus had to become lower than the angels for a time, so that He could suffer for you and I. Then Jesus would be exalted in heaven.
Ancient Judaism believed that angels had been placed by God over the nations of the world. But the writer wants us to see that angels will not hold a position of government in the new age.
So, the writer tells us ~
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.
6 It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the Son of man, that you care for Him?
7 You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned Him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under His feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to Him, God left nothing outside His control. – Hebrews 2:5-8
The writer is using Psalm 8 as a springboard to call to our attention who Jesus is. The focus is on Jesus as the Son of man. Jesus often referred to Himself in this manner, and now the writer of Hebrews is referring to Jesus - - that for a time, He was made lower than the angels. That Jesus became a man . . . and here’s the cool part . . . the end of verse 7 tells us God crowned Him with glory and honor.
Jesus became lower than the angels so He could suffer for us, only to be crowned with glory and honor because of His sacrificial death. Everything then became subject to Christ when He returned to heaven and nothing was and is outside of His control, power and sovereignty.
This section of Hebrews ends with the statement ~
9 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. – Hebrews 2:9
This is the first time in the book that the name Jesus has been used. And the writer is repeating himself as he proclaims Jesus was the One who would suffer and taste death, so that we would not have to experience that same death. If you reread Hebrews 2, you will notice how often the writer is stating Jesus died for us.
The writer brings us to a conclusion in this section of Hebrews (2:10), writing ~
10 For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
Verse 10 can be hard to understand, but let me try to paraphrase it ~
For it was fitting that God, who is the Creator of all things, would bring you and I, God’s children, to experience His glory, and would make Jesus, the founder of our salvation 100% fully obedient to the Father’s will.
The writer wants us to see we are now called children of God because of the faith we have in Jesus as the One and only One who could take away our sins. No angel could do that, it was only Jesus who had to be the perfect - - sinless One, who would offer salvation to all those who confess faith in Him.
11 For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. – Hebrews 2:11
There’s only 1 source for the salvation and forgiveness we receive. Jesus makes His people holy and righteous through His sacrifice, through the shedding of His blood. Jesus’ true followers, the church, are made holy by His sacrifice. There is only one source, it’s not an angel, it’s Jesus!
Finally, the writer leads us back to the reason for Jesus coming into this world. He tells us ~
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. – Hebrews 2:14-15
The writer wants us to know that Jesus came into this world for you and I. He came so He could be the ultimate sacrifice for us. He lived a life like we do and experienced life like we do. Jesus faced death head on. He didn’t run from it, but embraced it so that you and I could have a relationship with God.
Jesus was and is the destroyer of the one who holds the keys to death. . . the devil. Even though we will all die, we know, when we have our faith in Jesus, we will be reunited with loved ones. We trust the words of John in the book of Revelation. Listen to these promises for you and I from that book ~
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” – Revelation 7:16-17
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:4
3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him.
4 They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. – Revelation 22:3-5
Friends, that’s the final hope we have in Jesus. We have a relationship with Jesus in this world, but in the end, what do we have? We have those promises from a God who loves us so much that He sent His Son to leave the perfection of heaven and live, suffer and die for you. So that someday, the hope we have in Christ will be realized and we will experience the joy of being welcomed into our new heavenly home. Where everything and everyone is healed, whole and absolutely 100% perfect.
Finally, the writer concludes ~
17 Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
18 For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. – Hebrews 2:17-18
What is so vital in this conclusion is that the author has introduced a new way of looking at Jesus. It’s not one we will look at today, because it will be throughout much of Hebrews. But Jesus is now referred to as the High Priest. Hold onto that one and we will talk lots more about it.
As the writer has been saying, Jesus was the sacrifice. That’s what the theological word, propitiation means. It means Jesus paid the price to satisfy God’s wrath and anger at our sinfulness. It’s like paying a huge debt for someone else so that they don’t have to suffer, because they can’t afford to make the restitution. That’s what Jesus did for us.
Jesus was tempted as we are. He suffered as we do, and took on Himself every sin you can think of and all those that have yet to be discovered. As the High Priest, Jesus was tempted in every way and yet did not sin. Because of that, Jesus is a sympathetic and merciful high priest who knows our weaknesses since He experienced the full range of temptations and has atoned for our sinfulness.
Friends . . . the point of these first two chapters of Hebrews is to help us understand that Jesus is not some created being, He’s not some impersonal being, He’s not some angel who flutters on your shoulders and makes no demands of you.
Jesus is Lord. He is the Savior of the world! He is bigger and better than any angel. He is the only One who can offer you forgiveness of your sins and grant you salvation, eternity with God!
