Living in the Danger Zone

Introduction

Hebrews 1 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” 13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Before we determine how to live in a world where our highest hopes are not satisfied, we must ask, what does one do under such circumstances? - MLK, Jr, “Shattered Dreams”

The CrossFit training methodology has been my primary fitness and exercise methodology since 2010. CF is defined as, “constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity.” CF has several benchmark workouts known simply as, “the girls.” There’s Amanda, Annie, Barbara, Cindy, Diane, Elizabeth, Fran, Grace, Helen, Jackie, Kelly, Linda, Mary, and Nancy.

Why female names for these benchmark workouts? Well, it actually doesn’t have a whole heck of a lot to do with gender. These workouts are named after hurricanes. CF decided to follow the pattern of the National Weather Service, which started to assign female names to storms after 1953 because they wanted to use “short, distinctive given names that made for easier and quicker communication.” The founder of CF wrote,

This convenience and logic inspired our granting a special group of workouts women’s names, but anything that leaves you flat on your back and incapacitated only to lure you back for more at a later date certainly deserves naming.

These workouts are just like hurricanes. There’s a calm before the storm. You’re feeling fine, talking with your fellow gym members, the coach has taken you through a nice warmup, getting you ready to workout. Then she starts the timer, counting down to the start of the workout. “Ten seconds!” she yells. “3-2-1, Go!” are the next words out of her mouth, and all hell breaks loose. At a certain point, you feel as though you might die. If you can think at all, you’re thinking to yourself, “Why am I here, doing this voluntarily?” (Christa’s comment…) The workout ends and you wonder, “Am I dead?”

The devastation in the gym is evident as people are lying on the floor all over the place, making what we call sweat angels. This is what happens in a hurricane. There’s calm. Then there’s a realization that the storm has hit and you are no longer in control. Then, after the storm passes, there’s chaos. Devastation is all around. I want to say to you this evening that with Jesus it’s actually the opposite. What we find out about following Jesus is a different pattern. It’s the storm before the calm.

We’re in hurricane season right now, and there are certain parts of this country that danger zones. People chose to live in these danger zones knowing that when hurricane season rolls around there’s a high probability that they’ll be in the path of at least one hurricane. In a very real sense, all of life is lived in a danger zone. We live with the constant reality that threats to the things we long for and hope for in this life are the norm.

When we open the letter to the Hebrews it’s important to note that this is precisely what this Christian congregation is facing. There’s a storm taking place. Their world has turned upside-down and they are facing persecution and suffering because of their faith. And they are losing hope, tempted to drift away from their faith in Christ. Following Jesus is turning out to be more costly than they anticipated. They’re asking, “Is it worth it?” They’re in the height of the workout, when the pressure is most intense, and they want to quit. But they need to endure. The pastor will say to them in Hebrews 10:35-36

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

What’s interesting, though, is how he begins to address their concerns. He want them to endure, not to give up. But he doesn’t start out his sermon by saying, “Hold on,” “Don’t be discouraged,” or, “Keep hope alive.” These are all sentiments he will make later in the letter. But his starting point is with the unrivaled glory, majesty, and authority of the Son of God. The supremacy of Jesus Christ is their source of eternal hope in a topsy-turvy, upside-down world.

Every one of us faces the dangerous reality of having to live in a world where our highest hopes and dreams are not satisfied and are often dashed. As Dr. King asked, “What does one do under such circumstances?”How do we live with good hope in the danger zone of unfulfilled expectations? When the things that we earnestly desire or wish for remain out of reach? What what we truly believe in seems to be a lie? When we realize that the world is full of chaos?

There are three things I want to point out about life in the danger zone from this passage; Chaos, Control, Calm.

Chaos

There is perhaps no other chapter in the Bible that hits us with the divinity of Jesus Christ stronger than this first chapter of Hebrews. You can’t read this and say that the Bible declares Jesus to be a mere prophet. No. He’s God. The message is that the only way you will be able to keep hope alive is if your are clear on who Jesus is.

You see, there’s a question that I haven’t posed yet: how do we know that what we’re hoping for is what we ought to be hoping for? No encouragement to keep the faith is going to have any teeth unless we are gripped by the incomparable glory of Jesus the Christ. Make no mistake about it—unless your heart is beating to the grandeur, the bigness, the glory of Jesus, you’ll never think that being a Christian is worth it. Not only that, you’ll never be able to situate your hopes rightly unless you’re submitting them to him.

This letter begins almost like the opening words to Star Wars, “Long ago in a galaxy far far away...” But this is no science fiction. The first thing the Pastor wants us to remind us of is that God has spoken.

Hebrews 1:1 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,

At various times in history and in different ways, God raised up and anointed prophets to declare his word with authority: Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and on and on for centuries. God spoke to his people through the prophets to direct them to himself. it was always so that they would know what was necessary for them to honor and glorify him with their lives. When he spoke, he said all that he wanted to say. He didn’t leave out anything that was necessary.

Still, as glorious as the word spoken through the prophets was, it was varied, diverse, and fragmented because the prophets were many in number. A change took place when Jesus came on the scene. In these last days, the Pastor says, God has spoken to us by his unique and only Son.

When God the Son took on human flesh and was born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law (Galatians 4:4), Jesus became the final, complete, full Word of God. That’s why he says in the first verse of Hebrews 2:1

Hebrews 2:1 ESV

1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

If the word of the various prophets was glorious and authoritative, how much more glorious and authoritative is the message given to us by the Son? God’s word to us in Jesus has been spoken fully and finally. “These last days,” then, are the days of fulfillment—despite the chaos of the world around us.

What I love about the Pastor is that he’s not setting forth the divine nature of Jesus, the Son of God, as an idea that’s disconnected from life. He’s not just giving them head knowledge. All of this rich theology about Jesus Christ is not given in a vacuum. It is the epitome of theology applied to life. Jesus’ being God is important because the world is full of chaos. In vv. 10-12 he quotes from Psalm 102:25-7, telling us that God the Father says to God the Son

Hebrews 1:10–12 ESV

10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”

Why is he quoting Psalm 102? If you look at Psalm 102, the heading from the Hebrew text is,

‘A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint to the Lord.’

The psalmist is in the midst of a storm. He’s overwhelmed by the chaos of this world. His world had been rocked. What’s turned his world upside down is that Jerusalem has been destroyed. The temple is in ruins. The temple was supposed to be the place where God made his name dwell. It was the evidence that the Lord was with his people. Now, the thing that he thought was most secure and stable was gone. The Babylonians have crushed them and taken them into exile.

This analogy falls short, but it helps to see the point. When I was young, my father used to work at the World Trade Center. He usually took the train home from work, but there were a few occasions when drove into Manhattan to pick him up. I can remember being parked outside of the towers waiting for Dad to come out and looking out of the car window up at the Towers. As hard as I strained my neck I couldn’t see the top. I was amazed by those buildings, and they were, in my mind, permanent fixtures in NY. The pictures that represented NYC always included the Twin Towers. Obviously, they weren’t the permanent fixtures I thought that they were. The City was thrown into distress when the Towers fell on 9/11.

The distress on the faces of New Yorkers when the Towers fell gets at the distress of the psalmist…

Psalm 102:3–5 ESV

3 For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. 4 My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. 5 Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh.

But there’s a turning point in the psalm In v. 12 he says,

Psalm 102:12 ESV

12 But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations.

In the midst of the chaos that’s around him what he realizes is that the only stable, unchanging reality is that Yahweh, the Lord is enthroned forever. That’s the message that the Pastor is communicating in Hebrews 1. The distress you feel is real, but the One who walked the streets of Jerusalem and said, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” is none other that Yahweh, the Lord your God. He’s telling them that Jesus is the very one who laid the earth’s foundations in the beginning; the very one who created the heavens. Those created things will wear out and be rolled up like an old garment and be changed, but the Lord continues forever. He is the same and his years have no end.

Control

The only way to endure the chaos is to know that Jesus is in control. The punch that he packs in the first four verses is that Jesus is the glorious prophet. Jesus is the glorious priest. And Jesus is the glorious king. In Jesus, God has upped the ante.

Hebrews 1:1–4 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Jesus is supreme over everything that came before him, prophets, priests and kings. It all pointed towards him. He is the full and final word of God.

He is not just one of the prophets. He is the heir of all things. He has an inheritance. His inheritance is the whole world. Not just people, but he came to lay claim on the whole thing. He came to lay claim to the entire world as his own possession because he is the One through whom the world was created. He is the one appointed heir of everything. You and I might hope to have a wealthy benefactor somewhere who leaves us an inheritance, but no benefactor could leave us an inheritance like the one Jesus has! His inheritance is the whole creation, and that includes us! He is the glorious radiance and exact imprint of God’s essence. He is God. And he makes the glory of God visible to us.

You almost have to ask the question how could the description get any better? What more could you say to describe how glorious Jesus is? But then you read the second part of v. 3.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

In five words in the Greek text, eight words in our English translation, he lets us know that Jesus is not only the glorious prophet, he’s also the glorious priest. “After making purification for sins, he sat down.” In these eight words he describes the whole of Jesus’ work.

The Pastor is providing a “check your attitude” time. You can’t afford to ignore the absolute holiness of God. You can’t afford to think that you’ll be OK as long as you’re a decent person. You need a right view of God, and you need a right view of yourself. God is holy, and you’re not. If you’re going to know him, he has to provide a way for that to happen. What he did in the OT is provide a line of priests whose daily ministry was to atone for their own sins and the sins of the people by sacrificing lambs and bulls and goats. It was a gory and gruesome scene. Blood flowed in the tabernacle every day. That is how seriously God takes sin. He reminds them in 9:22, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Every day blood was shed so that the people would not be consumed. God’s punishment for sin fell on lambs and bulls and goats. But as the Pastor says in 10:4, “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The blood of bulls and goats could never finally, fully, and completely take care of the problem of sin. So the same sacrifices had to continually be offered over and over and over again.

But when the One who is the radiance of the glory of God came, he came as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus came as the unblemished, spotless Lamb of God. He came both as the sacrificial offering and as the offerer. He is the great high priest who offered himself as the only One who could crush sin. As he was being beaten and whipped, as the blood was flowing from his head, his hands, his feet, purification was being made for the sins of everyone who puts their trust in him. It is as the hymn writer says,

See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down: Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Jesus made final and complete purification for sins. How do I know that it’s final and complete? Do you know what was missing in the tabernacle? Do you know what was missing when the priests went in to offer the blood of atonement? There was no chair! They had to stand daily offering the sacrifices. There was no chair because there was no rest. But when Jesus made purification for sins, the Bible says that he sat down. He took his seat. The work was finished. There no longer remains any need for any other sacrifice for sin.

Let me ask you this question. Are you trying to clean yourself up? Let me tell you something. If you’re trying to get yourself together before coming to God, instead of giving yourself over to God with all your mess, you’re spitting in God’s face. You’re saying, “God, I got this.” Stop it. Stop spitting in God’s face. The Pastor is showing them that Jesus is the Glorious Priest because they’re being tempted to take matters into their own hands. They’re being tempted to make up their own way of salvation and right living. The message is that Jesus is the only one who can make the impure pure. There is no other way than throwing yourself at his feet.

That’s the best place to find yourself. Not only because Jesus is the glorious prophet and the merciful high priest, but he’s also our great and glorious King. The fact that he sat down tells us not only that he’s completed his work of purification for sins, but also that he is the supreme King and Judge. For he sat down, not any old place, but at the right hand of the Majesty on high (v. 3, 13).

He completed his work and was restored to his rightful position in heaven as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as the One before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess. Listen please, you have to know in your bones, in every fiber of your being, that Jesus is in control as the glorious prophet, priest, and king if you are going to endure the chaos of this world.

Calm

The glory of Jesus Christ enables calm while chaos is raging. We live in a divided and polarized nation, politically, socio-economically, racially, and on and on the list goes. In quoting from Ps. 45:6-7 the Son loves righteousness and hates wickedness, therefore he is anointed by God with the oil of gladness (Heb. 1:8-9).

What’s so beautiful about the Pastor applying Psalm 45 to Jesus is that it’s a wedding psalm. It describes the royal bride as she prepares to marry the king. Her heart overflows because her husband is the most handsome of men. Grace is poured on his lips. Her husband is the might one in splendor and majesty. He rides out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness.

But then the psalmist seems to go too far and says of the king, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:6). The Pastor is letting us know there’s no problem at all because this psalm is really about Jesus. It is an Old Testament view into the reality of the Trinity, one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. The one who is addressed as God is anointed by his God with the oil of gladness. because of the Son’s just and righteous rule, because he loves justice and hates lawlessness, the Father has such unsurpassed joy that he anoints the Son with the oil of gladness.

Jesus is the king and husband, and the church is his bride. He is the one who is the most handsome of men. He is the one with grace on his lips. He is the one who in splendor and majesty rules with absolute justice and righteousness for the cause of truth. And those who are under his rule and authority are the companions of those God describes in v. 9. His joy and righteousness are the blessings he gives his companions.

When will we see righteousness and justice rule the day? Where is the world going? The optimist says, “things are getting better. As technology advances we’re improving the lives of people.” The pessimist says, “Everything’s going to hell in a hand-basket!” Here’s where the world’s going. It’s going to the place where every knee will bow to Jesus. Creation is not under the authority of angels. It’s not under the authority of presidents and kings. It’s under the Son’s authority. The angels don’t sit at the Father’s right hand or have their enemies as a footstool. Our issue is that we don’t yet see it with our eyes. And anything we can’t see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, we doubt.

That’s why what he says in the last verse of the chapter, v. 14, is so encouraging. I’m convinced that he says it not just to correct their bad theology, but to encourage them with the truth. There’s a calm that comes after the storm. There’s a day coming when God, as Rev. 21:4 says, “will wipe away every tear from his people’s eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be any mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” There’s not only a calm that comes after the storm, but there’s a calm that comes in the storm for the people of God right now. So he says to them about the angels,

Hebrews 1:14 ESV

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

The angels, these glorious creatures who worship Jesus, these powerful spiritual creatures who invoke terror in the hearts of people when they come on the scene, the Pastor says that God sends them out to minister on behalf of those who are to inherit salvation! The angels cannot be compared to Jesus. They are under his authority. They do his will. Here’s his will. He sends them to help those who follow him.

The perfect example of this is 2 Kings 6. The prophet Elisha would warn the king of Israel where the Syrians were setting up their camp to attack him. The king of Syria decided that he had enough of Elisha’s meddling. He found out that Elisha was staying in Dothan. So, the Bible says, he sent horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. When Elisha’s servant got up in the morning and saw the army surrounding the city, he got scared, and said to Elisha, “What are we going to do?” The servant was petrified, but Elisha was calm. Elisha says in v. 16,

2 Kings 6:16–17 ESV

16 He said, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Because Elisha belonged to the Lord he understood that nothing in this created world was more powerful than his God. Even the angels of God were at God’s disposal to come and help him. Verse 14 in our text is a question… And the answer to the question is, “yes”. That’s what the angels are.

We were told in v. 2 that the Son is the heir of all things. We were told in v. 4 that he has inherited a name that is more excellent than that of the angels. And now we’re told that the angels are sent to minister on behalf of those who are to inherit salvation. He used the word inherit on purpose. He wants to link them intimately with Son and to emphasize God’s intentions for them.

Jesus is seated in glory right now. He’s reigning and ruling right now. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. It seems like everything but the Son of God is in control. But just as the Father’s plan was for the Son to do his work of redemption and take his rightful place on the throne, coming in to his inheritance, it is the guaranteed plan of the Father and the Son to bring every Christian into the full inheritance of eternal life with them in glory. So, he gives his children the strength to calmly endure through the storms. Do you see why he says to them in 10:35,

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

If you have the Son of God you are privileged people. The very angels of God minister on your behalf.