Hebrews 2:1-9 Don't Neglect Your Salvation
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro:
Intro:
Chris Smith: GCA Intro
Read Hebrews 2:1-4
Read Hebrews 2:1-4
Transition:
Exhortation vs. Exposition
This is the first of the five admonitions found in Hebrews.
Their purpose is to encourage all readers to pay attention to God’s Word and obey it.
These admonitions become stronger as we progress through the book, from drifting from God’s Word to defying God’s Word
Drifting from the Word—2:1–4 (neglect)
Doubting the Word—3:7–4:13 (hard heart)
Dullness toward the Word—5:11–6:20 (sluggishness)
Despising the Word—10:26–39 (willfulness)
Defying the Word—12:14–29 (refusing to hear)
The tragic thing about these believers is that they were at a standstill spiritually and in danger of going backward
Some of them had even forsaken the regular worship services and were not making spiritual progress.
In the Christian life, if you do not go forward, you go backward; there is no permanent standing still.
Today, many claim to be Christ followers but are not. When asked, they check the Christian box. They live a generally moral life. They show up at church for Christmas Eve, Easter, weddings, and funerals. But in reality, their faith is nothing more than a cultural accommodation. It’s the path of least resistance. They trust in their own righteousness, assuming that God grades on a curve. They lean on their own understanding, happily following Jesus as a cosmic consultant and the Bible as a helpful guidebook
God does not sit idly by and permit His children to rebel against Him.
He will continue to speak and, when necessary, He chastens His own.
The admonition is written to believers, for the writer includes himself when he writes “we.”
The danger here is that of neglecting our salvation.
Please note that the author did not write “rejecting” but “neglecting.”
He is not encouraging sinners to become Christians; rather, he is encouraging Christians to pay attention to the great salvation they have received from the Lord.
Danger of Drifting vs. 1-4
Danger of Drifting vs. 1-4
It is important not to neglect your salvation because there is a danger of drifting
Drifting on a Raft vs. Rip Currents
Think about a hot summer afternoon lying on an inner tube floating down a river
It sounds nice
Now think about being at the beach and being pulled away by a rip current
You are doing the same thing
The thing about drifting is that you don’t have to do anything
The same goes for your walk with Jesus
vs. 1 Pay Closer Attention
vs. 1 Pay Closer Attention
The writer of Hebrews tells his readers to pay closer attention
They’ve been going through the wringer
They’ve longing for the community they were once part of
The writer of Hebrews tells them that they are in danger of drifting away from Jesus
Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
vs. 2-3 Given a Great Salvation
vs. 2-3 Given a Great Salvation
He reminds them that they have been given a great salvation
The angels delivered the law to Moses and it proved reliable
Every transgression in the law had a just retribution
If we must take the word which came by angels seriously, then we must take the word that came by the Son of God even more seriously.
The Son is proven to be greater than the angels, so His message should be regarded as greater.
The word neglect in vs. 3 means to ignore an opportunity
It is the same word used in Matt 22:5 of the Marriage supper where people rejected the invitation
Therefore, if we neglect something, we probably do not consider it great. Yet our salvation is great, because:
We are saved by a great Savior.
We are saved at a great cost.
We are saved from a great penalty.
This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Don’t neglect the great salvation that is being given to you as a gift
INTERESTING FACT
Why Paul didn’t author the book of Hebrews
It was declared by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard
Paul was an apostle because of his Damascus road experience
He had a direct encounter with Jesus
The author heard from someone who heard from Jesus
vs. 4 God Bears Witness
God bore witness to this great salvation with signs and wonders
In the first century God worked miracles through the Apostles
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
Now He works through the Gifts of the Spirit
The Humanity of Jesus vs. 5-9
The Humanity of Jesus vs. 5-9
This next section shows us four reasons we shouldn’t neglect our salvation
Things that Jesus has done for us
The quotation here is from Psalm 8:4–6, and you will want to read that entire psalm carefully.
When God created the first man and woman, He gave them dominion over His Creation
Man was created “a little lower than the angels” (and therefore inferior to them), but man was given privileges far higher than the angels.
God never promised the angels that they would reign in “the world to come”
vs. 5 World not Subject to Angels
God never gave angels the kind of dominion man originally had over the earth
Angels do not have dominion over this world or the world to come.
vs. 6 Jesus is Mindful of Us
vs. 6 Jesus is Mindful of Us
The first reason we see is that Jesus is mindful of us
Jesus cares for you
David marveled that God was so mindful of man
The writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 8:4
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
That whole psalm is pretty amazing
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Ps 8:4 shows how insignificant man is
We are lower than angels
But God is mindful of us in that he cares for us
We shouldn’t neglect our salvation because we have a God who is mindful of us and cares
vs. 7 Jesus Became Like Us
vs. 7 Jesus Became Like Us
The second reason is that Jesus became like us
This also shows the humanity of Jesus
White vs. Blue Collar
For a little while Jesus was made lower than the angels
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Jesus was both fully God and fully Man
It is Biblically wrong to think of Jesus as merely God or merely man.
It is wrong to think of Him as half God and half man (or any other percentage split).
It is wrong to think of Him as “man on the outside” and “God on the inside.”
The Bible teaches Jesus is fully God and fully man, that a human nature was added to His divine nature, and both natures existed in one Person, Jesus Christ.
The first false teaching about Jesus in the days of the early church did not deny that He was God, but it denied that He was really human and said He only seemed to be human.
The heresy was called Docetism
Because he came and suffered he was crowned with glory and honor
We shouldn’t neglect our salvation because we serve a God who lowered himself and became like us
vs 8 All things are subject to Jesus
vs 8 All things are subject to Jesus
The third reason is that all things are subject to Jesus
Jesus Holds all of the Cards
I’ve mentioned this before but the symbol of something under your foot means you have conquered or mastered it
That’s why hikers take a picture with their foot on the peak of Mount Everest
Jesus has all things subject to him because he conquered sin and death on the cross
All dominion that was lost when Adam and Eve sin was recaptured
There is nothing outside of his control
David chimes in on this again
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
We can’t even see everything that is under his dominion right now
As a follower of Jesus that gives us confidence
He is in control and everything answers to him
If that is the case there is no need to turn anywhere else
There is no need to neglect your salvation because all things are subject to Jesus
What we do need to fight is our rebellious spirit
vs. 9 Jesus Tasted Death for Everyone
vs. 9 Jesus Tasted Death for Everyone
The fourth reason is that Jesus tasted death for everyone
vs. 9 summarizes this section but ends with a powerful point
Jesus suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone
Jesus died once for everyone
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
I like the phrase “tasted death for everyone”
It wasn’t permanent
He was in the grave for 3 days and then resurrected
He was our substitute and took our punishment of our sin
There is no need to neglect our salvation because we have a savior who rescued us from death, took our punishment upon himself, and tasted death for us so that we could have life, and life more abundantly.