Hebrews Talk 4 (2:1-18)

0:01 Kids, apologies. I think we kept you for a little bit too long there. So unless you want to stay, you're welcome to stay if you like. We are in Hebrews 2 in the series that we're running through this letter. There's a lot to get through in this whole chapter today. I would love to, I'm going to coin this, do a Gilbert and traverse 10 verses in one minute like he did last week. but I'm afraid this passage doesn't quite set itself up for that. So my idea this morning is really just to take us through the thought flow of this chapter, highlight that to you, give you a few things to think about that you can think about in your own time that you can discuss in your home groups and in your cell groups over the next week.

0:47 But let me begin with this question that Al has alluded to already. Who are you? Who are you? If I asked you to summarize your response to that question in less than 30 words, how might you go about doing that? And anybody who has ever had an Instagram account will know what it is like to wrestle with this problem? How can I sum up who I am to the world in less than 150 characters? Or do I just do what most people do and leave it blank? So I thought I would trawl through Glen Abbey members' Instagram accounts and I would take the best ones.

1:28 And so here are a few of them. A few people sweated there just for a moment. Just for a moment. But we know what this is like, this difficulty to sum ourselves up. What do we put as priorities? Is it dad first, then husband? Is it husband first, then dad? Where does Liverpool supporter come and all that?

1:49 Does it go above those, below those? I'm only sure, it definitely comes above those. But you get the idea, it's difficult to do. But this chapter this morning that we're looking at, this chapter in a magnificent, in a profound way, expands our vision, expands our perspective on the answer to this question, who are you? And my hope, my prayer for this morning is, as we work our way through this chapter, is that just a little bit more than before, you will have something extra to say in response to that question as we go through what the writer has to say here. So I want you to keep that question in mind this morning. I want to keep two other things in mind this morning as well. Very briefly, let's remember back to those representative imaginary characters that I set up in week one and in week two.

2:44 Jonathan, his friend Simon, his friend Jacob, these representatives of a church that is a mixed crowd. So remember them. And then also, just as we're working through this, just as a little thing to think about, think back to the temple, think back to the tabernacle from week two. Do you see any connections here? Do you see any illusions in what it is we're talking through today? So remember all of that. But we're going to work through this, and we're going to work through the chapter very much this morning, step by step, just walking through it. So I'll read a bit, talk a bit, read a bit, talk a bit, and so on.

3:14 So let's begin. The writer begins like this. We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment. 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. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. So here we have, at the beginning of chapter two, we have the writer breaking into his teaching so far.

3:59 He's been teaching, he almost goes into preaching. He's been explaining, he goes into application. And it begins with this very stark warning. It's one of five warnings scattered throughout the letter to the Hebrews. And the warning is connected back to where Gilbert was last week, back to those first few verses, especially in chapter one, because the writer makes that clear there. He says, therefore, in these last days, so he's pointing back, therefore, in these last days, God has spoken. He's no longer spoken through his prophets. He has spoken through his son.

4:35 Remember all those different things last week, the heir of all things, creator, sustainer, purification, the one who purifies us from our sins, radiance of God's glory, all of those things, this description of the deity of Christ. And then he goes, therefore, therefore, in light of God speaking in this climactic, ultimate revelation by his son, it's absolutely vital that we take seriously, so seriously, how we respond to this message. We're not blasé about it in any way. Now, it's crucial as we listen to this warning and actually all the warnings. throughout the letter that we try and work out who it is within this mixed crowd that this writer is writing to, who it is he might be actually calling out here. And out of our three imaginary characters from week one, I think Jonathan's friend Jacob, that was the one who was very much into, so tightly sort of connected with his Jewish heritage and his Jewish history.

5:46 Put it this way, if Jacob, straying in the serious anachronism here, But if Jacob had an Instagram account and it was his bio, it would all be heavily majoring on his Jewish heritage, his history, his family connections, all of that sort of thing. And unlikely, even though he's some way connected with this church, unlikely that there'd be any mention of Jesus. He's in and around things, but remember what I said the first week, Jonathan isn't sure whenever we're talking about what it means to accept Jesus, whether that's something that Jacob has done. And it certainly doesn't appear that way in terms of how he portrays himself. Because you see the danger here that the writer actually highlights is the danger, do you notice, of drifting away. It's a passive verb. It's not an active one. It's not walking away.

6:38 It's not turning away. It's drifting away. I think of all these people who are now into sea swimming. And you imagine an inexperienced sea swimmer who doesn't understand the possibility of the strength of undercurrents, dragging them away from that place between the two flags on the beach that you have to stay within. Or I think of a little boat, unanchored, drifting on the tide. And interestingly, the writer actually talks about an anchor later on in this letter. Chapter 6, many of us will know this verse well. we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

7:18 It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. See any links from week two? Where our forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf. So reading into this then, it would seem this warning, this first warning is for people without the anchor of genuine personal faith in the person and the work of Jesus, the son of God. That's who he is warning here. It's the people who are hearing the message, but are neglecting to truly respond to it. They're not outright rejecting Jesus. It's this idea of just neglecting.

7:58 Sort of letting the message just wash over them, but not actually doing anything about it. They haven't made this firm and decisive step of faith. And the author is urging them here to pay far more attention to this message than they ever have before because there are serious undercurrents in their Jewish context that threaten to drag them away. Pressures of shame and social pressure and the possibility of persecution compared to how close they are right now. And the writer goes on and he emphasizes the seriousness of the need to decide by reminding them of the just consequences their ancestors faced when they didn't listen to the angel-mediated speaking of God and the law. They'd be reminded of the exile of their people, all of that sort of thing. And then how much more serious. He's saying, well, the consequences be if you don't listen to the sun-mediated, final, climactic speaking of God in his son, this offer of so great a salvation.

9:15 And so this is a deeply pastoral pleading on behalf of the author, please take seriously what it is you're hearing. Remember, it was announced by the Lord. Think of all the people, all the eyewitnesses who have testified to it, and think of all of the ways that God has testified to this message. Through signs and wonders and miracles and gifts of the Spirit. Take it seriously. Pay attention. Take hold. And there was a very specific warning there in their Jewish context.

9:49 But of course, this crosses over to us in a certain way today. but only to some people in the room. And let me give you an example of one potential target audience. You might be a young person here this morning. And this is very much your parents' faith. You come, maybe you come quite freely on a Sunday. You like the people, you like the friends you meet, you sing the songs, you listen a wee bit to some of the things that people like me say. But you've never really dug into the message.

10:32 You've never really thought through it and interrogated it and investigated it and decided on it for yourself. So maybe, maybe this is a do not delay message for you with all of the undercurrents of life that will come your way, that have the potential, the pressures of life, the ambitions you have, all of these different things that have the potential to you just waking up one day and realizing you're so far away from where you were. You might never be as close as you are right now to make the decision. Think seriously, take seriously, pay close attention to the message that you are hearing. Let's move on. The writer, he's broken in for this warning, this application now he goes back into his teaching. And in chapter one, the focus of his teaching has all been on the deity of Christ, the majesty of Christ. Now in chapter two, his focus shifts onto the humanity of Christ.

11:40 And the writer presents this fascinating, this mind-blowing argument about humanity, about God's plan from the beginning of creation, about Jesus, that just explodes and takes the blinkers off, bursts the blinkers off. Our perspective, our vision, our answer to the question, who are you? And in these verses, the writer centers it all on this Psalm of David, Psalm 8, as Al's already talked about, mentioned earlier. He goes back again, like he did in chapter one, to these Old Testament scriptures, to their songbook that they know so well. And he says this to them, it is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking. We're speaking here about the world to come, but there is a place where someone has testified, what is mankind that you're mindful of him? Here's David in Psalm 8. A son of man that you care for him.

12:47 And can you imagine David, the poet, the songwriter, standing looking up into the night sky, no light pollution, and just feeling as he looked up his minuteness, how minuscule he is in ratio to the universe, and then penning these words, what is mankind that you're mindful of? And what is the son of man that you care for? Who am I? Who are we? The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking gives his own particular answer to David's question. Here's what he said in a TV interview a long time ago now. The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among 100 billion galaxies.

13:43 We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. Now, David, he sees things very differently. He comes to a completely different conclusion because David starts with a personal creator. And he looks to and he acknowledges the personal creator God. and then from there he considers creation and he recognizes in it that God has not simply been mindful of humanity. He has designed the whole of creation and the intricate detail of human beings within it in a way that clearly communicates his specific care and love for us. David gets to the opposite place. He gets to praising God that he has created all of creation specifically for humanity.

14:43 And so his question, there's a question there that then hangs. If this is what God has done, if the whole of creation exists for the human race, then what sort of amazing purpose must God have for that humanity? but then what David says next is a little bit confusing have you ever thought this when you've read psalm yet he says you made them a little lower than the angels you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet how can you be lower the angels and have everything under your feet doesn't make sense unless what we have here in the psalm is this prophetic compression of a timeline. So in other words, there is a time, there's an era in which David lived and which we live, where humanity has been made a little lower than the angels, but there is a time, there is an era coming where human beings will be crowned with glory and honor and have everything under their feet, everything subjected to them in the world to come. This is and we, I think we know this but we forget this. We keep on looking down here and we don't lift our eyes. This is God's plan for our eternal destiny.

16:10 We have been designed and made ultimately for a future world. This is not the sum of our lives. We've been made to be crowned with glory and honor, to be sons brought into glory, to have responsibility and dominion and rule over his new creation. This is, this always has been God's plan and his purpose for us. There's no way we can imagine even the edge of what that is going to be like, but yet God has given us, he has created us to have imagination so at least like David we can try. And I like to try. Just touch it. Imagine the most satisfying piece of work that gives you great satisfaction and joy.

17:04 And multiply that infinitely. And that's the sort of experience you're going to have with dominion, no limitations, no frustrations in the new heaven, new earth, new creation. That's the role that he has given us. But then that raises another question. If that is our sure and certain future, or if that's where God is bringing us, how will he achieve it? How will he fulfill his purposes for us? How will he bring us from where we are in our sin, we know that, in our weaknesses, in our frustrations, in our limitations, to the fulfillment of who we've been created to be?

17:52 Well, I write a response. In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them, yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them. Here's him acknowledging that all these frustrations and limitations that we do have, but here's the key phrase, we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. We do see Jesus. And here's something really important to note. This is the first time that the writer uses the word Jesus in his letter. Up to now it has been about the son, deity, majesty. Now for the first time he uses his personal name given to him by his parents under the direction of an angel.

18:47 The name given to the baby in Bethlehem, the boy, the teenager, the man who grew up in Nazareth, who was crucified then in Jerusalem. And his on-purpose use of Jesus signals that this next section that we're looking at is all concerned with the significance of, the importance of, the necessity of Jesus' incarnation in flesh. him becoming man. We do see Jesus, the writer says, and Jesus in his humanity makes sense of David's psalm. As the creator and sustainer of the universe, he was always higher than the angels, but in God's purposes and plans, he humbled himself and became flesh, and so was made lower than the angels for a little while, 33 years to be precise. But now we see him crowned with glory and honor, going back to the beginning of chapter one, seated at the right hand of the Father in majesty, the commander in chief of his creation. A human being has gone before us and he has fulfilled Psalm 8 and his name is Jesus. How has he done it?

20:11 we'll look at what the writer says we do see Jesus now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death there's parallels here between what the writer says here and what Paul says in Philippians 2 here's what he says in being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross therefore because of his death on the cross God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above Do you see the parallels? And think then of who the writer is writing to. There would have been many that he was writing to who were struggling to get their heads round and struggling to justify to other Jews and their families and in their communities how a man who suffered a shameful criminal's death on a Roman cross could be God's promised Messiah. And the writer's response, it had to be that way. And listen, it's not even peripheral to the story. It's right at the center. It's right at the heart of God's purposes and plans that he must die so that he might taste death for everyone.

21:30 That's crucial. We'll come back to that because he repeats that later on in the chapter. But let's keep going. In bringing them, he goes on. Many sons and daughters to glory. Here is our eternal destiny. I think our slide's slightly wrong there. But we're in bringing many sons and daughters to glory.

21:56 This is our eternal destiny. This is God's plan and purpose for us. Here is this mind-blowing expansion of the answer to the question, who are you? Let me tell you who you are according to this writer. You are a son. You are a son. The passage here says sons and daughters. The NIV says sons and daughters.

22:17 It's actually just sons. We are all male and female sons in the sense of being heirs to this kingdom. And we are being brought to glory. That is who you are. It was fitting that God, the writer goes on, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer perfect through what he suffered. So what the writer's doing here is he's saying, listen, folks, marvel at God's amazing plan. Gaze in wonder at how he has arranged things and how this seemingly shameful suffering and crucifixion of Jesus sits at that very heart of his arrangements for bringing us to glory. He made Jesus our pioneer, the one who has gone before us.

23:10 Think of that term. He's gone before us. He's paved the way for us. He has made salvation possible for us in the steps that he has taken. He has made Jesus perfect through what he suffered. Now, maybe you've read this before, or maybe you've read it just this week in preparation for this morning. You're like, what's the writer saying here? Is he saying that before Jesus suffered and died, that he wasn't perfect?

23:36 but of course that's not what the writer is getting at here. He's not talking about Jesus in a sense of moral perfection. He's talking about his readiness for the role of being our pioneer and what comes later, our high priest. He has the qualifications. He is the son of God. He is the heir of all things. Who can invite us to be co-heirs apart from the heir himself?

24:07 So he has the qualifications, but in his suffering and his death, he now has the human experience to be perfect for the role of being our pioneer and our high priest. This isn't about a moral perfection. This is about a vocational perfection for the role that God has given him in our lives. Look then at how the writer paints the beautiful picture of Jesus' solidarity with us. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. And there's no word actually in the original Greek for family. The NIV again has put that in there, but the writer's basically saying who are all one. It's this idea of amazing unity and amazing solidarity.

24:57 And he goes on, so Jesus, going back to where Al had some of his focus earlier, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Let me say that again. Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. And think about it. Again, the writer was writing to a group of people, many of whom were ashamed to call Jesus a brother. And he turns this on its head and he says, let me tell you, Jesus isn't ashamed to call you a brother or a sister. He is not ashamed of you. And that might be really so significant for somebody, for some people in this room to hear and to take to heart that message this morning.

25:43 Whatever you feel about yourself, Jesus is not ashamed to call you a brother. Jesus is not ashamed to call you his sister. And then he goes on. And he again goes back to their Old Testament scriptures, not to the Psalms this time, but to the prophet Isaiah. And he puts the words of the prophet Isaiah onto the lips of Jesus, if you like, when he goes on and he writes this, quoting from Isaiah 8, he says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly I will sing your praises in other words this is a picture of Jesus saying I will stand shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters I'll praise God alongside them together with them and I'll praise him for his good and perfect plan as how he has brought all this together and I again I will put my trust in him I'll be their example I'll show them I'll teach them how to trust the father in the midst of trials and temptations and suffering. And again, here am I and the children God has given me.

26:52 Again, do we get this? Sometimes do we feel that are we some sort of burden to Jesus that, you know, yeah, sort of accepted it, but sort of an arm up his back and coerced into welcoming us in to be co-heirs. it's the complete opposite of that he sees us as gifts from the father the children that God has given me we are gifts we are the opposite of burdens he delights in sharing his inheritance with us we are the gifts that God has given him the writer then goes on since the children have flesh and blood so the children that God has given him of flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. So here's that reiteration of the message in verse nine that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. So remember where we are so far. God's eternal purpose, Bringing us as sons into glory, this eternal purpose for us.

28:17 But there's a serious barrier there. And that is the barrier of physical death. And the sting of death, sin. So how is that barrier removed? Well, it is demolished. It is destroyed. It is blasted into smithereens in that sense, by the person and the work of Jesus, a perfect, fully human pioneer to go through death for us, to die in our place as a once and for all sacrificial lamb that might atone for our sins in that one sacrifice and therefore rendering death and rendering the sting of death's sin utterly powerless over us, disarming them, humiliating them, triumphing over them by the cross, to quote Paul in Colossians, and freeing us not simply from death itself forever, but from that fear of death that dominates and keeps us in bondage in the lives that we currently live.

29:32 And then the Lamb goes on ahead of us. Jesus, our pioneer, goes on ahead of us and opens up the way into eternal life so that all these barriers removed, we might fulfill God's eternal purposes and plans for us as sons of glory. That's what Jesus and his humanity achieves, but there's one more crucial thing to this. One more crucial thing for our lives now, for our lives today, in Jesus becoming human. And the writer finishes with this. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. And of course, the writer's talking about Abraham's spiritual descendants here.

30:18 And that's us, those of us who are in Christ. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. Remember the high priest in the temple a couple of weeks ago in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Here's this message for your life, for my life right now today. God is bringing us in Christ to glory. That is what he is doing. And he is not gonna be stopped.

30:58 But the whole of the New Testament testifies that that journey to glory, that process of being made ready for our eternal existence. That process, that journey begins as soon as we put our trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Let me remind you, the lives that we have in the here and now are not the sum of our whole lives. In a sense, this is simply the training ground for where God is taking us, getting us ready. Think of 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18. And we all, with unveiled face, think of the veil again in the temple and the tabernacle, beholding the glory of the Lord, unhindered presence of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory into another. One day, one week, one month, one year, one degree at a time, being transformed from one degree of glory to another in readiness to be sons of glory for eternity.

32:14 Now, the reality is that our experience might not always feel like that. We don't see this perfect trajectory like that. Sure, we don't. We know that in our lives. It's like that. And actually part of the problem in us understanding this is that the more mature we get and the more ready he gets us, the more sinful, the more weak, the more limited we realize we are. So it can be a little bit confusing. But this is what he is doing.

32:40 And that especially happens through the crucible of testing, through the crucible of temptation and suffering in our lives. Through these, God is going about his refining work in our character. Think of 1 Peter 1. And I think of our Story Bears series last year and the people in it testifying to this. Think of Sharon and Neil. Think of Corrie. Think of Louise. Testifying, bearing witness to the reality of this refining by fire of their characters, of their faith.

33:28 Reminds me of Paul's words in Romans 5, this idea of them glorying through tears in their suffering because they know what God is achieving through it in them as he readies them as sons for glory. But as well, those people on the screen, they testify to never being on their own. In the midst of some of the hardest experiences of life, they were never on their own. Because in this lifelong journey, God has not left us without help. He has given us Jesus, not in his suffering and his death, yes, for the atonement of our sins, but that's not the whole picture. He has also gone through this and he has given us Jesus as our high priest, as our helper, as our mentor, as our guide, as one who we can turn to

34:31 in the midst of all this and he has made Jesus a perfect high priest who is able, truly able to help us in our times of testing, in our temptation and Jesus can only do that. He's only qualified now in that sense, made perfect to do that because of what he went through in his own 33 years on this earth. He went through all that we will go through. So if you are going through something this morning, the answer to any of those things is he knows what it is you're going through. Loss, betrayal,

35:25 injustice, fear the closeness of physical death whatever you're going through right now he knows he is your merciful and faithful high priest he knows and so you can go to the very son of God and all his deity you can go to Jesus and all his humanity as your merciful helper, high priest, trusting that he understands, that he can sympathize with you, and trusting as well that he can help you, and trusting that he, as your pioneer, is using all this on the path to bringing you to your eternal destiny as a son of glory. Who are you? Let me remind you, you're a son of glory, being brought by your perfect and merciful high priest, the one who has atoned for your sins, who has removed the fear and the sting of death

36:47 and has made a way. Let's pray together as the band then come back out. Father, who are we? Who are we that you are mindful of us? Who are we that you care for us? And yet you do. In a way that truly takes our breath away at times.

37:19 We thank you that you have spoken by your son. We thank you for how you have made a way. That your plan from the beginning will be fulfilled in us as we take our place in your eternal kingdom, in your new heaven and your new earth. Give us perspective on our lives. Give us perspective on who we truly are. and help us to live our lives in light of that unblinkered, that wide-angle lens perspective.

38:06 Thank you that we have nothing to fear in life. We have nothing to fear in death because our pioneer has gone before us and he now sits at the right hand of the throne of grace. He is the victor and we have victory in him. Imprint this truth on our hearts, we pray, by your spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.