In this episode, we continue looking at Hebrews 2. The unfortunate reality in this world is things are not always the way they are supposed to be. However, those circumstances are no excuse for not faithfully choosing the path of righteousness. We are sons of God, co-heirs in His Kingdom. We can neglect this salvation by not following the path Jesus has given to us. The author of Hebrews is imploring his audience to stay diligent, to lean into the deep human desire for greatness. But to do so in a way that is real and true.

Transcription: 

Not How It Should Be

Hebrews 2:5 “For he has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place saying, ‘What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you take care of him? You’ve made him a little lower than the angels. You’ve crowned him with glory and honor.’ What glory and honor? “‘You’ve set him over the work of your hands. You’ve put all things in subjection under his feet.’”

Now let me ask you. Do all of you feel that way right now? Do you feel like everything’s under your feet? That you’re ruling? That it all goes the way you say? Anybody feel that way? 

“For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not see all things put under him.” What’s the key word there? “But now we do not yet see.” What does that tell you? We will see all things put under subjection to him. 

“But we see Jesus. Who was made a little lower than the angels.” How was Jesus made a little lower than the angels? He became a man.  

 For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. 

What salvation is happening here in this passage? What’s being saved and when? We’re being restored to our proper place. 

Why were we knocked off of that place? The Fall.

So what’s being saved from what? It’s not just us. Because part of the death is that we’re no longer interacting with the oxen and the sheep and the birds and the fish like we’re supposed to be. Or each other. 

It’s all of creation! All of creation groans. Why does all of creation groan? You remember from Romans 8? It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. 

And what’s it longing for? What’s being saved here is all of creation being saved from the results of the Fall and death.

So we don’t see that happening right now. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. We’re not in the position we’re supposed to be in at this point in time. 

But what we do see is Jesus. “But we see Jesus,” Verse 9, “Who was made a little lower than the angels. For the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. 

Restoration

If Jesus was restored back to his proper spot through the suffering of death, what do you think we’re going to be asked to do? 

How are we going to be restored? Through Jesus. What did Jesus do? He died. Is that all he did? He suffered. What do you think we’re going to be asked to do if Jesus suffered and was restored to his proper place. What do you think we’re going to be asked to do? Suffer! 

Does death cause suffering in your life? Does the Fall cause suffering in your life? Does separation and division between you and other people cause problems in your life? 

“That he—” Jesus “by grace of God might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him—” Jesus “—for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory.” Many sons to glory. 

What is a son? Not just somebody that’s born, but a reigner. A co-regent. Someone who’s appointed to help rule. We’re being saved from being knocked off our proper position and being restored back to our proper position. And the admonition here is don’t neglect that salvation. 

How could you neglect that salvation? By not following the path Jesus has given to you.

Is it guaranteed that we’re going to be restored to that position? It’s not. 

The new birth is something that God just gave us, right? Anybody here have anything to do with your physical birth? Anybody plan it out? Choose your parents? Maybe make an appointment, schedule when you’re going to show up? Have an invitation list of who you wanted to be there? Anybody even remember your birth?

You really woke up about two, three years old and realized you were alive. Up until then you’re just oblivious. It was just given to you. You don’t know anything. You don’t remember anything about your birth.

Anyone remember anything about the choices you’ve made that have made you who you are today? That you have a lot to do with, right? And that’s what he’s talking about here. He’s not talking about justification and new birth. Everybody he’s talking to here has that. You can’t neglect that. 

What you can neglect is the opportunity you’ve been given for restoration back to what God originally intended. 

Jesus has defeated death.

Now the death that entered the world when the Fall happened has many facets. A death is a separation. If your battery is dead, what happened? Your car doesn’t start. Why? There’s no flow of electrons. The flow was cut off. That’s what death is. Something got disconnected.

What all got disconnected the day Adam died? Fellowship between God and man. Us and creation. Adam and Eve. “This woman who you gave me.” What else? Animals and man. Our hair started falling out. Us and Tree of Life. The siblings. Work. The garden. Stickers, weeds.

You know the most devastating ones are the ones we usually don’t think about: the separation between us and reality.

Is anybody here any good at rationalizing bad behavior? We’re all experts at that, aren’t we? We come out of the womb immediately with the ability to rationalize bad behavior, it seems.

Jesus comes to Adam and says, “What have you done.”

What’s he say? “The woman you gave to me.”

What should he have said? “I disobeyed your command and now I’m going to get the consequences of it, and that’s what’s best for me. Put it on me.”

Anybody here think that way naturally?

Death entered the world, and we can be delivered from that death. How? Through the power of Jesus. 

Don’t neglect salvation

But that’s something we can neglect. We can just live in the death even though we’ve been delivered from it. 

Verse 10, “For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory—” Not just him, but many. “—to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” 

The captain of their salvation. Which salvation are we talking about? The restoration. And Jesus is the captain of that. He’s the leader of that restoration to say death happened back here at the Fall, and now I have taken on to me the suffering of death for all people, and because I’ve taken that on and defeated that, you too now can walk in victory over it.

And Paul is saying, I do not want you to neglect that! 

It’s very similar to his Romans 6. Can you sin that grace may abound? Yes. Is it a good idea to sin that grace may abound? Of course not! Why? Why should we who’ve been delivered from slavery and death go back in to it? 

We have the enablement to be delivered from sin and death, and we can neglect that. 

Verse 11, “For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one. For which reason he’s not ashamed to call them brethren saying, ‘I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you.’ And, again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again, ‘Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”

Now I’m not really sure what these verses do, to be real honest. I think what he’s saying here, on the first one he says, “I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly.” What he’s saying is Jesus is there with us. He’s sitting there in the audience with us.

And when he says, “I will put my trust in him,” he’s saying, just like you’re being offered the opportunity to do, I learned complete dependence on my father. Do you remember that Jesus said, “Of myself I can do nothing?” He put himself in complete dependence. He’s paved the way to show us what a completely dependent life looks like. 

“Here I am and the children God’s given me.” Now he’s gone up on stage, so to speak, and said, these are all the ones whom I’ve delivered from death, and I want to deliver them to complete restoration, and that’s my goal. 

Why? Because I’m their captain! I came from heaven to earth to take on a body to defeat death so that they could be restored. The whole idea from the very beginning was, I’m going to take these people lower than the angels, give them the reign over the earth, and silence Lucifer.

Lucifer won a battle because he put us into that death. And now, when we follow Jesus, who has defeated death, we actually defeat Satan. It’s a win-win situation.

But we can neglect that salvation. And Paul is saying, “Do not neglect that salvation.”

The son is the reigner. Jesus is the Son of Man. 

If you go through and look up Son of Man, that’s basically all Jesus refers to himself as. When Pilot said to Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Yeah. I am. But my kingdom is not of this world. 

Does that mean it never will be? Of course it doesn’t.

In the “Hallelujah Chorus,” that great music piece from The Messiah, the kingdom of our Lord has begun. The Kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ. That song is in Revelation. And it takes place when Jesus comes back to earth and starts his reign. Because he is the Son of Man. And he is the captain of the restoration. The deliverance of us from being insignificant to being reigners over the earth.

Now let me just ask you: How many of you wanted to be something great when you were young? Everybody.  

Take those dreams that you had and reawaken them. This is you. This is who you’re supposed to be: a crowned prince, a princess.

You know the Cinderella story. She’s got this great character. She’s supposed to be royalty. But what’s she doing? Cleaning the fireplace. Why? Her mean stepmother has taken her from her proper position and put her doing menial work. 

But what is her response? She does it with great gusto because she’s a princess! And she doesn’t let her “sisty ugler” mother determine who she is. She continues to progress on because she’s a princess. 

And then one day the discovery is made, she’s really a princess!  Because she can wear the glass slipper! And she’s restored. Ta-da! 

Why do we like that story? It’s true! If we don’t neglect it. 

Character of a king

I like Lord of the Rings. I want to be Aragorn. What a great picture of manhood. He’s the king, the High King of Gondor. But right now there’s a steward in the place. The steward is misbehaving. 

Does he go in and take his kingship? No he does not. Why not? It’s not for him to do. It’s for him to wait his time.

So what does he do? He protects the border of the shire where the hobbits live. 

Does a hobbit have any importance whatsoever to earth? No. All they care about is eating six times a day! 

And when Aragorn comes into the tavern to have a bite to eat, they all look at him with slanty eyes and fear because he’s a scary-looking character. They don’t know that he’s been killing ogres and orcs on the border of the shire. 

So does he stand up and say, “What’s wrong with all you people? Don’t you realize everything I’ve done for you? I do all this stuff for you, and all I get is disdain from you. No more am I going to do this! If I don’t get your respect, I’ll just quit.”

No, he doesn’t do that. Why? He’s the king! 

He goes into battle. Is he worried about death? Not really. Death is no big deal. You know, everybody is going to die.

But to be dishonorable? To not be kingly? Unthinkable! No way will I ever even consider such a thing!

What a great thing to aspire to. 

It’s just a story, but we love the story because it’s true. The captain of our salvation has made it true. 

All of us are living in a world, and somewhere in our life we’re under an ugly stepmother. There’s an ugly stepmother in your life if you’ll think about it. Maybe a customer. Maybe a relative, a neighbor, a politician. There’s someone somewhere.

And that tyrant wants to rule over you in such a way to gain pleasure for themselves because since they can’t ascend to rule over everyone, at least they can rule over you. And when they can impose some sort of pain on you, it gives them pleasure because they are elevating themselves up. And they’re going to make you clean the fireplace. 

But you know better. You know you have a tiny foot. Some day the prince will come. He promised it. He’s coming back for his bride. If you don’t neglect it. 

There’s ogres out there. Orcs. Sauron’s real. His eye is looking for you. It’s on me. I can feel it. 

If you protect the shire, serve those who can’t serve themselves, they won’t appreciate it. They won’t even understand it. 

But you’re a king. You’re waiting for the restoration. It’s not your time. It’s not my time to determine when I get restored. It’s my opportunity to protect the shire until that day comes. And if we do those things, if we clean the fireplace with gladness and suffer under the ugly stepmother with cheerfulness, we’re not neglecting the salvation.

If we protect the shire and do unto others as we would have them do unto us, you won’t get rewarded for that a lot of the time. Sometimes you will. But you’re being a king. Let your dreams restore because the captain of our salvation has made it true.

There’s ogres out there. Orcs. Sauron’s real. His eye is looking for you. It’s on me. I can feel it. 

If you protect the shire, serve those who can’t serve themselves, they won’t appreciate it. They won’t even understand it. 

But you’re a king. You’re waiting for the restoration. It’s not your time. It’s not my time to determine when I get restored. It’s my opportunity to protect the shire until that day comes. And if we do those things, if we clean the fireplace with gladness and suffer under the ugly stepmother with cheerfulness, we’re not neglecting the salvation.

If we protect the shire and do unto others as we would have them do unto us, you won’t get rewarded for that a lot of the time. Sometimes you will. But you’re being a king. Let your dreams restore because the captain of our salvation has made it true.