[00:00:00] So the book of Hebrews began
[00:00:03] really beautifully in those first four verses. I mean you get to see who
[00:00:07] Jesus is. The prophets came in times past in the Old Testament era. They spoke in many times and
[00:00:14] in many different ways and
[00:00:16] they communicated for God, but it was not a complete or total message until Jesus came.
[00:00:24] He fulfilled everything that they taught about everything that they spoke about
[00:00:29] and became a better messenger than the prophets. But part of the reason that he was a better
[00:00:36] messenger than the prophets is that the prophets were merely messengers, but Jesus was the message himself.
[00:00:42] He came bringing the great salvation, not just saying or speaking the great salvation, but bringing the great salvation in
[00:00:50] his own body. Every human being born on earth is born in Adam, born in sin, born
[00:00:57] separated from God. But Jesus came,
[00:01:00] born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life and died on the cross and rose from the dead so that if you believe in him
[00:01:07] you're transferred from Adam to being in Christ. You're
[00:01:10] transferred from being in sin to being forgiven of your sin from darkness into light.
[00:01:17] So he came proclaiming the
[00:01:19] message showing who God is, the exact imprint of his nature, the radiance of his glory we read in those
[00:01:27] first few verses, but not only declaring the message but actually
[00:01:31] bringing and being the message in his own body as he died upon the cross. And in so doing he became
[00:01:39] greater than we saw last week the prophets themselves, the ultimate word,
[00:01:44] but he also became and received a name
[00:01:47] greater than anything in all of creation
[00:01:52] including the
[00:01:54] angelic realm. And in the mind of the people that the author is writing to, the Hebrew
[00:02:01] Jewish Christians,
[00:02:03] angels were on another level. They were worthy of great and sincere
[00:02:11] adoration. We're going to see when we get into chapter 2.
[00:02:13] They believe that the angels were the ones who brought the law from God
[00:02:19] through angels to Moses on Mount Sinai. So they had a high and lofty view of angels.
[00:02:26] So on one hand they would say, okay cool, Jesus is greater than the
[00:02:32] prophets, but now the author takes it to a new level to say, and Jesus is also
[00:02:37] greater than the angelic realm. Okay, now this passage that we're going to read today,
[00:02:42] I read last week's passage already, but the passage we're going to look at today.
[00:02:48] I think for some Christians it stands out as a little bit of a confusing kind of passage,
[00:02:52] and there's two reasons for that in my mind. Number one, the author is going to rapid fire
[00:02:58] quote from seven old testament
[00:03:03] passages. Now the people he's writing to they're very familiar with the Old Testament,
[00:03:06] but I'm sure there's many people in this room who have yet to in their Christian lives
[00:03:10] complete their first reading of the Old Testament. So for many modern believers
[00:03:16] all of these quotations from the Old Testament they can sort of stand out as a
[00:03:22] confusing kind of thing. What is the author getting at? And as he quotes these seven
[00:03:27] Old Testament passages, the way that he gets to Jesus from them is also rather interesting.
[00:03:33] So I think some of the confusion comes in just the volume of quotations thrust upon us
[00:03:41] right here at the outset. I think another reason why it sometimes can be murky, this passage we're
[00:03:46] going to get into today is because of the issue that he's dealing with. I already alluded to it,
[00:03:52] he's dealing with the issue of Jesus being greater than the angelic realm. Now make no
[00:03:58] mistake, this is a big deal. This is an important issue. There are cults on earth today that
[00:04:04] have diluted the minds of millions of people who have taught that Jesus is an angel equal
[00:04:10] to the angels at the angelic realm is not lesser than Christ, but at least equal to or greater
[00:04:16] than Christ. So it's a big deal to be able to confess and say Jesus is better than the angelic
[00:04:22] realm. But for most people who have come to Christ and are walking with the Lord,
[00:04:27] have received and heard the gospel, this isn't like the pressing question of our week
[00:04:34] or our lives. What does the Bible say about Jesus and is he better than angels or not? Probably as
[00:04:42] you were driving to church this morning, you didn't look at the person you came with and say to them,
[00:04:47] you know what I'm really hoping the pastor deals with today? I'm really struggling with the whole
[00:04:50] life. Is Jesus better than the angels or not better than the angels? We got Christmas time,
[00:04:55] they're talking about angels, decorations, how is he better or not? So for the one of you
[00:05:01] that is wondering that, we're going to settle that today. But it almost like you get into this book
[00:05:07] and you're like, okay, this is great. Jesus is the express image of God, the radiance of his glory.
[00:05:11] And then the author gets into this long, you know, statement about Jesus being greater than
[00:05:16] the angelic realm. And it can kind of stand out like, okay, well, I wasn't really struggling
[00:05:20] with that. What's what's going on? But remember for the Hebrew people, the angelic realm
[00:05:27] was the pinnacle of God's created order. So in a sense, it's like the author is saying,
[00:05:36] not only is Jesus greater than the angelic realm, he's greater than everything in the entirety
[00:05:44] of God's created order. You know, if he was writing to people on the Monterey Peninsula,
[00:05:51] you know how we are here? If you're like a local, like we take such pride
[00:05:55] in our community and how beautiful it is. I was at the tree lighting in Monterey the other day,
[00:06:00] you know, the mayor was talking about it just like every day, he was kind of making it sound like
[00:06:05] every day is like Christmas at Monterey because we get to live in this beautiful place. You know,
[00:06:10] and I'm like, yeah, that's right. It's just so gorgeous here. And we're just so proud of it.
[00:06:14] People come to visit here and everything like that. So if he was writing to us, he might say
[00:06:18] and give all this demonstration to talk about the created order and the beauty of creation
[00:06:22] and how Jesus is above that. So whatever big thing you can think of that God has made,
[00:06:28] Jesus is higher than that. So what I'm going to try to do as we go through this,
[00:06:33] as we read through these different quotations from the Old Testament, I'm going to try to just
[00:06:38] focus on three questions, okay? Three questions and they're very simple. Here they are. You
[00:06:43] guys ready? Question number one is from this passage, who is Jesus? From this passage,
[00:06:52] who is Jesus? All the quotations that the author is going to give, who is Jesus?
[00:06:56] Number two will answer secondarily and rather quickly, who are the angels? Who are the angels?
[00:07:06] And then lastly from verse one through four of chapter two, we're going to answer the question
[00:07:12] and who are we? In this text, who are we? So who is Jesus? Who are the angels and who are we?
[00:07:20] Okay, so that's the introduction. You guys ready to actually read the verses themselves?
[00:07:24] Let's get into it starting in verse five. The writer records, he says after saying in verse four
[00:07:33] like we read that Jesus has a name higher than the angels, better than the angels. He says in
[00:07:38] verse five, for to which of the angels did God ever say? And then he quotes, and this is a quotation
[00:07:47] from Psalm two. You are my son, today I have begotten you. So the author is asking when did
[00:07:54] God ever say that to the angelic world? He didn't say to the angels, you are my son. He said
[00:07:58] that of Jesus. Now think about the life of Christ. There were different moments where the
[00:08:04] father spoke and said, you are my beloved son. You know, at the baptism of Jesus this was said
[00:08:14] when he went into the water came out of the water, the spirit descended in bodily form and the
[00:08:20] father spoke from heaven and said, you are my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
[00:08:26] Then there was another time during the life of Jesus where he went to the mountaintop to pray
[00:08:32] with his disciples, with Peter, James and John. And he began to radiate with the glory from God,
[00:08:38] from within. It began to shine outside of him. The disciples woke up, they saw Moses and Elijah
[00:08:46] back from the dead. They're talking with Jesus and they were blown away by it. And Peter said,
[00:08:54] let's build tents and stay here. We should just stay on top of the mountain. This is really
[00:08:58] great. And the father spoke again and said, this is my beloved son here, him. So Moses is great,
[00:09:06] Elijah is great, but Jesus, he's my son. You should listen to him. He's not in the same
[00:09:12] cluster or group with Moses and Elijah. He's in a different category above them.
[00:09:18] And then interestingly enough, when Paul was preaching his first recorded message
[00:09:25] in the book of Acts chapter 13, he talked about the father at the resurrection of Jesus,
[00:09:32] bearing witness through the resurrection that Jesus is his son. So the first thing that we
[00:09:41] learn about and answering the question who is Jesus, what we learn from this quotation,
[00:09:46] he is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. Now he goes on to quote a few other,
[00:09:53] a couple of other Old Testament verses to back up that statement. He also there in verse 6,
[00:09:59] is it or excuse me, verse 5? Is it still on the screen? You're like, man, no, verse 5, let's go back.
[00:10:06] Go back to verse 5. Click. There we go. You're like, man, Nate's not getting very far. We're
[00:10:14] only halfway through verse 5. He goes on and says, or again, and this is from 2 Samuel,
[00:10:20] verse 7, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. Now that comes from 2 Samuel 7.
[00:10:28] We went through the life of David this year. And when we came to 2 Samuel chapter 7,
[00:10:33] God made a promise to David that he would have a son who would sit on the throne forever.
[00:10:40] And when David's son Solomon was born, a lot of the things that God said about David's son
[00:10:47] came to pass in Solomon, but then Solomon died and all of the prophets and biblical writers,
[00:10:53] they communicated we're still waiting for that promise from 2 Samuel chapter 7 to be fulfilled.
[00:11:01] We're still waiting for the one who will sit on David's throne forever, the one who God will
[00:11:08] be a father of and he will be to God the Father a son too. And then verse 6, we can finally
[00:11:15] go to the next slide. And again, and this comes from probably Psalm 97, he says when he brings
[00:11:21] the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. All right, so what you have
[00:11:30] here we're learning who is Jesus? Well, he's the Son of God, but he's the Begotten Son of God
[00:11:35] and the Firstborn Son of God is what the author says. He's the Begotten Son of God and the
[00:11:40] Firstborn Son of God. What that means, the word begotten is a word that does not mean that Jesus
[00:11:46] had a beginning, the New Testament and Old Testament are very clear on that, that Jesus
[00:11:51] Christ had no beginning. Listen to this from John chapter 1 verse 1 and 2. John says in the beginning
[00:11:58] was the Word and later on he makes it very clear when he talks about the Word, he's talking
[00:12:03] about Jesus. He says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
[00:12:11] He was in the beginning with God. So what that means is that whenever the beginning occurred,
[00:12:19] Jesus was already pre-existent. He was already there. So he is the Son of God from eternity
[00:12:26] passed. He's always been, but he was begotten in the sense that when he died on the cross for the
[00:12:33] sin of the world it was announced to the world this is my Son. This is my Son and this is what
[00:12:40] he has done for you. Not only is he begotten, but he's also the Firstborn. This does not
[00:12:48] speak again of Jesus' beginning. It speaks of his status in Hebrew culture. The Firstborn
[00:12:55] would have a certain position in the family and so we're learning the position that Christ has
[00:13:01] within the triunity of God. So first thing we learn about Jesus, he is the Son of God or you
[00:13:08] could say it this way, he is God the Son. But let's go on and see in verse 7 who else the
[00:13:14] author thinks Jesus is? He says of the angels verse 7 and here he's going to quote from Psalm
[00:13:21] 104. He says, he makes his angels wins and his ministers a flame of fire. So God creates these
[00:13:32] angels and they are like in his presence wins or flames of fire. But verse 8 of the Son
[00:13:43] he says, this is God the Father speaking and this is a quote from Psalm 45. This is what God
[00:13:48] says. God says of the Son, your throne, O God is forever and ever. Last week somebody asked me,
[00:13:57] they're like I read Hebrews 1 before I came in today, is verse 8 saying that God the Father
[00:14:04] says to Jesus you are God? Is that what it's saying? And that's exactly what it's saying.
[00:14:10] The other Father says your throne, O God speaking to Jesus, is forever and ever. The scepter
[00:14:16] of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness,
[00:14:21] therefore God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. So the
[00:14:26] second thing that we learn about Jesus from these quotations not only is he the Son of God,
[00:14:31] but he is God enthroned. He is God enthroned. He is God enthroned. And this speaks of
[00:14:39] him having a kingdom that lasts as it says in verse 8 forever and ever. It never ends. And his kingdom
[00:14:48] has the perfect balance within it. In that verse 9 he says it's one in which he as king on the
[00:14:57] throne loves righteousness, but he also has been anointed with the oil of gladness beyond all
[00:15:03] of his companions. Don't you love that? It's sometimes with the way humans work. It's
[00:15:08] you kind of feel like people have one or the other. They're either very righteous and upright and all
[00:15:15] about justice, but they're also kind of too serious to enjoy or hang out with or spend any time with.
[00:15:22] They're just very soon. Or they're just super happy people, but they're like I just really
[00:15:27] don't care about any of it in a kind of thing. But Jesus cares immensely. He has uprightness
[00:15:32] and righteousness, but he also is anointed with the oil of gladness beyond everyone. That's
[00:15:36] what his kingdom is going to be like forever and ever and ever. That's what we learn here is that he
[00:15:40] is God enthroned. Thirdly, we also learn in verse 10, let's go on reading this. He says,
[00:15:47] And this is from Psalm 102. He says, You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning.
[00:15:56] And the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will
[00:16:02] all wear out like a garment, like a robe. You will roll them up like a garment. They will be changed,
[00:16:07] but you are the same and your years will have no end. The thing that we see here about Jesus
[00:16:16] is that Jesus not only is he the son of God, not only is he God enthroned, but he is also
[00:16:21] the creator God. That's what's being highlighted there from Psalm 102. Jesus is the one who,
[00:16:27] according to the author and this quotation from Psalm 102, laid the foundation of the earth in the
[00:16:34] beginning. Everything we see is the work of his hands. He announces, he says, All of them, the
[00:16:41] creation, they're going to grow old like a garment. You know, you're going to wrap them up. They're
[00:16:46] going to be put aside. This is an interesting statement because in the Greco-Roman world that
[00:16:51] these people were living in, one predominant thought was that the universe had no end,
[00:16:57] that it was eternal. But here the author is saying, No, the universe is not eternal, but Christ,
[00:17:04] the one who created it, he is eternal. He will last forever and he is unchanging.
[00:17:12] Hebrews 13 verse 8, which we'll get to in a couple of months. It says Jesus Christ is the same
[00:17:18] yesterday, today, and forever. So the third thing we learn about Jesus is that he is creator God.
[00:17:25] And then finally, the fourth thing and the last thing that we learn about Jesus
[00:17:30] from these quotations comes in verse 13. Let's read it together. He says, And to which of the angels
[00:17:36] has God, has he ever said, this comes from Psalm 110, Sit at my right hand
[00:17:44] until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Are they not all ministering spirits
[00:17:50] sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? So what he's saying here is
[00:17:58] that after Jesus died and rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples for 40 days,
[00:18:03] talking to a guy this morning, he asked me, he's like, They really saw him? They saw him for 40
[00:18:06] days. And yeah, they saw him for 40 days. They went to their deaths preaching that they had seen
[00:18:12] Jesus risen from the grave with their own eyes and touched him with his hands,
[00:18:15] with their own hands and eaten food with him. And after he lived with them, it appeared to them for
[00:18:21] 40 days, he ascended to the right hand of the father and the father said to him, Sit at my right
[00:18:26] hand and let's wait for that moment where I take all of your enemies and I put them under your
[00:18:33] feet. I make them your footstool. So what we learn here is that Jesus is a God who is to be
[00:18:41] served. Jesus is a God who is to be served. Now let me ask you this question. Do you think
[00:18:49] that the author has a high view of Jesus or not? I mean, this is an incredibly high view of Christ.
[00:18:56] He sees Jesus as the Son of God and God the Son. He sees him as the one who is worthy to be
[00:19:04] worshiped seated upon his throne. He sees Jesus as the creator of all things. And he sees Jesus
[00:19:10] as one who is worthy of being served. And by the way, this should be our relationship with Jesus. We
[00:19:18] should have that kind of awe and admiration for who he is to see him as the Son of God, to see
[00:19:25] him as the creator, the one worthy of worship, and of course, the one worthy of our service here
[00:19:32] in this life. So that is his view of who Jesus is. Now we should answer secondly the question
[00:19:40] who are the angels? And this doesn't take much time to answer from this passage. We already read
[00:19:46] verse five all the way through verse 14, but from those same passages where you're learning who Jesus
[00:19:54] is, the author also wants to tell us who angels are. Now angels are interesting. The Bible isn't
[00:20:02] really about angels. It's not a big book about angels. There's no book of the Bible that deals
[00:20:08] exclusively with the angelic realm. So as you're going through the Bible, there are certain things
[00:20:12] that you have to kind of deduce about angels because it's not a book that is primarily dealing with
[00:20:19] them, their world, their kind, but it's dealing with God and his relationship with humanity,
[00:20:25] his process of saving our souls from our own sin. But the Bible does make clear that the angelic
[00:20:32] realm exists, that God created an angelic realm. It appears that there came a point when about a
[00:20:40] third of the angelic realm made a decision to rebel against God and they were led by Lucifer or
[00:20:51] who became Satan, who was one of the anointed cherubs it seems from Ezekiel and Isaiah,
[00:20:57] who was one of the angels who led the worship of God in heaven. But with pride, he was lifted up,
[00:21:03] he was lifted up with pride in his heart and led a rebellion with the best we can tell if there
[00:21:07] was a number on it, a third of the angelic realm and they became disembodied spirits.
[00:21:13] And so when in the New Testament we say that we wrestle against not flesh and blood, but
[00:21:17] against principalities and powers of darkness, that's part of what we'd be thinking about, a
[00:21:21] demonic realm who are fallen angels who have been disgraced because they rebelled against the Lord.
[00:21:30] So all of that to say though, that the question, you know, who is angels, who are angels, we're
[00:21:37] going to see the answer in this passage at least to some small degree. I remember when I was
[00:21:43] 16 years old, I'd had my driver's license for about three months and one foggy Pacific
[00:21:50] Grove morning. I woke up, I grew up in Pacific Grove, I drove out to Carmel for something and then
[00:21:55] was on my way back, it was still early in the morning and I had a 1969 Volkswagen
[00:22:03] Beetle. It was really cool, it was baby blue and I was cruising along and I was going too fast
[00:22:10] and the ground was wet, my tires were probably a little bit bald and so I lost control of my car
[00:22:17] and began to spin out of control, it was all slow motion and everything and I went over the
[00:22:22] embankment right there by Skyline Forest on Highway 68 and went over the edge and by the time I got
[00:22:29] to the edge and went over the side, my car was moving this way so I just basically went over
[00:22:35] the side in a huge tree, just hit my car kind of right behind my hip kind of area.
[00:22:42] My car went down the embankment and I was down below, I couldn't see the road, it's 20, 30 feet down
[00:22:49] below and because Volkswagen's, those old ones were not very strong vehicles, it hit just like a
[00:22:59] aluminum can, just kind of kicked in where the tree was and so my body was, although I was still
[00:23:06] buckled in, the seatbelt went around my body and then was buckled in right here, what was
[00:23:10] supposed to be, so I was basically seated in the passenger's seat and my foot was stuck in between
[00:23:16] the clutch and the sidewall and I was hurt but you get a lot of adrenaline when you're in an accident
[00:23:22] like that so you don't really know if you're hurt or whatever but I was scared and I didn't
[00:23:28] know what to do, I didn't know if anybody had seen me, I didn't know if anybody would see me,
[00:23:33] I was down there, you couldn't see me from Highway 68 but fortunately somebody who was
[00:23:38] there at the intersection, they had a cell phone, they were like one of the 10 people on the Monterey
[00:23:43] Peninsula cell phone at the time and they called 911 and pretty soon the you know fire trucks came
[00:23:51] and the paramedics and everything but before that while I was there just by myself, this man
[00:23:57] came down from Highway 68, he climbed down, I don't remember him all that well, I just remember
[00:24:04] my best memory is that he looked kind of like MacGyver, he had like a flannel shirt on and everything
[00:24:10] and he came, this is what I remember, he came and sat next to me, he called me down and he cut
[00:24:16] my seatbelt off for me to alleviate that pressure because it really hurt and then that's the last
[00:24:22] I remembered of him and then they came, eventually the fire trucks got there and everything,
[00:24:27] they came, they came down, they had to cut the roof off of the car, they couldn't open that
[00:24:33] door, they couldn't open any of the doors, they cut the roof off, they pulled me out,
[00:24:37] took me to the hospital, the CHP officer followed me there, gave me a ticket driving too fast for
[00:24:45] conditions and then they were going to let me go home and I stood up and then when I stood up
[00:24:53] I started falling over because I had fractured the second lumbar in my back, I couldn't support
[00:24:57] my weight and so I went back down on the table, they took you know more x-rays or whatever
[00:25:02] and fit me for a cast and stuff like that but I began asking around, hey did anybody
[00:25:06] you know talk to anybody get a report from that guy who came down and helped me and the person
[00:25:12] that called that had seen me go over the firemen, the paramedics, the CHP, no one had any idea
[00:25:21] who I was talking about but I remember this guy so distinctly, he comforted me, he helped me
[00:25:26] so people in my life at that time they just began really thinking that the Lord had sent an
[00:25:31] angel to be with me in that moment of distress in my life. I don't know with any certainty,
[00:25:39] I just know that he was a cool guy, really brought a lot of comfort into my life but if I ever had
[00:25:45] a knowing encounter with the angelic realm that probably would have been it. So they're cool,
[00:25:50] you know we're going to learn in chapter 13 that he's going to tell us in a closing
[00:25:55] exhortation, hey think about the way that you entertain strangers because some of you have
[00:26:04] hosted angels unawares, you didn't even know. Okay so I'm saying a lot of things about angels,
[00:26:10] I thought you said that there wasn't much about angels and here I'm saying a lot about angels so
[00:26:15] what is that, what do we learn about angels from the text though? Well just four things
[00:26:20] real quickly, if Jesus is the Son of God then what we learn in verse 5 through 6 is that angels are
[00:26:28] worshipers of the Son of God, they worship Jesus. That's why it says in verse 6, let all
[00:26:33] God's angels worship him. So if he's the Son of God angels worship him. Number two, if Jesus
[00:26:41] is God enthroned the angels, they minister around his throne, they serve him around his throne. That's
[00:26:51] why it says in verse 7 he makes angels wins and his ministers a flame of fire, they're there in his
[00:26:57] presence serving God, adoring God, singing to the Lord, bowing down before him. If Jesus is the
[00:27:05] creator then angels are part of the creation. That's why in verse 7 it says he makes his angels,
[00:27:13] he's the one who creates them or he laid the foundation verse 10 of the earth and the heavens
[00:27:20] are the work of his hands so they are part of his creation and then notice in verse 14,
[00:27:28] if Jesus is seated on the throne and served they are his servants. Verse 14 he says,
[00:27:35] Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit
[00:27:42] salvation? So Jesus, he's God the Son, the Son of God and they're worshipers of him. Jesus is
[00:27:50] seated on his throne and they are gathered around his throne worshiping him. Jesus created
[00:27:55] and they are part of his creation and Jesus is waiting for his kingdom to come fully and completely
[00:28:02] as he's seated there in heaven. And they are his servants, they help and do the things that he
[00:28:08] desires for them to do. Okay let's close with this. Who are we? Third and last question,
[00:28:14] who are we? We've looked at who is Jesus, who are the angels but who are we number three?
[00:28:21] Well let's read in verse 1 through 4 together. He says therefore, chapter 2 verse 1 through 4,
[00:28:27] sorry. He says therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift
[00:28:35] away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable in every
[00:28:41] transgression or disobedience received a just retribution how shall we escape if we neglect
[00:28:47] such a great salvation. It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who
[00:28:55] heard. Well God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the
[00:29:03] Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. One of the first things that we have to learn about
[00:29:12] ourselves is that we, if you're a believer today, we are number one recipients of a great salvation.
[00:29:22] That's what this passage tells us. Now part of the reason why it tells us this here is because
[00:29:26] think about this. The Hebrew Christian was infatuated with angels partly because they
[00:29:34] believed angels delivered the law to Moses. They believed they were the delivery mechanism for
[00:29:42] God to deliver the Ten Commandments to Moses and he alludes to that in verse 2. He talks about how
[00:29:49] the angels came, they delivered the law and everybody was held accountable to the thing
[00:29:53] that Moses had delivered to the nation. So with that in the Hebrew Christians mind man these
[00:29:59] angels they delivered the law you know and all of that. What he's trying to tell us here is that we
[00:30:07] have received a great salvation that Jesus delivered. Angels might have brought the Ten
[00:30:16] Commandments to Moses but Jesus brought us our great salvation. There's a contrast here with
[00:30:23] the angels because the angels as far as we can deduce from Scripture they cannot get saved,
[00:30:30] they cannot experience salvation. There seems there was a one-time decision to rebel against the Lord
[00:30:36] and then that was it. Satan and his legions, they are destined for the lake of fire that God has
[00:30:43] prepared for them. Whereas human beings we can receive this great salvation from the Lord. Notice
[00:30:52] the way he describes this great salvation. He says we heard about it in verse 1 and 2. In
[00:30:58] other words someone had actually tell us about this message. Not only did we hear about it but we
[00:31:04] heard it originally he says in verse 3 from people who'd heard they were eyewitnesses, they'd
[00:31:11] heard Jesus and they then communicated what they had seen and heard. Notice also that God himself
[00:31:18] was a witness of this great salvation in verse 4 when he says God bore witness by signs, wonders,
[00:31:25] miracles, gifts of the Spirit. In other words when Jesus was walking on earth and performing
[00:31:30] miracles in the book of Acts the early church over those 30 years of time were from time to
[00:31:36] time performing miracles all of those miracles were partly designed to back up the message that
[00:31:44] they preached. So here we are you know Jesus is preaching or the apostles are preaching
[00:31:49] and then a miracle is done it was supposed to be kind of backing up like a sign saying this
[00:31:56] message that they declare is true. But not only that the miracles themselves were supposed to give
[00:32:03] not just a sign that the message was true but a little bit of a hope about the kind of salvation
[00:32:10] that God is working. In other words when you see in the life of Jesus Jesus walking up to
[00:32:17] someone paralyzed and touching them and giving them wholeness of body or walking up to someone who
[00:32:23] has leprosy and touching them and taking away their leprosy or walking up to someone who's blind
[00:32:29] touching them and taking away their blindness what you're not meant to conclude is that and
[00:32:34] this many ministries and churches kind of get stuck right here you're not supposed to conclude
[00:32:40] well if we just have enough faith today if we just have enough belief today then those things will
[00:32:48] happen to us today. I believe that God can do those things today but I don't think it's like a big
[00:32:52] faith contest to see who can get God to do those things on this side of eternity. It seems
[00:33:00] that it's a little glimpse into the full salvation that Christ has won for us that by His blood
[00:33:07] all the sickness and death and disease and brokenness that we see here on earth it's like a little
[00:33:13] glimpse into what Jesus has won in His new and heavenly and eternal kingdom. Right so Jesus came
[00:33:21] and He brought us this great salvation it was declared verse 3 first by the Lord. So who are
[00:33:28] we? We are recipients of a great salvation that the one who is the Son of God decided to become
[00:33:38] one of us. The one who created all things decided to take on human flesh. The one who
[00:33:50] is seated upon the throne with the angelic realm swirling around Him, worshiping Him,
[00:33:57] decided to hang out with guys like His disciples. You know put Himself in the middle of a group of
[00:34:06] guys who should have been on their face worshiping Him constantly but were you know always arguing
[00:34:10] and debating and saying silly things you know and stuff like that. He made a decision to do
[00:34:15] all of that we have this great salvation. So who are we? We're recipients of a great salvation
[00:34:24] who should heed that great salvation. That's what he says in verse 1 would you read it with me again
[00:34:30] with your own eyes look at it in verse 1 he says therefore we must pay much closer attention
[00:34:38] to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. This great salvation that we have received
[00:34:45] we must make sure that we do not drift away from it it's a nautical term that the author
[00:34:51] uses the idea is out on a body of water if you're not anchored you just begin to drift.
[00:34:59] And there is a danger in the Christian life of receiving this glorious message
[00:35:04] you know that God the Creator enthroned became flesh dwelt among us died on the cross for our
[00:35:11] sin rose from the grave we believed in Him now we will not perish but have everlasting life and
[00:35:18] then yawning after saying or thinking about all of that no we are in danger we must pay much closer
[00:35:27] attention to the thing that we've heard. We must give super abundant frequent and extra effort
[00:35:36] to obeying and submitting and applying and having care about in full devotion to
[00:35:43] the things that we've heard we must have a vigilant clinging to the truth of the gospel
[00:35:49] lest it slips away from our hearts we do not want to drift imagine if you will because this word
[00:35:57] drift away is also sometimes used to describe something like a ring on your finger that is too
[00:36:03] big and it slowly slips off imagine someone you care about deeply giving you a ring of
[00:36:11] infinite value and let's just imagine for the sake of the illustration that the rule is
[00:36:19] that you can't take it off but that you also can't have it tightened it's it's going to be there on
[00:36:26] your finger it's going to be big but you love it and appreciate it so much what would happen is
[00:36:33] over time you would begin to you you begin walking around with a clenched fist you'd make
[00:36:38] sure you'd be conscious of you'd be thinking of in the moment that you stopped thinking about it
[00:36:45] stopped setting your mind upon it it would begin to slip from your finger the idea here of this
[00:36:52] gospel this great salvation that we've received is that we must pay much closer attention we must
[00:37:00] give earnest heed have a firm grip listen very carefully think constantly about this great
[00:37:07] salvation that we've received we must not we are a people who because we've received this great
[00:37:13] salvation must not neglect this great salvation he goes on to say in verse three look at it again
[00:37:19] with me he says how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation in other words this
[00:37:28] great salvation is there we can neglect it there are consequences for neglecting it
[00:37:34] instead we must cultivate this great salvation that we have received so think about it with me for a
[00:37:43] moment i'm just going to close up by offering a few suggestions as to how to cultivate rather than
[00:37:48] neglect your great salvation if you're a believer here today and i want you to think
[00:37:54] as a theme for this of paul's statement in philippians chapter two verse 12 where he said
[00:37:59] work out your own salvation with fear and trembling what he doesn't mean by that is try to be saved
[00:38:07] try to get saved with your own works now what he means is if you are saved if christ is living
[00:38:14] inside your heart then work out that salvation live it out with respect and reverence worship of
[00:38:21] the lord fear and trembling so how can we do that let me give you six suggestions one way
[00:38:27] that people often neglect their salvation is by neglecting their personal relationship with god
[00:38:35] neglecting their personal relationship with god did you know that jesus came to earth because
[00:38:41] god wanted to reconcile humanity with himself he wanted to bring you into right relationship with
[00:38:46] him people will usually respond to the question do you pray by saying yes i pray but it's by the
[00:38:54] blood of jesus that we're actually able to pray and be heard by the lord so when we drift from the lord
[00:39:02] when we neglect our great salvation i find that we begin to fall away from we begin to walk away from
[00:39:09] that personal time and experience with the lord you remember the church in emphasis and revelation
[00:39:16] chapter two jesus commended them you got great doctrine he said you've done many great things
[00:39:22] for me he said but i have this against you you've left your first love they began to walk away from
[00:39:29] their original devotion to the lord now now look the the truth of the matter is that there could be
[00:39:36] a few people here who have been in christ have been believers for 20 or 30 years and you still have never
[00:39:44] really had a dedicated time where you pray where you read the word you know things like
[00:39:48] that and i'd encourage you to get going you know get going with that start enjoying your relationship
[00:39:54] with the lord but there could be many of you here who as you've been walking with the lord and going
[00:40:01] through life you begin to neglect that part of your life and i'd encourage you to get back
[00:40:06] to that to get back to that to begin enjoying the lord afresh when i was very young in christ
[00:40:14] the theme verse for me in learning how to pray came from first peter chapter five where he says
[00:40:19] cast all your cares on him because he cares for you i listen to these people talking about their
[00:40:25] really complex prayer lives and all these you know acronyms you know acts is the acronym a door
[00:40:30] confess thanksgiving supplication and i kind of would like start praying i'm like okay i got
[00:40:35] to a door you know so i look at the door time you know or whatever and then confess or
[00:40:40] whatever and you know and those can be helpful to to think about but the way i began to learn to
[00:40:46] pray at least was by just taking everything that was a concern or a weight in my heart and talking
[00:40:52] to my father in heaven about it so don't neglect your personal relationship with god also
[00:41:00] another way that people sometimes neglect their great salvation is by neglecting
[00:41:05] uh i'll explain this but neglecting the corporate gathering or the the gathering together of the saints
[00:41:13] and what i mean by that is not so much a they don't come although it can mean that and so you
[00:41:20] know you can give yourself a little pat on the back today like okay but what i mean by that is
[00:41:26] you know how it is anything that you do week after week after week in your life you can begin
[00:41:33] to kind of do in a going through the motions kind of way can't you and so for us we have to make sure
[00:41:41] that we don't neglect our great salvation and when we gather together that we are throwing our whole
[00:41:46] heart into what we're doing i mean you can maybe you've had this experience it's possible for
[00:41:54] someone to have their eyes closed their hands raised you know during worship times singing
[00:41:58] the song you know accurately to the lord and in the back of their minds they're thinking about
[00:42:03] are we going to go to chipotle after the service you know you know all those kind of things you have
[00:42:08] to really one of the prayers that i've prayed over the years comes from jesus's parable about the
[00:42:14] good soil and my prayer is that our our hearts would be more and more the good soil that's ready
[00:42:19] to receive the word of god so don't neglect your great salvation don't go through the motions
[00:42:25] in our corporate gathering take advantage of it and then another way that sometimes people will
[00:42:31] neglect their great salvation is by neglecting their service to the church many of you have
[00:42:38] a ministry you know something you do for the lord it might be something that you feel is small
[00:42:43] might be something that you feel is you know a really big you know time consuming kind of thing
[00:42:48] it might be an hour a week commitment it might be a 40 hour a week commitment you know but
[00:42:52] whatever it is when you're doing those things i found that as time goes by eventually this
[00:42:59] thing kind of creeps into our heart where we forget the why of that ministry in the first place
[00:43:08] so maybe you got involved in calvary kids or something like that and you're like because i
[00:43:13] love god and i love the gospel and i want kids to know jesus and i want the parents to be able
[00:43:19] to be free to come and worship jesus and that's like why and then like time goes by and it's
[00:43:26] and then it's like hey why are you doing that and you're like i have no idea
[00:43:31] i'm just i'm on because i'm on the schedule you know or something like that
[00:43:36] or you know maybe you start like i started ushering because you know i wanted people to be able to
[00:43:42] come into the house of the lord see a friendly face a smile feel the love of jesus in some
[00:43:47] small capacity and then over time you know why are you doing i don't know i just kind of this
[00:43:52] is what i do you know kind of thing we've got to continually come back to reconnect to the why
[00:43:59] okay fourth way that we can cultivate our great salvation this is in no way an exhaustive list but
[00:44:08] we can make sure that we retain a commitment to christian community when you got saved if
[00:44:15] you're a believer today you were not saved as an individual i mean he did save you individually
[00:44:21] but he bought you and put you into a family into a body into a community of believers and i've found
[00:44:28] that oftentimes when someone begins to kind of drift this is one of the chief ways that it happens
[00:44:34] and it seems like it was a chief way for the people that the author is writing to because in
[00:44:38] chapter 10 he's going to talk to them specifically about making sure they don't neglect the
[00:44:43] gathering together of the saints so some of them had been tempted to do that and a lot
[00:44:49] of times is how it works you know someone will maybe get into a small group or something like that
[00:44:54] that a couple years go by they build friendships in the church and in the community they feel
[00:44:59] like they have their friendships and then this is what will happen they'll say to themselves why
[00:45:04] do i need to commit to christian community anymore i already have my friends but the thing is is
[00:45:12] that for mature believers to be with immature believers and immature believers to be with
[00:45:17] mature believers is a really important thing and there are people out there who don't have their
[00:45:22] friends there are people out there who need that human connection they need to pray some people
[00:45:28] will say well it's awkward well good you know it should be if you're only with people that
[00:45:34] make you feel comfortable and it's just always flowing and stuff like that that's just us picking
[00:45:38] the easiest kind of people to be in relationship with it's good for us to be stretched tested
[00:45:44] you know expand you know all of that so committing to the body of christ fifthly we can cultivate
[00:45:56] our great salvation by continuing to desire to grow as individual believers don't say things like
[00:46:06] you know i i've i've read the bible as like it's a past tense kind of thing like i know all of that
[00:46:14] don't say that don't don't talk like that and if you have read the whole bible good if you've
[00:46:20] read the whole bible 10 times good if you've read the whole bible 20 times good but can you
[00:46:26] recite it i don't i'm sure you couldn't it is it you know the the lessons that you got from
[00:46:33] this book when you were 25 years old are you still gonna hang out on those lessons or now that you're
[00:46:41] 55 are there fresh ways in which that same truth needs to find a current application in your heart
[00:46:51] so continue to read not just the word but read about the word read people teaching the word
[00:46:56] continue to listen to good solid teaching continue to grow say i want to grow as a human being
[00:47:02] i tell you what when i was 18 years old walking with the lord i was reading zero books about how to
[00:47:08] be a good christian parent none i had no kids it was the last thing on my mind i wasn't thinking
[00:47:14] about it i started having kids i'm reading you know start having you know toddlers i'm reading
[00:47:23] you have elementary age kids i'm reading teenagers reading and praying and fasting
[00:47:30] you know the whole thing i love my teenagers they're great but you know to be a person that says
[00:47:39] yeah you know i gotta keep growing i haven't arrived and then lastly number six let your hunger for
[00:47:49] the lost continue to grow that should be a hunger that grows in your christian life
[00:47:55] that develops in your christian life that starts out here but then just over time cultivate it's a
[00:48:03] great salvation you want more and more people to know of this great salvation part of the
[00:48:07] reason i say that is because i think over the you know last 40 years in this church body
[00:48:14] incredible things have happened good stuff has happened and i've enjoyed being the pastor
[00:48:18] for the last you know the lead pastor the main teaching pastor for the last almost 11 years
[00:48:22] i've really it's been great and god is doing some really neat things and some of you've been around
[00:48:28] for decades and some of you've been around for a couple of weeks but i rejoice at what god is doing
[00:48:35] but inevitably in a church a spirit can creep up within the hearts of the people
[00:48:42] where it feel where there's kind of this feeling like well we've arrived you know we're we're
[00:48:48] good and i guess i just want you guys to know how i feel about that i just feel like we have barely
[00:48:54] scratched the surface on all that there is to do i do not feel in any way like we've arrived
[00:49:01] i feel like every time we get together and god works it is an absolute miracle from him
[00:49:08] and i look out at our community and i feel that we have barely made an impact and that there are
[00:49:15] thousands of people who still need to know the lord growing christ learn about jesus learn about his word
[00:49:22] and so you know we just can't you know as you're kind of going through the motions and all of that
[00:49:30] you have to kind of get back to like oh yeah but we haven't arrived there's still so much work
[00:49:36] for us to do as a body of believer you guys agree with that thanks for listening to the
[00:49:44] thanks for listening to the calvary monoray podcast please visit calvary.com to learn more
[00:49:50] about calvary monoray and visit nate holdridge.com for additional bible teaching from our senior
[00:49:55] pastor nate holdridge thanks again for tuning in see you next week