Jesus Saves
Hebrews • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
As we continue our study through Hebrews, I want to ask those of you tuning in to todays message to do a little bit of thinking. Think back to the absolute best news that you’ve ever heard before. For some of you that piece of news was discovering that you and your spouse were going to be parents! For others it might be that you were accepted into your dream college. For others it might be that you were hired for your dream job. For any husbands out there the “best” word that you can remember is the word “yes” from your spouse after you asked her to be your wife! We’ve all experienced some good news throughout our life. We know that Scripture gives us some examples of people receiving good news as well! In the Old Testament God told Abraham that He would make Abraham into a mighty and powerful nation as his descendants would be as numerous as the grains of sand on the beach and that through his offspring, all the nations of the world would be blessed! That’s some pretty exciting news for a 100 year old man with 1 son, right?
The Old Testament also talks about some great news being delivered to prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah. Jeremiah was told that a new covenant would be made in the future
33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
This is exciting news!
Isaiah was told that there would be a coming Messiah who would come and the government would rest on His shoulders and He would sit on the throne of David and establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness forevermore!
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
This is exciting news as well!
We know the New Testament gives us some exciting news as Mary and Joseph are told that they are going to be the parents of Jesus Christ… Lindsey and I found out about 3 months ago that we are going to be parents and it was a rush of all sorts of emotions and if you’ve been in that situation with adoption or with pregnancy then you certainly know what that feels like, but I cannot imagine being in Mary/Josephs shoes as they were given this news from an angel. That would have been life-altering news!
We know that in our world there is a lot of bad news. There are lots of messages being shared - some true, some false - and in general the news is bad. Devastation and destruction left and right. Families are anxious. Leaders are uncertain about what the future holds. People wondering when things will just get back to normal for a change.
Even though there is a lot of bad news and uncertainty flooding our thoughts these days, there is hope in Jesus Christ. The greatest news of all is not that things will one day return to normal. The greatest news of all is not that you are perfect just the way you are. The greatest news of all is that Jesus came to live, die, raise from the dead and reconcile sinners to God. As the preacher of Hebrews notes, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? - The answer is, you can’t. Jesus Saves, friends. As the hymn puts it, Jesus can help me, Jesus alone. In a world that is giving us all sorts of false messages of hope and despair, look to Jesus Christ today.
1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,
3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
Do not drift from Jesus’ message (1)
Do not drift from Jesus’ message (1)
Have you ever found yourself zoning in and out of a situation where information was being presented only to find yourself suddenly put on the spot and you have absolutely no idea what to say or do? I know that I’ve been in that situation several times and it never ends well, does it? You either say nothing and get in trouble for not paying attention or you do try and say something and in doing so you’re most likely completely off topic and still get in trouble. We are a people who simply do not pay attention like we should! Perhaps this is you right now, you are drifting from one thing to another trying to find something to maintain your attention. According to Nikki Graves, a University professor, “We currently live in a culture that fosters attention-deficit disorder because of hyperconnectivity.” This is certainly true of our younger crowd, myself included, as we seemingly always have a device in our hands or something that we are streaming/watching. In fact, many of us do multiple things at once with the help of technology and while I love tech and what it has done for us in many ways (such as being able to stream our worship services during this time of social distancing), it also plays a direct role in shorter attention spans.
Just as we sometimes do not pay close attention and need to be reminded to do so, the preacher of Hebrews does exactly this in as he says “For this reason, we must pay much closer attention.” What is he saying the reason is? What must we pay attention to? Whenever you see a “therefore” you know that you have to go back and see what it is “there for” and the literal Greek word is “dia” which has about 10 different meanings including “for this reason” and “therefore”. As a result of this, we can’t just start studying at verse 1 of because we have no idea what we are supposed to pay attention to! We have to backtrack to and understand the theme that the preacher took 14 verses to introduce to us: Jesus Christ is superior! Our first 2 messages in have been building to this point and we finally see the application in - because Jesus Christ is greater, we must pay much closer attention to what He says! The Angels have powerful messages and they have authority, but how much closer should we follow and abide by Jesus’ teachings because He is the Son of God!? We must listen to Him and see to it that we don’t ignore Him and drift away but that we apply His message to our daily lives!
You have 2 options as an individual - accept or reject the message of Jesus Christ. His message leaves no gray area, you either accept it or you reject it. If you have accepted Jesus’ message and He is the Lord of your life you now are facing a choice: are your progressing and becoming more like Christ or are you drifting away from Him? I am an avid golfer - I would never say that I am a good golfer, but I absolutely love playing golf. If you’ve ever been golfing then you know the pain of watching a golf ball start out on a bad line and continue to go the wrong direction. In the world of golf we call those shots hooks or slices depending on the way that they go, but the bottom line is that they drift away from their intended destination and it is so easy to do this. Sometimes you’ll do everything right in your head, you’ll have a plan, set up correctly and for whatever reason the ball does not do what you hope it will and it goes into the water or the bushes. You can be focused and still end up in trouble. Friends, just as this is the case in the game of golf, it is also true of our lives. You can do everything “right” in your preparation and setup but unless you pay attention and obey the Word of God, you will drift away from your destination!
Our world is so confused when it comes to drifting and many people say, “Oh just be yourself” or “Just go wherever you feel like going” and while these messages might make us feel good or nice inside, that’s not Scriptural at all. Scripture reminds us that we are sinners and that our hearts are wicked and deceitful
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
As a result of this, we dare not trust ourselves, rather we trust in the Lord
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
In doing this, we become conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Either we trust in ourselves and go with the flow, or we stand up for Scripture and go against the tides of our world. So are you paying attention? There are so many different things vying for our attention, even during this season of life where we are stuck in our homes most hours of the day, it is easy to stay busy either by binge watching shows, doing chores, playing games or reading. These things are not necessarily bad, but we have to ask ourselves, are we paying attention? Are we becoming more like Jesus Christ or are we becoming less like Him? Are we learning and growing in our faith or are we stagnant? Friends, don’t drift! If you’re drifting right now, look to the cross, fall on your knees and understand the message of Jesus Christ!
For many of us if we saw an Angel standing right before us and he told us to straighten up, what would we do? We’d have a heart attack and after we woke back up we would live a completely different life because of that experience, right?! Church, Jesus’ message is superior to that of any angel and He calls us to follow after Him. That requires us to die to self and pick up our cross. I pray that we are all doing that. I pray that we are not drifting out at sea.
Do not neglect Jesus’ salvation (2-3a)
Do not neglect Jesus’ salvation (2-3a)
Verses 2-3 illustrate that the message given by the Angels is very serious. The Angels, as we covered last week in , are messengers of God and they are ministering spirits. They deliver many messages from God and the most well known message that they gave is the Old Covenant law.
19 Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.
53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
The people of Israel received the law from the Angelic messenger and the Torah states in Deuteronomy that the law leads to either life or death.
19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
If you obey, you live, if you disobey then you die. The word spoken through the Angels stated that every transgression leads to a just penalty. As a result of this, and 6:23 are spot on as they say that all have sinned and the wages of sin is death. We love to fight that, don’t we? We love to say, “I’m really not that bad. I know some really bad sinners. I know people who have done this action and live this lifestyle and I’m not a sinner like them, so I’m really not that bad.” This sadly is the mentality of many people when it comes to living their life on this planet. This is the way that people view life, we compare people with other people rather than with Jesus Christ. The bar that God sets is perfection. If you fall short, even once, then you deserve a penalty. The Old Testament law illustrates this point because the people had to gather yearly for this day of atonement where their sins were covered for 1 year. Yet, this is no longer the case, is it? Because of Jesus Christ, there is something far greater than simply transgression, disobedience and punishment, rather through what Jesus Christ has done we see that every transgression, disobedience and sin was laid upon Jesus Christ and He bore our punishment and paid the price in full!
Verse 3 puts it well whenever it says, “How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” To be blunt, friends, you can’t! The argument employed here is called Qal wahomer or “light and heavy”. If this old covenant that was given by God’s angels said that the punishment of sin was deserved punishment, how much greater is the punishment of sin if someone rejects the new covenant that is given by God’s only begotten Son? Read and you see this divine judgment!
I love what Martyn Lloyd Jones has to say about this great salvation as he writes, “The message of the Christian church is not merely exhortation to men and women to live a better life. That is not Christianity. Many agencies can do that and are doing that. The essential thing about the Christian message is that it is a message of good news of salvation. We have to emphasize that this is the greatest and most wonderful news that has ever come into the world!”
This is the greatest news in the entire world! We must not neglect it. To neglect something means to fail to take care of it. If any of you have teenage boys, you know that they can sometimes neglect personal hygiene and that has a consequence, right? They can be extremely smelly and be completely oblivious to it and to those teenage boys tuning in, understand that axe body spray does NOT cover up that smell, take a shower! We cannot neglect our personal hygiene and we certainly cannot neglect this great salvation!
We need to remind ourselves of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ because sometimes we get so stinking busy or we focus on other things in Scripture or we read into the text 4 or 5 ways to do this particular thing or here’s some tips that you can live a better life and be a better person, but at the end of the day that’s not the main story of Scripture. Scripture isn’t trying to give you a couple of helpful tips to become better, the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is that if you are in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation! Jesus paid it all! The Gospel is bad news as you were dead in sins, but God made you alive with Christ Jesus. We were all dead but praise God for salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!
12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Respond to the Gospel (3b-4)
Respond to the Gospel (3b-4)
The final verse and a half of our text this morning shows us that we must respond to this message. We have a responsibility right now to do something with this message and so I ask you, have you responded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Have you placed your faith in Jesus alone? Do you believe what Paul wrote in Galatians?
20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Is this true of you this morning? Do you crown Him and believe in Him? If you have done this and are in Christ this morning then what are you doing to share His good news with the world around you? The greatest decision you can ever make is the decision to follow Jesus Christ and respond positively to the Gospel message! This is my prayer for everyone tuning in this morning that the Holy Spirit might open your eyes and that you might see this great salvation that has been brought about by the life and death of the eternal Son of God!
This message in verse 3 was first spoken through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ shared that He was the only way to be saved in
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Some people say that Jesus never claimed to be God and that He was simply a teacher, yet this argument falls flat on its face. Jesus knew and declared that this was an exclusive road. He said as much in His Sermon on the Mount as He said
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Are you on the narrow road or are you flying down the comfortable highway that leads to eternal destruction? The message of Jesus Christ is only good news if you understand it and believe it. This message was not only preached by Christ but also confirmed to “us” by those who heard. This is a little tricky to understand. The preacher of Hebrews does not identify as someone who heard Jesus’ teaching because he simply said that this message of salvation was confirmed to “us” by those who had heard. This implies that the preacher of Hebrews never met the historical Jesus or heard Him teach. Think back a couple weeks ago to our introduction to Hebrews and how we talked about the different views on authorship. Many people attribute Hebrews to Paul, but Paul met the historical Jesus on the Damascus Road, yet the preacher of Hebrews seems to say here that he never heard the historical Jesus speak/teach. This does not particularly matter to the overall message of what the preacher is stating, but it is something worth noting nonetheless!
The message of salvation was not only spoken and preached by Jesus but also something that has been passed on by others! Even though the writer/preacher himself had not been a hearer himself, others had and they had shared this message! A simple question for us, are we sharing this message as well? Look at the early church, Christianity was illegal and Christians were put to death simply for saying that they follow Jesus Christ. Yet, despite the suffering they faced, Christianity grew rapidly. Today Christians in Western culture are not persecuted and Christianity has been on the decline for decades while in other parts of the world the persecuted church is exploding. Why is that? One component is that whenever you are being persecuted for your faith, you own it for yourself rather than simply doing something because Mom and Dad make you do it. Who is going to possibly give their life for something that they don’t totally believe in theirselves? No one! I pray that we would be bold and have a passion to share the good news with others just as Christians have for 2000 years!
Verse 4 wraps up by showing that God testified the truthfulness of the Gospel by displaying signs/wonders and miracles. One commentator put it well whenever he said this, “Would Jesus have been God without miracles? Certainly. He refused to give signs when asked to do so. We must first come to believe in him before the miracles become in any sense “signs”.” Think about the Jews. They saw many signs and wonders but the continued to reject Jesus as Messiah. Why on earth was this the case? Because miracles and signs have a purpose and that purpose is to confirm the truth about the work of Jesus Christ. He was who He said He was and His miraculous works attest to that fact. The early church in Acts performed signs and wonders as well with the power of the Holy Spirit. The preacher of Hebrews notes all of these things as common knowledge in order to highlight the fact of Christ’s great salvation.
We know that things are a little different for us today. We know that there are people out there who claim to be able to do all of the miracles that Jesus did and to heal people on command and cure people of their diseases and things like this. Is God capable of curing anyone of any illness? You’d better believe He is because He is God and He is sovereign and has all power. Does He do this to all of His children? No, He does not. It is sad that people believe that sickness and illness are signs of God’s disproval with His children. We know that we are given gifts from the Holy Spirit - , and speak of some of these Spiritual Gifts. The awesome thing about Spiritual Gifts is that you are not given a gift to become famous and make a lot of money for yourself, rather you are given the gift to proclaim the name and majesty of Jesus Christ! They are used to build the church and make much of Jesus Christ.
I’ve seen examples of friends who were too shy to give a public speech in school be able to teach kids about the good news of Jesus Christ on a mission trip. I’ve seen examples of friends who were not the nicest of individuals be radically changed by the Gospel and be given the gift of mercy and service. We are all given at least 1 gift as Christians and we must discover what that gift is and use it in our local context as we serve as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. What better time to do that then right now as we are unable to physically meet?!
Conclusion
Conclusion
What is Jesus’ message? Jesus’ message is simple: There is salvation in 1 name alone, the name of Jesus Christ. Other people might make bold claims and promise much, but at the end of the day only Jesus Christ can save sinners of their sin before a Holy and just God. Have you repented of your sins and trusted in Jesus Christ today? I pray that you have! I pray that you believe in Jesus Christ and that He is your Lord and Savior. If you haven’t done that before, why not? Why neglect such a great salvation? This is a warning passage, the first of of 5 in this incredible book, and shows us that there is hope and salvation through Christ but there is a consequence if you do not believe in Him. Trust in the Lord today!
If you have trusted in Jesus and asked Him to forgive you of your sins and He is the Lord of your life then I ask you, are you obeying the Word today? We aren’t simply saved one moment and the next we revert back to our old way of living, no! Jesus Christ saves us eternally, but because we are saved presently, immediately, then we are supposed to live a different life! We are called to obey the Word of God and to share that message with others. This is a daily decision.
Salvation is great and it is the greatest news that we can ever hear or share with others - church, friends tuning in and worshiping with us this morning, share the message of Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world this week. Share what Jesus Christ has done. He has purified us of our sins before a holy God, He is sanctifying us with His Word (), He is interceding on our behalf before the Father, His work of atonement is completed and there is a wonderful, blessed assurance that Christians can have in time of chaos and uncertainty because Jesus Christ paid it all on the cross! Remember what happened on the cross and share that message of Biblical hope with others this week and remind our friends and loved ones that there is salvation in Jesus and Jesus alone.