The Grip of the Gospel: Message 1

Intro to series

Before we begin this week I wanted to take a few minutes and introduce Robin, myself, my family and a little bit of what I am hoping for this week is to look at all the things we have going on in our world and through all of them see Christ as the largest and greatest.

As missionaries and leaders in the church, you are on the front lines of most everything. You are on the front lines to see and experience both incredible joy and incredible sorrow.

And being on the front lines of anything allows us the experience of that thing but without the benefit of understanding it or reflecting on it.

Pastors and church leaders stand on the line of experience and don’t often have the benefit of understanding the depths or meaning of those experiences because the next one is just down the lane.

The real problem isn’t therapeutic it is spiritual. Because when we face this constant onslaught on things, big and small, we easily miss what is most important.

In our work, easily the closest thing in our lives is the biggest. And the constant struggle is knowing where we stand and how to know Christ as the greatest and closest in our lives.

When we moved from Oregon in the Nw to Mass in the Ne we took a long 2 week roadtrip across the entire us. You could not do a more coast to coast move. If you folded a map of the us in half the two places we were moving to would meet. But instead of going directly east we went south through California and then through Texas and north to WI and then to OH and PA and then finally Ma.

We were in Alberquerqe NM and we were leaving the hotel and my wife saw a huge chunk of tire missing from the front tire. So we stopped by a tire center and were talking about what tires we need. WE mentioned getting snow tires because we were moving to NE from the NW and he gave me a strange look. Do you know where you are? he asked. He was kidding but he was trying to get some more information about why we were so far south.

That question, do you know where you are, seems to be what the writer of Hebrews is asking. He addresses old systems of trust and current circumstances of struggle and trial. And he weaves through it an ongoing invitation to see Christ as closer and better than anything we could encounter or trust in. While the author is unknown, we do know that he understood the context of the current Christians and the Old Testament well. He threads the entire letter by showing us the supremacy of Christ in everything. The author takes incredible pains to show Christ is eminent in everything.

Hebrews 1:1–3 ESV

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

We will see the many times and many ways God has used and then the many time and many ways we have tried to see Christ.

Because the author realizes that there is dissatisfaction with life as it is. A discomfort. A lack, as he spends chapters talking about, rest. And the question, do you know where you are is helpful for us as ministers of the Gospel and is a helpful tool for diagnosing the cultural realities we are seeing in people’s lives.

To remedy discomfort, or a lack of rest, we are given Christ. The author of Hebrews is continually putting everything he comes by on a scale compared to Christ to ask what is closer and what is greater.

So we are going to look at passages and see Christ who is greater than all we can ever know and imagine.

My hope this week is we would discern the road we are on and respond to the Spirit who continually calls us back into Christ who is beyond and better

JRR Tolkien was an author in the early 20th century. He wrote the Lord of the Rings trilogy and was a soldier in WWI. Most of what he writes as a Christian is in response to his time in the war and the atrocities he experienced. He then wrote LOTR after experiencing WWII as a civivilian in the Uk. And here is what is summed up about his and CS Lewis, his contemporary, writing

“Part of the achievement of Tolkien and Lewis was to reintroduce into the popular imagination a Christian vision of hope in a world tortured by doubt and disillusionment.”

― Joseph Loconte, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18

I can’t think of a more apt quote for 2022 end pandemic need for our world. We need a reintroduction of our Christian vision of hope.

So let’s begin by looking into Hebews 2. We will be looking at this idea for this morning.

Hebrews 2:1–18 ESV

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 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. 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. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

While the world drifts the Gospel grips.

Hebrews 2:1 ESV

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

The writer of Hebrews is always seeming to call us to attention. Remember and pay attention and don’t forget!

So let’s just get this out of the way. Nothing I’m going to say to is new. It’s not revolutionary. But it is expansive. I will elaborate on what we know be true and try to find some new nooks and crannies where the Gospel can be applied. But even this first reality sets up a contrast that the book of Hebrews wants us to understand

Teh writer uses this word, “drift.” And it means just that. it is not a strong word but means that something slowly being washed away, gradually moving a distance away from you. It doesn’t happen all at once. You look up and all the sudden it is gone.

My mom has six siblings who all mostly still live near the town where we grew up near Milwaukee WI. So there were always cousins younger than me running around. My grandpa owned some land with a small cottage and a man made pond. The pond was maybe 2 acres. Not that big. But we could swim in it and growing up we spent our summers at the pond celebrating whatever we could. Like I said my mom had a big family and we all lived near each other so we would gather and there would automatically be 30 to 40 of us, kids to adults.

The kids loved to swim and the parents loved to let the kids swim. One sunny afternoon my cousin Teddy, who was maybe 3 at the time, was placed into a inflatable raft at the edge of the pond. We set him adrift and weren’t too concerned until he drifted into the middle of the pond. Not too far for an adult but all the adults were otherwise occupied and the kids were watching my 3 year old cousin drift into uncharted waters.

We finally told the adults what was going on and they went into action. Someone jumped into the pond and someone else caught it on an 80s video camera. You can see my cousin just sitting on the raft not really sure what to do. not afraid but not letting his guard down. And in the camera you can see one of my uncles finally make it to the raft and in a moment you see his hand grip the raft. My cousin is finally safe. And we are in big trouble.

I think the last two years have felt just like that. Drift. While it was sudden in march of 2020, the last nearly two years have felt like drift. Like things and people and ideas and even faith is kind of drifting.

Everything seemed to be capable of drifting.

I started counting and paying attention to the stuff that didn’t drift. To the things that didn’t float away.

And wanted to figure out why.

this is a thesis for the week. Why drift and how grip

What remained gripped and safe?

What drifted?

I imagine there are drifts and grips in your own life as well. Where some things that you were sure would remain drifted and other things you weren’t sure about gripped.

As we go through this week it can be a helpful inventory to pay attention to what is drifting and to what is gripped.

Hebrews 2:1-4

Hebrews 2:1–4 ESV

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The Gospel is more trustworthy than trials or struggles

We are warned right away to pay attention, in fact that will keep coming up. Not as a warning but as an exhortation. As a reminder. Because we drift. We get distracted. And so a lot of Hebrews is reminding us of what can be trusted.

The Gospel message is proved to be reliable, meaning it has been tested, it has been held up.

The message has been tested and verified: it is trustworthy

From the word ginomai, to become. To transition. To take place. "proved" seems to mean that there is a new state of being, that the word is proven because it has been tested.

working with the word, "proved." IT has not only come to be but is also considered "verified." Something that has been tested.

We see angels, humanity and trials, but Christ rises above all of it.

- We see Christ as one with absolute supremacy.

The world gives us all sorts of ends. Even by Hebrews two we are shown all sorts of different options and created things.

- Our obstacles are not end purposes. Our defeats are not end purposes.

The good news is that the Gospel holds up no matter what we face.

In Augustines City of God, he begins his book by contrasting the City of God and the City of Man, and he communicate the details about the difference that Christ makes.

“As such, it is not the divine dispensation of either causing good or allowing evil that distinguishes the City of God from the City of Man, it is rather how each person receives, and thus appropriates, these heavenly conveyances: “What is really important, then, is not the character of the suffering but rather the character of the sufferer”

- The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's City of God (Cambridge Companions to Religion) (p. 26). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.

It is the Gospel that changes us, that transforms us.

GRew up in Wisconsin, cold snowy winters. our house was on a street where one side was about 2 feet higher than the other side. There was a slight grade to the street. And in the 90s there was no such thing as a snow day. So there was a big snow storm and a cold morning and the streets were still icy. So the bus pulled up to my house and as it did it slid to the curb. It was on the opposite side of the street from my house. The street was so icy that I couldn’t walk from my driveway, down the hill of the street to the bus. Everything was too slippery. So some people got out of the bus and created a human chain while my dad threw salt on the street to create some traction.

The world creates all sorts of slippery situations where we need the Gospel to hold us up.

The Gospel is closer than everything else pressing in

Hebrews 2:5–8 (ESV)

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,

or the son of man, that you care for him?

You made him for a little while lower than the angels;

you have crowned him with glory and honor,

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.

Here we see the perspective of man. It rightly places humanity stratified before God. WE are not equal even though everything tells us that we are. Every fiber in culture is intended to equate us and every other thing, including, brashly, God. In light of this it becomes even more amazing that God considers us at all.

God is sovereign, He rules all. Everything is in subjection to Him and yet He still considers us.

We are not a consideration but an object of salvation. The Gospel is God with a plan and we are the subject of His care.

The Gospel is more sufficient than our current situation.

Hebrews 2:10–11 ESV

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,

the founder can also mean “pioneer.” The One who went before. The One who risked and gave all that others can follow.

If the pioneer had not gone before us who could have gone? There is no other.

this designation describes God as both the efficient cause (“by whom”) and the final cause (“for whom”) of all things1

1 Hughes, P. E. (1977). A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (p. 98). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

God is both the efficient and final cause of our lives. There was only one who could have gone before us and for us.

God satisfies the current and final life found in the Gospel. There is not one more compelling or more necessary.

The Gospel is more than whatever is currently gripping us.

I was at a pastors conference in Omaha and met someone that I have known for a lot of years. We were in ministry together for a couple years and then we parted ways. We met up and were catching up with one another. “how are things?” “good.” How is family, church etc? And it was just kind of an indifferent response. Things were just “meh” So I asked some followup questions as you would and it turned out that everything just felt like it was falling apart for him. IN fact, he had thrown a kind of Gideon like prayer to God. He told God that if God didn’t do something at this conference then he was going to go home and quit.

He was facing some large issues and was under a lot of stress and was trying his best to navigate his church and ministry. And he just couldn’t.

At the only time he could catch his breath in Omaha NE he told God he nearly needed to quit

We talked all weekend and he is still in ministry but is still overwhelmed

Everything around him had drifted or had the potential to drift.

We toggle back and forth between drifting and gripping. And while we drift the good news is that God is a God who grips. Who holds on, who maintains course. Who is steadfast.

I’d like to close with us praying through this prayer:

God I’m drifting, God would you grip me?