Warning from His Humiliation

Stoic society - a person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining.

Sporting events- cheering for our kids

You rally behind your kids, you cheer at their games, you yell at the refs - you are passionate and expressive.

Social media - political matters (Town hall or election)

celebrating a personal achievement - Passing a huge exam, getting a promotion, playing a semi-decent round of golf.

complaining about our managers

We are expressive when we care. We are committed when we care.

Whether we are upset or cheering for the best.

We are expressive when we care. We are committed when we care.

Which ought to cause us to do some self reflection.

Are you expressive in worship? Are you committed to gathering for worship?

Some of you can connect and talk to any fan about football, but you can barely connect with any believer in spiritual discussion.

Do you care about the Lord? What He has done for you? Do you care about who He is? Are you committed to His ways?

Did you know there are about 400 references to God’s people singing His praise in the Bible?

Did you know that there are 42 direct commands to express our worship of God in song?

Did you know there are 10 passages that call for us to raise our hands in worship and in prayer as a way of rightly exalting God?

Many of us don’t worship God appropriately in His sanctuary, with His people. If you cannot rightly worship God here, how will you do it when you stand before people who don’t believe?

We need to understand that when we worship with:

appropriate posture

expressively in song

joyfully before His throne

We are actually cultivating a more vibrant relationship with God. When we cultivate our relationship we are also equipped by God.

We overlook worship, we overlook express, we overlook finding people to pray over because its uncomfortable.

Hebrews 1 is designed to call out our attention. To elevate God to a rightful place. In every way, it reveals our inadequate view of God.

As we read it, we agree with it but do we care? Do we care what it’s really saying? Do we dwell on what this says about God? Do we consider the implications? Do we turn back to God in expressive worship?

We read that He has spoken but do we even know what He has said?

Read Hebrews 1. But give invitation to read it with fresh eyes. Pray for fresh eyes.

This morning, I want to give you a chance to practice being a little more expressive in worship.

I am going to read each of these depictions of God and I want to encourage your to simply respond by saying “We Believe.”

Do you believe that God has spoken to us throughout History? - We believe

Do you believe that God used the prophets to reveal Himself to us - We believe

Do you believe that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s revelation - We believe

Do you believe that Jesus is the appointed heir of all things.

Do you believe that Jesus created the world - we believe

Do you believe that Jesus is the radiance of God’s Glory - we believe

Do you believe that Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature - we believe

Do you believe that Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power - we believe

Do you believe that Jesu has made purification of sins possible for you - we believe

Do you believe that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high - we believe

Do you believe that even the mighty angels are inferior to Jesus in every way- We believe.

Those eleven statements come from just the first four verses of Hebrews. If we were to work through the rest of the chapter, we could certainly double and maybe even triple the truth of God found in this chapter.

In every way it is meant to draw us in.

To recognize there is nothing more important.

Nothing that should distract us.

Nothing that would ever pull my focus away from the Lord.

But can we admit, we don’t measure up to that standard. And in many ways we have learned to be content with our spiritual discontment. We long for a spiritually rich life that thrives before God but we have a hard time expressing it let alone actually living it out.

Which begs the question, “Do we really believe?” “Do we really care?”

Sreeraj - Life Group

India, 2017 - Luxmi, Viola, and daughter Esther - “If you kill me, 10 more will come just like me.” Because you cannot stop what God is doing.

Sreeraj - “Yes, that is right, they can kill me. But God will still move forward.”

Psalm 2:1 “1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?”

Why do I allow my heart to be so distracted, weighed down, riddled with anxiety? Why do I choose pleasure instead of contentment? Why must I spend money on things that are not needed instead of freely giving? Why do I hesitate to share the gospel?

All of this is a form of drift!

Hebrews 2:1 “1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

You see, we get so distracted by the pressures of work and the desires for self that we leave little if any time for God. When I start thinking about the commitment of brothers and sisters overseas, my knees go weak. Because there are very few if any who readily take that posture, trusting God with your very life.

When we don’t dwell on the truth of chapter one - see the magnificent God we serve with clarity, we will never truly care. We will always lack expression and commitment to what is right above all else.

We will drift into greed - Pleasure - comfort...... There are 10,000’s of ways to drift.

Drift can be incidental - due to distraction or a lack of keeping God the priority

Drift can be intentional - you can enter into sin, feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and ignore it.

What distraction has caught your eyes attention? What is the Lord prompting you to remove from your life?

If we believe, if we care, if we see God for who He is, we cannot drift. We might stumble, but we cannot drift.

The language of this passage informs us that those who where to receive this letter, had grown lax in their commitment to Christ. We must remain focused on God above all else.

Hebrews 2:2–3 “2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”

Consider this, those who were punished in the Old Testament are those who drifted in their faith commitment.

Our authors point is simple, if the message given to mankind by God’s servants was reliable, - if they received just punishment for their lack of concern for God. “How much more catastrophic will our punishment be, having heard from Jesus Himself?”

If you neglect your faith, if you neglect your salvation in Jesus - What escape from hell is there!?

We are not talking about things that are important for a healthy or good life. We are not talking about the things you should do.

Our author is concerned that we are in great peril - but we don’t see the gravity of danger.

Just as Adam and Eve did not understand the cost of their disobedience.

Just as Moses gave into frustration and was kept from the promised land.

Or David giving into the desire of His eye for an agonizing future.

We all have something that is deeply wrong with us. We are lost to sin, we are blinded by our wickedness. This life in so many ways is cold and dark. And we find ourselves content with just a little bit of light. Just a little bit of warmth. If we can just pay attention to the little light, and the little warmth than we won’t have to think about the reality of our end.

We were never designed to experience death. It haunts us all. As it begins to beckon for us, we find a restlessness in our soul that we didn’t know was there. Mankind has never really known what to do with death because we were never designed to experience it.

You see all of chapter 1 was proclamation about Jesus. It was all designed to help us grab hold of a higher view of Him. But then we come into chapter 2 and we are given a warning. We move from proclamation about God to the reality of the human heart.

It is almost as if our author is saying, “You can experience God’s judgement if you want. You can just continue the way you are. Just be a casual Christian. Just be content with where you are in your relationship with God. Forget the hunger, forget the urgency that drives you to your knees before God. You are fine, you are committed enough......”

Friends, that is not God’s voice you are hearing. The clearer we see God, the hungrier we get for His presence. The hungrier we get for His presence, the more committed we find ourselves.

If we find ourselves content, comfortable, lacking hunger to see that these are not just words. Then we are neglecting our salvation.

If we are unwilling to come to God and confess our sin, repent of it and turn towards Him, then we are again neglecting our salvation.

The Bible is not just something to know and understand. It is the very avenue for pursuing and personally knowing God Himself.

When we consider that Jesus came and that He spoke with clarity - we are talking about the most unbelievable gift that has ever been given. We are talking about the only all eternal God, who’s power is beyond imagination, who’s status we cannot conceive, who’s greatness is so vastly beyond us. This Jesus became one of His own creation, He lived as a man before our eyes so that He could speak directly to us. So that we could have direct connection to the God of all creation. Our forefathers lived by God’s word but now Jesus comes with a clearer and fuller word for you. He came to share it with you!

Is there anything more important!!??

Hebrews 2:3–4 “3 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.”

God has clearly made Himself known. If you don’t know Him it’s not because He is hiding. It’s because you are blinded by this world.

He has made Himself known. He has spoken with great clarity.

Hebrews 2:5–8 “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, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”

By quoting Psalm 8 our author reveals God’s plan for humanity. Though David did not fully understand what he was writing, we now find it is to be interpreted in light of Jesus becoming a man.

Adam functioned as our representative and failed.

we are separated from God. We are lower than the angels.

Yet, in looking forward God promises to crown us with glory and honor. Not because of ourselves.

Jesus now comes as a man, as our new representative

He alone is worthy to be crowned with Glory and honor.

He alone is worthy to have everything in subjection under His feet.

Because He is worthy and He is our representative, we get drafted into a glorious future with Him.

Here is the choice set before you

Pursue God with all that you have, aim to submit to Him in all of His ways, confess when you sin, and live generously in love towards others.

Or, pay the cost of God’s Judgment.

As I said earlier, Our author is not talking about the things we really should do,

It’s not getting healthy or staying fit

It’s not finding a healthy routine to eliminate stress

It’s not being financially disciplined so that I can build wealth.

It’s not going to the doctor for a check up.

We all like the idea of getting healthy. We all like the idea of eliminating stress and building wealth. But here is the problem. We like the idea of God.....

We don’t love God - We love the idea of God

We are not committed to God - we like the idea of being committed

We are not expressive about God - We like the idea of it

We don’t actually care - we just like the idea of caring.

Friends, this warning was not written to the unchurched. This warning was written to those who made a confession of faith. People who repented and started living for Jesus. People who got distracted and drifted. Yet we are all called, every person to turn back to God, to affirm our commitment and seek after Him.

Hebrews 2:9 “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.”

I am not going to pretend to know where you are at today, maybe you are a Christian, maybe you care, your expressive, and committed to the Lord. If that is you - stay focused. Stay hungry. Keep seeking God because He is so worth it.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–22 “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.”

Hold tight to the Lord and always pursue Him above all else.

Perhaps you are here and you know you need to be more expressive in worship. You know you need to sing, to raise your hands, to have more spiritual conversations with unbelievers.

Psalm 63:4 “4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.”

Maybe you are hear and you have made a confession, you have repented, but you have drifted. You have become complacent, you try to care, but struggle. Or you have fallen into a type of sin and you are quenching the Holy Spirit in your life.

Acts 3:19–20 “19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.””

Recommit yourself to the Lord today.

Or maybe you are here and you have never confessed Jesus as Lord. You have never known what it means to walk in a relationship with Jesus. You have carried the weight of your sin, your guilt, and your shame. Not knowing that He will freely take it. That He will forgive and restore those who put their faith and trust in Him.

Romans 10:9–11 “9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.””

You can receive Jesus as your Lord and savior today. You can choose to make Him Lord of your life and He will save you and bring you into a glorious future with all who believe.

John Piper - https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/spoken-confirmed-witnessed-a-great-salvation

How are we doing when it comes to not neglecting a great salvation?

What escape is there? - This is a very sobering word. There is no escape.

He is not saying “don’t neglect your diet, don’t neglect your physical therapy, Don’t neglect your family.”

He is saying something of far greater value. Do not neglect the joy. Jesus, the Son of God who was humiliated, who was mocked, who was spit on, who was whipped, who was treated like the world’s worst criminal. Do not neglect what He has done. He has gone through this for you. He has died on the cross for you. He has laid before you the most profound gift in all of human existence. Don’t neglect it.

What do we mean by neglect it?

We mean cherish it in every respect. Dwell on it! Hold it tight! Come back to it again and again. Don’t ever allow yourself to forget or to get distracted in any way. Make Jesus the center focal point of your life. To do anything less is to neglect this gift in one way or another.

Seque Questions:

Describe a difficult circumstance in your life when you felt alone and nobody understood your situation.

Leaders: Maybe it was a time of grief, high tension at work, difficult relationship dynamics, felt unfairly treated.

Describe a time when you encountered someone who completely understood what you where going through.

What is the difference in these two situations?

1st teaching point

How would you explain the significance of Jesus fully becoming man?

Leaders: Read Psalm 103:14 and Hebrews 4:14-16.

Steer the conversation towards the sacrifice Jesus made in becoming man.

Then focus on why it is so important for Jesus to be able to completely resonate with us.

What are the theological implications of Jesus becoming man?

God’s revelation of Himself - Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation.

God’s commitment to mankind.

Jesus is the complete sacrifice for sin. No other sacrifice is acceptable for one, let alone sufficient for all.

Dying on the cross for our sin - eternal hope.

2nd Teaching Point:

In light of eternity that has been secured through Jesus, how should our view of death change?

Read Romans 6:10-11 and 1 Corinthians 15:54–58.

What truths stir up your appreciation for His victory?

Sometimes we neglect the fullness of Jesus’ victory in our life. How can we be sure to give more attention to what He has accomplished?

- Leader Follow Up - What would be the implications for the believer when we full embrace the victory of Jesus over sin and death?

- It changes how we view failure, disappointment, His readiness to forgive and restoration...