Hebrews 2:1-10 Glory & Honor: The Means to Overcome Apostasy

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Apostasy: Glory and Honor, the Means to Overcome

Hebrews 2:1-10

Introduction: We have talked about some of the reasons Christians fall away, from Hebrews 5-6, the lack of growth to maturity. The text was quite a rebuke to the Hebrew Christians and a strong warning to all Christians that without progressing to maturity, falling away is the end result.

But while progressing to maturity is the primary cure, suffering and trials are working against us. It is this suffering that has caused the Hebrews to lose endurance. Suffering has worn them down. They are tired and have lost their will to continue. That is what happens to us. Repeated trials, repeated suffering, repeated need to endure, the daily pressures and cares, and soon it is just too much! 

However, more often than not, NT writers did not use rebuke and the primary means to keep Christians from falling. Indeed, the use of rebuke alone can itself become discouraging. We all need a stronger motivation than “you are failing and need to shape up!” We need hope, and that is what we will find in our text this morning.

1. Hebrews 1 – 2:4 Preparing Us For Hope
   1. Hebrews is a letter that has a continuous and progressive message throughout. In this lesson, instead of focusing narrowly on a particular text, I want you to see how the broader message of chapters 1-2 will give us strong encouragement to avoid slipping in our faith.
   2. The preacher’s introduction is quite unique when compared with other NT letters, which shows his intention to immediately impact his audience by his dissertation. The key to his opening statement is God has spoken. Before we can appreciate the conclusions he draws from this statement, we must appreciate the statement itself.
      1. The fact that God has spoken at all should be the greatest encouragement. God spoke so that we could know him. If he did not speak, we would never know him. Therefore, God spoke, not so we would simply recognize his existence (though certainly he shouts his existence through the revealed word), but so that we would know him in a greater and more perfect intimate knowledge that would cause us to desire him.
      2. Further, he did not simply speak to us through fallible humans, but through a Son, the very one that spoke the universe and all there is into existence. He is the one who is the heir of all things and upholds the universe by the word of his power. He spoke, not just so some “people” could hear him, but so that every human with the breath of life could hear his voice and know his desire to bring each one to himself. He spoke to you. 
      3. Paul said, “But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world’” (Romans 10:19). God spoke, and it should be the greatest encouragement we have to keep us from falling away.
   3. Now look at 2:1-5. In verse one, we see “therefore.” In verse two, we see “for.” And again in verse five, we see “for.” By noticing these words we can see how the writer is building his argument from one thought to the next. Thus:
      1. God has spoken
      2. God has spoken through a Son
      3. Therefore, pay much closer attention
      4. For even the message of angels was reliable
      5. For the world to come was not subjected to angels
   4. Let’s take a moment to consider the preacher’s exhortation that is based on the words, God has spoken through a Son. 
      1. We must “pay much closer attention.” These words are in contrast to “lest we drift away from it.” Drifting away from what God has spoken is solved by “paying much closer attention.” Therefore, drifting is inevitable without paying close attention. Each of us know that is true. All of us have “drifted” at one time or another. Drifting in a boat is easy when we are not paying careful attention to some specific stationary spot. 12:2 – thus, the “sin that so easily entangles…” 
      2. Using the word “drift away” carries with it a greater danger considering how gradual drifting is. It is virtually unnoticeable.
      3. What is truly shocking about the warning is the use of the word “neglect” in verse 3. “How shall we escape if we neglect…” If the writer had used “reject,” we might have thought the possibility of drifting was very slim. You and I have no intention of rejecting the Lord. But “neglect” is far different. Neglect is easy because it happens when our attention is deflected by more urgent matters. Neglect does not feel intentional. “I’m going to get to it,” we say. “I know it is important,” we say. “I’ve got that on my ‘to do’ list,” we proclaim. But our ‘to do’ list is endless and our this world responsibilities just keep piling up. And we neglect.
      4. The warning against drifting and paying closer attention is even more stressed by the consequences that come from drifting. Verse 2 compares drifting to disobedience and transgression in the OT period. We are often shocked by the consequences of disobedience in the OT. The writer reminds us that those words were delivered by angels. In chapter one, we are told of a significant difference between an angel, who is only a messenger, and the Son who made the worlds. In the parable of the vineyard owner and the wicked tenants. After they rejected the Lord’s messengers, he sent his son, believing that they would certainly respect him. When they do not, the result is destroying their nation. 
      5. Thus the Hebrew writer states that if there was no escape of such disobedience of an angelic message, how much more shall we not escape if we even neglect the great salvation now brought through the Lord.
2. 2:5-10 The Motivation: What Has God Spoken? 
   1. What we are reading in this section is that even though there is a greater warning, there is also a greater promise, and thus, a greater motivation to endure and not fall back. God’s plan for man was far greater than anything provided for angels.
   2. Before the quotation of Psalm 8, notice the preacher’s message: “It was not to angels that God subjected the world to come…” Then Psalm 8:3 is quoted to indicate God’s intention for man from the beginning (Genesis 1:28).
   3. The key parts to God’s promise of Psalm 8 are the words, “crowned with glory and honor” and “put all things under his feet.” As the writer continues, it is clear that we do not yet see this fulfilled in man. “Him” in Psalm 8:3 is referring to man. Many argue that it is just Jesus. Absolutely not. The context is “man,” which is made clear when we see what Jesus does in verses 10-11.
   4. Note the key words, “we do not yet see.” Then note the beginning of verse 9, “but we see him.” Jesus attained what man was unable to attain because of sin. Not “seeing” what was intended by God is discouraging. But “seeing him” gives hope. Though we did not attain, he did by becoming like us and by the suffering of death he tasted death for everyone. Therefore notice:
      1. “Seeing him” is tangible. It isn’t theoretic. It is a real flesh and blood life that as a human attained the goal for all humans.
      2. He received glory and honor, “because of the suffering of death.” The mechanism for glory and honor is suffering, even the suffering of death. The Hebrews were failing because of suffering. Now how did the Hebrew Christians regard suffering? Just like we do – it’s bad! But suddenly the preacher has changed his audience’s perspective.
      3. “That he might taste death for everyone” reminds us that Jesus’ death was not simply to provide forgiveness of sins. Salvation has to do with future glory with everything in subjection to us. Thus, the picture is that God sent Jesus to get us and bring us to God. How does he bring us to God? By pioneering a path to glory through suffering.
   5. “Bringing many sons to glory” – Note that since Jesus is “a son,” he is now bringing many other sons to glory with him. Consider that the “glory” refers back to the fulfillment of verses 7-8 that we do not yet see: “crowned with glory and honor with everything in subjection to him.” When you read those words, where does your mind go? Are you able to embrace what the Lord just said?
      1. This should remind us of Paul’s words concerning the prophecy of the messianic age in 1 Cor. 2:9, quoted from Isaiah 64:4: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” Consider the context in which the prophet is praying that the Lord will rend the heavens and come down. In Mark 1:10, when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were torn open and the Spirit came down. Jesus came to get us to bring us to glory.
      2. If we were able to read the prophets during the days in which they wrote, we would see God giving pictures of what his coming Kingdom would be like, and yet it would be impossible to truly understand what we now experience today in Christ. The same is true with “glory and honor and everything in subjection to man.” 
      3. 1 Corinthians 6:2-3 “Do you now know that the saints will judge the world…Do you not know that we are to judge angels?” 
      4. Revelation 3:21 “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.”
      5. Ephesians 2:6-7 “…and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” 
      6. Heb. 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would drawn near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” 
      7. Heb. 11:10, 14-16 “For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God…For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland…but as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” 
      8. Revelation 21:1, 10-11 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal.” 
   6. We look in wonder at these words. What does it mean? What has he prepared for us? As in Isaiah, it is impossible to describe because of the limitations of our flesh. Now what about that simple picture of “heaven” that we all grew up imagining? No, we are looking for something far beyond that: described as a new heavens and new earth, where we are crowned with glory and honor with the world to come subjected to us. 

Conclusion: why did the writer begin his sermon the way he did?

• God has spoken. Why did he speak?
• To tell us of a great purpose he has for us. To show us that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to come. To urge us to not drift away, to not neglect the great salvation he has prepared, and to know that glory and honor awaits us. 

Berry Kercheville