Table of Contents
Introduction
Lower Than Angels (Hebrews 2:5-9)
1)Man's Place in Creation (2:5-9)
Man's Role
Sin's Toll
Jesus (The Second Adam)
2)Principle
Jesus achieved the glory and honor for humanity that Adam lost through sin.
3)Applications
How has sin taken a toll on your life?
How has sin effected your relationships with others?
How is sin effecting your relationship with God?
Identified With Man (Hebrews 2:9-18)
1)Jesus Tasted My Death (Hebrews 2:9)
2)The Author of My Salvation Made Perfect Through Suffering (Hebrews 2:10)
3)I Am In God's Family Tree (Hebrews 2:11-13)
4)Satan Is Destroyed (Hebrews 2:14)
5)I Am Released From Slavery to the Fear of Death (Hebrews 2:15)
6)I Am Abraham's Descendant (Hebrews 2:16)
7)I Have a Merciful and Faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17)
8)He Understands Temptation (Hebrews 2:18)
9)Summary
10)Principle
Jesus identified with man to purchase man's indemnity with God.
11)Applications
Which of the eight benefits of Jesus identity with man do you struggle with and why?
What temptations are you facing alone that need to be brought to the One who understands you situation completely?
What facts about Jesus are you believing but have yet to turn to him in repentance and faith? What are you waiting for?
Greater Than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-4:13)
1)Jesus Superior to Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6)
2)A Warning From Yesterday About Today (Hebrews 3:7-11)
3)Take Care Brothers (Hebrews 3:12-15)
4)Case In Point (Hebrews 3:16-19)
5)Hearing Without Faith (Hebrews 4:1-7)
6)The Three Rests (Hebrews 4:8-10)
7)Final Admonition (Hebrews 4:11-13)
Strive Against Same Disobedience (4:11)
God's Word Reveals What's Inside (4:12)
God Is the Judge (4:13)
8)Principle
A persevering faith is required to experience God's rest.
9)Applications
What warning from Israel's history is applicable to you tonight and what will you do about it?
What do you need to do in order to start the habit of exhorting your brothers?
Conclusion
Introduction
Mother earth.
Mother nature.
Guess you had to be at the lecture :)
Lower Than Angels (Hebrews 2:5-9)
1)Man's Place in Creation (2:5-9)
Hebrews 2:5-9 – 5 Now 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.
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.
Man's Role
When God created man, Adam and Eve, He gave them work to do. There were specific directives from God to the final masterpiece of creation:
Genesis 1:26-28 – 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
So man's dominion was over all that God had created. And we were to care for creation. Tending the garden, so to speak.
But man was not faithful and there was a devastating result. Sin took a toll on the created order.
Sin's Toll
In Genesis 3:14-19, God pronounces a glimpse of the effect of sin upon creation.
There would be enmity, hostility, between man and the creatures. (Certainly this had spiritual meaning as well in regard to the coming seed of the woman and the serpent)
To increase and cover the earth now would be fraught with pain. It would become a more challenging venture than it otherwise might have been.
That rather than having dominion over the earth, there would be weeds, thorns, and thistles that would dominate and man would have to contend with them.
The items that I've pointed out here are merely a sampling of the toll of sin.
But as the writer of Hebrews says, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”
Man's dominion over God's creation is not realized in modern man, then or now.
So what do we say? Is the psalmist wrong? Are the things that he refers to inaccurate or distorted?
Not at all. The psalmist was declaring the way God designed it with the hope of God's work in restoring things to the way they were prior to the fall.
Jesus (The Second Adam)
The answer to the questions regarding the psalmist's view on reality is the reality of Jesus.
No, we can't see that we are in the role we were designed for. And that is no fault of God only our own.
But we do see that the reality of what the psalmist says is found in Jesus. That is, if we are willing to look closely enough (which the writer of Hebrews is going to help us with in the next section).
You know the last part of that Genesis passage I referred to earlier, after the fall, spoke about the ultimate destiny of all men because of sin. God told Adam and Eve that their bodies would return to the dust. They were going to die.
And that has been the case ever since. Some die young, some very old, but all will die.
The author of Hebrews points out that Jesus is crowned with honor and glory because he suffered death. How does that bring honor and glory?
These are the exact words that Jesus used when talking about his death to his disciples. When the son of man is glorified.
Jesus death brought glory to the Father and to the Son. Just do a search for glory and glorified in John and you will find a bunch of verse, most dealing with the death of Christ. His death paid what had gone unpaid since sin came into the world. Jesus fulfilled all that Adam lost. Jesus restored the broken relationship between God and His people. Many other reasons why glory is associated with Jesus death on the cross.
The glory of Christ is wrapped up in the last part of verse 9, he tasted death for everyone. In other words, God's original plan for humanity was made possible (after the fall) by the fact that Jesus tasted death. And we'll look at that in greater detail in the next section.
2)Principle
Jesus achieved the glory and honor for humanity that Adam lost through sin.
3)Applications
How has sin taken a toll on your life?
How has sin effected your relationships with others?
How is sin effecting your relationship with God?
Identified With Man (Hebrews 2:9-18)
1)Jesus Tasted My Death (Hebrews 2:9)
Death is a result of sin. It was the warning that preceded the fall. It was the declaration after the fall.
Romans 6:23a For the wages of sin is death
Atonement for sin has always resulted in something innocent dying for the guilty.
God made clothing out of animal skins.
God accepted Abel's offering from the flock.
The Levitical law.
But if man dies in sin, his own death does not satisfy the consequences of sin. The result is eternal separation from God and punishment for sin.
It's not a trivial matter.
None of the sacrificial system sufficed to cover all sin. A substitute was necessary, one that was like man in every way. But one who had no sin of his own. But their was no such man.
Not until God's Son took on flesh and blood and was born Jesus. And so the writer here points to the fact that Jesus tasted our death when he died. He was not dying for anything he had done, but only for everything we had done – not to mention all the saints of the Old Testament.
2)The Author of My Salvation Made Perfect Through Suffering (Hebrews 2:10)
10 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.
Jesus was already morally perfect. The author is not trying to indicate that Jesus had arrived at some level of perfection that was adequate of salvation.
Instead he is talking about the fact that the task before him, the salvation of his people, required suffering. And as such, he was perfected for the task because it required suffering.
3)I Am In God's Family Tree (Hebrews 2:11-13)
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
We are still speaking about Jesus here, the one who sanctifies, or sets apart as holy. He is not ashamed to call us brothers since his work of sanctification has made us children (sons) of God.
Here's what Paul says in Galatians, chapter 4:
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
4)Satan Is Destroyed (Hebrews 2:14)
14 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,
Jesus' death, destroyed the devil and his power over death.
He is the deceiver, the one who initially deceived our parents in the garden. And he is the one who blinds the eyes of those who are perishing.
He is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. All those outside Jesus family lines are in fact under the rule of the devil.
But Jesus, the seed of the woman, has crushed the head of the serpent (the devil).
He has been cast down to the earth. He is bound for 1000 years. He is destined for the lake of fire.
And his power has been defeated by Jesus death.
5)I Am Released From Slavery to the Fear of Death (Hebrews 2:15)
15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
What is one of the biggest things most people in our world fear? I would say death. We try to avoid getting older. We market all types of products designed to give us an appearance of youth.
The fear of death is bondage. Part of the reason is that we all know it is coming and those that fear it are always looking for ways to avoid it even though they have no control over when and where it will happen.
The fear of death is rational, at least for those who are not children of God. Because deep down inside we all know that random chance is really not our mother (and for that matter, neither is earth).
And part of the fear is the unknown. What happens after death?
But for the child of God, Jesus has gone before us. He is our champion. He conquered death and the power that death had over us through fear.
6)I Am Abraham's Descendant (Hebrews 2:16)
16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
It's interesting how the author keeps going back to angels in these short 2 chapters. Neither could an angel have done what Jesus did in dying for us, nor did Jesus do this for the angels. In other words, the angels that rebelled against God have nothing to look forward to beside eternal torment in the Hell.
But God's children are in a different category. Those of us who have faith in Jesus death, burial, and resurrection on our behalf are both children of God and descendants of Abraham. We are the true Israel along with the OT saints.
7)I Have a Merciful and Faithful High Priest (Hebrews 2:17)
17 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.
The old testament high priest offered sacrifices on behalf of the people. There was nothing an ordinary Joe like you and me could do. We completely depended on the high priest and the faithfulness and mercy of God to accept that offering and forgive our sins.
But Jesus took on the role of being a perfect high priest who offered a final sacrifice for sin, his own body. He did this to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
God's justice demands payment for sin.
The payment cannot be made by the perpetrator because he is imperfect.
The payment must be of equal or greater value than the offense.
The offense is infinite.
The penalty is death.
Thus, the infinite Son of God, becomes man – flesh and blood – suffers and dies, willfully and obediently so that propitiation can be made on behalf of the brothers.
And in so doing, God's justice is met, and man's penalty is paid in full.
8)He Understands Temptation (Hebrews 2:18)
Last, but not least, the writer tells us that Jesus life on earth made him uniquely equipped to help us when we are tempted.
18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Isn't struggling with a besetting sin difficult. Sometimes you have victory over it for days, weeks, even years, and then in a moment of weakness, you succumb to temptation and sin.
Have you ever thought to yourself in such an occasion, I can't believe I did that? I thought I was beyond that.
There is a struggle to remain true to God that we face if we seriously want to remain pure and holy (as He has called us to be, mind you).
But none of us knows what it's like to go through life continually faced with temptation but never, never, falling into sin. Now that is suffering.
And Jesus is the only one every to have done that and the only one who ever will do that.
But you and I can never say that we are uniquely tempted and He just can't understand what our situation is like.
Paul tells us, in 1 Corinthians 10:13:
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
God gives a way out. And we have a Savior who understands what we are faced with. He wants us to bring our weaknesses to him. He wants us to call out for help when we suffer under temptation. He knows what we face.
Later in Hebrews we will discover that every point where we have been tempted, Jesus, our High Priest, has been there as well.
9)Summary
He tasted my death
Suffering perfected his task of salvation
He calls me his brother
He destroyed Satan's power
He remove the fear of death
I'm in Abraham's lineage
He's a merciful and faithful high priest and perfect sacrifice
He understands my temptations
10)Principle
Jesus identified with man to purchase man's indemnity with God.
11)Applications
Which of the eight benefits of Jesus identity with man do you struggle with and why?
What temptations are you facing alone that need to be brought to the One who understands you situation completely?
What facts about Jesus are you believing but have yet to turn to him in repentance and faith? What are you waiting for?
Greater Than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-4:13)
1)Jesus Superior to Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6)
The writer of Hebrews now moves on to compare Jesus with Moses.
Now Moses was held in extremely high regard by the Jewish people. After all, he was the one instrumental in bringing them out of bondage in Egypt. Confronting Pharaoh on their behalf. Interceding before God on behalf of the people. He spoke directly with YHWH and relayed what he heard back to the people.
He was a uniquely called out man and he was faithful to God. But he was not above reproach and in fact was in need of a redeemer himself.
He was a part of God's house as a saint, but he was not above God's house as Lord.
Both Moses and Jesus were faithful in their calling. And it was Moses who warned the people look for a prophet like himself that would come. And his warning was that the people should listen to him.
And so as we enter into a couple of chapters dealing with warnings, then and now, it seems appropriate for the writer to bring Moses into the picture. But to also point out that the warnings from Moses' day should stand as a stark reminder to us in our day. A reminder to listen while there is a today.
Notice how those addressed in this letter are called the house of God. This is a theme throughout Scripture that God's people are his house and that He dwells among them.
And one warning at the end of verse 6, a warning that will be brought up in various ways through the rest of this section, is the warning to hold fast. In other words, one of the characteristics of genuine faith is perseverance to the end. And we will see as the author expounds on that theme as we move forward.
2)A Warning From Yesterday About Today (Hebrews 3:7-11)
[Psalm 95:7-11]
If you've studied the Life of Moses with us, you remember the wilderness wanderings and all that went on during that time. And it seemed that there was a continual disbelief on the part of the people. Grumbling, complaining, disobedience. And they had witnessed amazing miraculous deeds done by God.
But in verse 10, it says that they have not known my ways. They saw what God did. The reaped the benefit of being with the people of God. But they didn't have knowledge of God and His ways. They were not his.
And so, they were precluded from entering the rest of God. The rest that was typified in the Land of Canaan, but that was but a shadow of the rest that was to come.
And so God puts up with people's rebellion only for so long.
The warning given in the text is today if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart. There might not be a tomorrow. And if you think there will be, you are playing with a fire that will consume.
3)Take Care Brothers (Hebrews 3:12-15)
Notice in 12 through 15 he makes a point that the brothers should have someone among them with an evil heart, unbelieving heart. He's not talking about a brother with that type of heart, but that there may be some among you with that type of a heart.
What are we to do to combat such a situation. (And when I say combat I am not talking about trying to expel an unbeliever from a church). But what I mean is how should we treat each other in order to ensure we are all genuine in our faith?
You and I need to exhort each other every day, as long as it is today. In fact, we are to be that voice of God to each other so that we give opportunities to NOT turn away.
Someone may believe they are in the faith when they are not really in the faith. By exhorting each other, we serve to reveal what's going on inside. Sin is so deceitful. It can cause us to think we are something that we really are not.
In verse 14 he brings out that perseverance of true faith. That holding firm to the end. The real thing will not fall away.
4)Case In Point (Hebrews 3:16-19)
The writer points out to us that there were many in the community that exited Egypt who thought they were redeemed because they were reaping the benefits of those who were redeemed. They were part of the community after all. They joined in all the festivals and feasts, and were there for the reading of the law.
But they were rebels, sinners, disobedient, and unbelievers. They were with the people, but that were not part of God's House.
And the result, they died apart from God's rest.
5)Hearing Without Faith (Hebrews 4:1-7)
2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.
The problem with the ancients was not a lack of information, but a lack of faith. As verse 2 tells us, they heard the good news, the gospel, but they didn't listen because they didn't combine what they heard with faith.
Instead, they heard God's voice, but hardened their hearts, and therefore were precluded from His rest.
6)The Three Rests (Hebrews 4:8-10)
There are three types of rest being spoken of in chapter 4.
The rest in the promised land – symbolic of a coming rest
God's Sabbath rest – He began on the 7th day of creation
A rest for the believer that begins with peace with God and lasts on into eternity (4:9)
7)Final Admonition (Hebrews 4:11-13)
Strive Against Same Disobedience (4:11)
The same type of disobedience is hearing but not believing – hardening the heart.
Remember: sin is deceitful; man can be fooled
God's Word Reveals What's Inside (4:12)
This is no ordinary book. It is divinely inspired and reveals what the heart thinks is hidden.
This is the voice of God the writer is talking about. When you hear His voice, don't harden your heart. When what is inside is laid bare, don't run from the truth and continue to hide it, let God's word confront you.
Let it do its work. It will be uncomfortable, but there is peace and rest for those who let it do its work.
God Is the Judge (4:13)
The scary thing is, by trying to avoid what God's word reveals, a person places themselves in a position to stand before the final Judge.
We are all going to give an account of ourselves to God. That is part of being under his sovereign authority. We are answerable to Him.
Would it not be better to heed His word today, rather than face His wrath tomorrow?
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