Hebrews 2:1-9 Don't Neglect Your Salvation

Intro:

Chris Smith: GCA Intro

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

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

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

Isaiah 52:1 ESV

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

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.

Acts 4:11–12 ESV

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

Acts 2:43 ESV

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

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

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

Psalm 8:4 ESV

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

Psalm 8:1 ESV

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

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

Philippians 2:6–7 ESV

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

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

Psalm 8:6 ESV

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

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

Philippians 2:8 ESV

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.