Now that Christmas is over, April and I were in a store the other day and do you know what we saw on the shelves? Easter supplies! Easter! I mean December wasn’t even over yet! But there they are! Bunnies and baskets and I was like, “Easter, already!” But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. What do stores put on the shelves? Simple…what sells! And so there are people out there right now, maybe even some of you, who are stoked and buying stuff already…for Easter! HA!

Why? Because tradition is powerful! The momentum of culture and custom is compelling and socially energizing! That is precisely the dilemma that is presented here in the Book of Hebrews. The people to whom this letter is written were Christians but they had come from a Jewish heritage. So whenever they heard the trumpet sounding from the temple, whenever they smelled the incense, whenever the city erupted with activity surrounding the feasts and festivals of Judaism, memories and tradition and cultural force tugged at their hearts and minds…

And so taking up where we left off in Chapter 1, the writer continues this discussion on angels, whom the Hebrews traditionally held in high regard…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 1

• I like what we just read there. Heed what we’ve heard (and the writer is definitely speaking of what we’ve heard from the Son as he says back in verse 2 of Chapter 1, “God, in these last days, has spoken to us by His Son…” And so he writes, “Heed what we’ve heard.” Most literally, attach to it…why? Because we tend to drift away…

• Have you ever gone to a coastal beach and if you’re like my family you pack about half your household for a 2 hour beach visit…and you settle in, plop your stuff down and then go on in the water…? Well after a while of playing in the water you look back and the stuff that you placed directly where you went into the water is now on down the beach a bit…what happened? Did it move? No, you did…but unnoticed…you’ve drifted…

• And that is that danger that they were facing as they were playing in the shallow waters of tradition…and that is the danger that we face…that I see all of the time…when we do forsake the gathering of the body of believers…and church becomes every other week, then once a month, then once every couple of months…and now “we just need to get back into church…”
• Prayer trails off and Bible study is always where we’ll get to when we just finish this laaaaaaast thing…Or accountability begins to drift as you pull away and isolate…interact less and less, share less and less, “Hey, they don’t want to hear anyway…they’re always telling me what’s wrong with what I’m saying…” Maybe something is wrong with what you’re saying then! HA! And so you retreat, hermit up and even present physically, you drift spiritually…
• In most cases, the next thing that comes is the waves…waves of anger, waves of depression, waves of unfaithfulness…just denying the cross of Christ in how you handle things…you drift man…the writer here speaks to them and to us…, “Attach yourself to what the Son has said…” Drifting ultimately leads to drowning…drifting from Christ is to drift towards ruin…I mean think about it? If all that is good is Him then to drift away from Him…well the math there ain’t that complex!
• And what do you have to do to drift? Nothing! Just breathe. Just be…and there you go…on down the beach and on come the waves! An ungodly farmer died, and they discovered in his will that he had left his farm to the Devil. In the court, they didn't quite know what to do with it-how do you give a farm to the Devil? Finally, the judge decided: "The best way to carry out the wishes of the deceased is to allow the farm to grow weeds, the soil to erode, and the house and barn to rot!”
• Drifting also always goes practically unnoticed…it’s like a silent assassin…once its discovered, its already too late…We gotta combat this offensively. Defense doesn’t exist in this situation. Drifting leads to drowning and many of these new Christians were…and within the body of Christ are today…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 2

• Referring to the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai by the hand of angels (Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19)…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 3

• So basically if the law teaches that every transgression and disobedience receives a just consequence, just practically speaking, how can we ever be made perfectly clean if we refuse the salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ? Paul explains in Galatians 3 that the Law was the persecution of mankind but the Savior is the promise TO mankind…so why would we drift back to traditions and religion and the law which cannot and for that matter were never intended to make anyone holy…but to make it entirely clear that we must attach to the promise of the New Covenant made by the perfect blood of the Savior!?
• Which God has confirmed…not only by the resurrection but also by almost absurd signs and wonders…like lepers being healed, folks blind from birth being healed…the dead being raised…look at the next verse…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 4

• So miraculous incredible signs and wonders but with one other things as well and I love how it’s presented…, “Gifts of the Holy Spirit…according to His own will!” Again in 1 Corinthains 12 :11, Paul writes of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and says, “The Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills…” Hear the common theme? As He wills…

• The gifts of the Spirit are operated only as God wills. In other words, they don’t operate, manifest, they don’t bust out as I will…I can’t conjure up a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, healings or tongues…”Oh he has the gift of healing”, or, “he has the gift of tongues…” No he doesn’t…God does! And as God wills, He distributes…decently and in order.

• And yet do the gifts continue even today? Of course they do! Words of knowledge, words of wisdom, healings, tongues…all that! But I love what Chuck Smith used to say on this topic, “It’s hard to say which is worse – the denial of miracles and the gifts or a counterfeit of them. In the end, the devil doesn’t really care which side of the ship he throws you off of...”

• And so the writer says what has the law ever healed? What has the law ever set free? All it ever did was point us to the fact that we need a Healer…and we need a Freedom Fighter! And God has provided! The very Promise of peace within His Son, Jesus the Christ…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verses 5 – 9a

• All that “him” talk - but the writer is not talking about Jesus in verses 5 through 8. It’s there in verse 6…, “What is man that you are mindful of Him…” He’s speaking about man…
• He says, “God has not put the world to come in subjection to angels…” And He didn’t put this world in subjection to them either…but we know that Paul called Lucifer the “god of this age” in 2 Corinthians 4:4. And Jesus Himself said of Lucifer that he is the “ruler of this world” in John 12:31…but Lucifer is what? A fallen angel.
• So what happened? God gave this planet, this world, this age…to us…to man…but we handed it over to Satan…being tempted, being deceived, and being taken captive! (Again, see the need for a Savior? A Freedom Fighter?) See this? Read through verse 8 again…that is what God did…He gave us everything…and we gave it away…
• This is the case still today. God has given you and I the potential at everything (like we talked about during mid-week service this week). But we squander it being tempted, deceived…and taken captive by fear mostly…manifested in pride and phony prowess…thinking we are something or we know something…when the ways of God are gentle, humble, willing to yield, serving and placing the thoughts even of others above our own…learn that!
• And so God gave us everything at the dawn of creation and yet it says here, “we can’t see all things…” We’ve drifted, grown dull, eyes are darkened by sin and the flesh…but the Light shines…I love this…But we see Jesus…
• How can you get through what you’re going through? What’s the answer…what are the answers maybe? How can I soften my heart again to him…after all he has said and NOT done…how can I get back on track…how can I get out of this prison I’m in presently…you can’t…and your eyes are too dim to see the answers…but you CAN see Jesus…if you attach to Him…if you heed what you’ve heard…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 9

• Man messed it up, man must make it right. Justice on display, right? And so God sent His Son…who was with Him in the before, and somehow, someway was Him…God stepped into this mess to fight for our Freedom…and He won…He took the penalty of the law that we all deserve and yet He faced it head on without sin and so the law screamed and spat and yet was suppressed under the glory and honor of the perfect Man…that He might taste death for everyone…and the implication there in the Greek is “the power of death” which is what? Simply this…separation from God…foolishness…
• God has removed every separation between you and Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus told us that…that His Father’s house is not prepared for man but He will make a place…that we might come home and live forever…that we might escape the power of death throughout this life and the next…Will you do nothing and rot? Or will you do something…something entirely reasonable…give Him your whole life…