May 3, 2026 - Book of Hebrews Chapter 2

Hebrews Chapter 2

Last week we started in our new series in reading through the letter of Hebrews. Pastor John started us out with reading chapter one and giving an introduction to this letter. If you recall, Hebrews starts off with a reminder of how God spoke through the prophets- but in these last days that we are living in here on earth He speaks to us through His Son, Jesus.

Now understand that God does use other means to speak to us, like dreams, visions, people, situations, nature .. but He speaks to us mostly through the Word, the scripture, and if we look at the scripture we know Jesus is the WORD. The Living Word…(John 1:1-14, Revelation 19:13, Hebrews 4:12 )

and in that not only do we get to read about the life of Christ, but we get to experience His life in us as believers. One main thing that is central to this letter, John highlighted this, is that the writer is encouraging the readers to come out of religion and to believe and know that Christ is the ONLY way of salvation.

Although the Jews had sought after the Messiah, it was hard for them to grasp the idea that they no longer had to preform religious rituals..

This new message that Jesus came to fulfill the the Law and the Prophets (Old Testament), that He conquered sin- takes down all barriers to God.. freely giving a way to eternal life,

that probably sounded really good to them.. but they were struggling with this new way… their new faith, in Jesus.

So this morning- I will be covering chapter 2, if you have a bible please follow along with me.

Hebrews 2:1–8 NLT

1 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. 2 For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? 4 And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose. 5 And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. 6 For in one place the Scriptures say, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him? 7 Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 8 You gave them authority over all things.” Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority.

What was the message delivered through the angels that always stood firm? A few examples of this would be-

The angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, letting her know she would conceive and give birth to a son, to name Him Jesus, that He would be great, and be called the Son of the most High. Luke 1:26-38

Another example is an angel appeared to Joseph instructing him to marry Mary, the angel informed Joseph that Mary was with Child, conceived by the Holy Spirit and He would save people from their sin. Matthew 1:20-21

An angel appears to Zachariah, letting him know he and his wife would also conceive a son, who we know as John the Baptist- John’s purpose was to prepare the way for the Lord. Luke 1:13

An angel appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem, letting them know that in the town of David, a Savior had been born, that He is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-14

God gave the law through his angels to Moses-

Galatians 3:19 NLT

19 Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people.

This coming child, savior, Messiah, the One who is the Son of the most High- Is Jesus. We know this.. We proclaim this in our faith in Him. We celebrate Him, we worship Him..

and then life happens… you become complacent, or we get relaxed, we let other things creep in..its easy to start drifting, and before we know it- we are off course.

The writer is warning us- we won’t escape judgement if Jesus isn’t the only one on the throne in our lives.

When I was 12 years old. My mom for the first time, allowed me to leave out of state with my father and his wife and take a family vacation. We started in Park Rapids and set out for California we went from Redwood National Park all the way down the coast to San Diego.. somewhere, at some point during that trip we stopped to swim in the ocean.

Now I had never been to the ocean before so my father informed me that the ocean was not like the Minnesota lakes. The current was strong, and it was very easy to drift away not even realizing you are doing it.

He told me to keep my eye on the lifeguard kind of as a marking point. I had done that, for a while anyway. As I was having fun swimming, taking in how ginormous the ocean was I didn’t realize the current not only was taking me sideways from my marker point, but I was also drifting out to sea.

I wasn’t strong enough to come against the current, the waves were well over my head the further out I went. I needed to be brought back to safety. Thank the Lord my father at the age of 55 was a strong swimmer. I remember him screaming “help” and yelling for a lifeguard.

I thought I was safe, I thought I was within my boundaries, within the marking point.. without even realizing it.. I was in trouble.

Through the scripture, through each generation, through the church- We have heard the message of the “Good News” of Jesus Christ, and when the God delivers a message and its ignored there are consequences. This is what the writer is warning - drifting away can easily happen if we aren’t careful.

Some Jewish Christ followers believed that angels would rule the world in the end times. Some started falling back into Judaism fearing they would face persecution.

Don’t give power and authority or credit to anything or anyone other than the Triune God. God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit.

its okay to appreciate how God uses people.. but we don’t idolize them.

As believers we know that Jesus being God Himself took on Human form in pure perfection in order defeat Satans power of sin and death. As John was explaining to us last week- Jesus Christ himself served as a perfect High Priest, sacrificing Himself- no longer do we need to go back to the Mosiac Law- We have a New Covenant in Christ to which brings us to Jesus the perfect one.

If you are getting more Christian content from podcast than you are from reading scripture, praying, and asking for revelation than you value other peoples opinions more than Gods ability to speak directly to you.. Thats drifting.

When you go back into religion- you are drifting.

When you go back to your old nature or you try to do things your way, or by your merit- you are drifting.

When you dip your toes into paganistic religious ways-like the occult, new age- you are drifting.

Let me just say- new age likes to mingle with christianity.- Example would be “christian yoga” Yoga is based on a practice that honors thousands and thousands of Hindu gods.. its a form of worship to foreign gods.

There are things of this world we would consider as “not that big of deal” but are detestable to the most High God. Pre-martial sex, love of money, thinking that if you had lots of money all your problems would go away, consuming of adult beverages to the point of drunkeness, pointing out the flaws in everyone else. just to name a few.

King Jesus deserves the highest respect and honor.. When we give Him that, He is central to our lives… When Jesus is central in our lives we will have sense of righteousness that covers us like the breastplate. Jesus has us covered.. we’ve been redeemed, there is no more condemnation…because he paid the price and suffered the penalty.

However.. We have responsibility in it… our behavior, how we think, what we allow our eyes and ear to take in.. when you wander from the truth (Jesus being the truth) then the lies come in and slowly but surely it makes it much easier to put your faith, time, energy into worldly things, and puts you at risk of following everything else but God.

Gods purpose before the fall was for Adam and Eve along with their descendants to partake in the tree of life until the fullness of the Lord was in them.

I want that, do you?

Because of Jesus- you and I are able to have that.

vs 9

Hebrews 2:9–13 NLT

9 What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. 10 God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. 11 So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. 12 For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” 13 He also said, “I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.”

Verse 6, 7 and 8 the writer is quoting the psalmist-Psalm chapter 8:4-6

Psalm 8:4–6 NLT

4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? 5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—

This Psalm from the OT shows us that God put a great value on human beings and has given us power and authority to rule the earth, even though it wasn’t deserved.

What this scripture is saying is that ..Humans were made a little lower than the angels.. The messiah, while being fully God.. was fully human.. the Son of Man crowned with glory and honor ..

The only human that could undo what the first Adam had done. God’s requirement for justice was satisfied when Jesus took on full wrath of our sins, He suffered a death like no other man has ever experienced..

With that being said, this allowed Jesus to fully experience and conquer every earthy struggle you and I have ever faced obtaining a greater victory. And because of that, He has full compassion and understanding for you. .Whatever it is that you are going through- He gets its.

Because of His death we now have full access to the Father, total forgiveness, a redemption plan that is complete! Every sin, past-present-future has been included….His death covers them all.

Through His resurrection, we receive His life by way of the Spirit…making us new, changing and transforming us to the extent that we cooperate with the process.

You don’t cooperate you dont change..

This should give you a sense of relief.. I know it does me.

Hebrews 2:14–18 NLT

14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. 16 We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

Proverbs 14:12 NLT

12 There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.

Proverbs 15:24 NLT

24 The path of life leads upward for the wise; they leave the grave behind.

Jesus dismantled the power of Satans grip on mankind…

But people still face temptation, following that temptation leads to both physical and spiritual death. (Romans 6:23)

Sin will always keep you in slavery - The way of the Cross brings freedom.

There are times when I struggle with temptation-

Anyone with me?

Temptation happens all the time to all people- demons are thought casters, this is why so much of the bible warns us to take our thoughts captive to obey Christ.

Here’s what i want you to know..

Being tempted is not a sin. Sometimes when we face temptation we put that in the same camp as being actively sinful. I have done this several times and had to have help working through it..Jesus Himself was tempted, but without sin. So we know we can experience temptation without sin..

We also know,

That what needs to happen in those moments is, our sinful nature, our flesh needs to be put to death, we need to be renewed..

You might feel like, you will have to do this that and the other thing for the rest of your life… but that is not why Jesus did what He did. He did it to get the job done.

If you believe that His sacrifice was sufficient to removed all of your sin as though it never existed then why do you want to be sin conscience and believe that you free somehow keeps you in bondage to sin.. snap out of it.

You get to choose to stay in grace or stay in legalism under the law, you will never experience freedom or enjoy his life..if you are fixated on making a mistakes thinking that somehow it washes his blood off of you and renders his sacrifice null and void.

When temptation comes-

James 4:7 NLT

7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Struggles will come, we will be faced with all sorts of temptations and testing. Thats all apart of being in the world. But we are Kingdom People and being apart of His Kingdom, we are set apart, therefore we have hope.. because the same power that raised Christ from the dead- now lives in us.

In allowing temptation God gives us an opportunity and sets us up for victory not failure.

There is a dark force at play here, the enemy of this world wants you to believe the lie that temptation has more power over you than the Spirit of God. That is simply not true.

Holy Spirit helps us to resist, He shows us who Jesus is, When we see Jesus we see the power of God Himself… and when we see God for who He is- we see our sin for what it is.

Jesus is better than everything we could ever be tempted to leave Him for. He didn’t die for us so we would be a weak representation of Him.

and as His redeemed creation, we are no longer sinners… we are saints!