Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog

“Great High Priest”Fixing Our Eyes on JesusThe Letter to the HebrewsLanse Evangelical Free ChurchApril 19, 2026 :: Hebrews 4:14-16  
“Great High Priest.”
Those three words are the title for today’s message, and they come straight from verse 14 which is our newest verse to memorize together as a church.
And they also signify the central themes of the central part of this sermonic letter to the Hebrews. 
If someone asked you what Hebrews chapters 4 through 10 are all about, you could simply answer, “Great High Priest!” (Especially chapters 4 through 7.) Great High Priest! That’s the heart of this letter.
And who is that? Who is the great high priest of the Book of Hebrews? Verse 14 clearly tells us that, as well, “Jesus the Son of God!” 
Jesus is a Great High Priest. In fact, Jesus is our Great High Priest. Verse 14 says, “we have” Him. We have Him. He’s ours. Jesus is our great high priest for the people of God.
Which sounds wonderful, but what does it mean?       
Well, it’s going to take us several weeks, probably several months, to really cover it. This is the place in the Bible where it’s most clearly taught.
The writer to the Hebrews has already used the words “high priest” to describe Jesus twice in this letter. The first was in chapter 2 verses 17 when he said that Jesus had “become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God...” 
Merciful and faithful. And then he went on to unpack the word “faithful.” I think he’s going to do the same here now with “merciful.”
And also in chapter 3, verse 1, he called upon us to “fix [our] thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.” He’s the high priest in which we believe.
And now the letter-writer is going to focus us for the next several chapters on how good it is that Jesus is our high priest. 
And He is not just our high priest. He is our great high priest!
This is the only place in the Bible where those three words are put together in that way. Some places it says, “high priest,” and others “great priest,” but here it’s all three together, “Great High Priest.”
Which sounds wonderful, but what does it mean?
In general, you and I don’t know that much about priests like this. It’s kind of a foreign concept to most modern people in the West. But it wasn’t a foreign concept to the people he’s writing this letter. 
Remember, the letter to the Hebrews was apparently written to primarily Jewish people who knew all about priests because they have had priests all throughout their history. Priests were a regular part of their world, and ever since God rescued Israel from Egypt and gave them the Law, they have had a very structured priesthood that was central to their life and worship as a people.
I’ve been reading the Book of Leviticus the last few weeks, and there is a lot in there about priests.
At its most basic level, a biblical priest is a person with a special role to safely represent sinful people to a holy God.
Priests are intermediaries between people and God. A go-between. A mediator. And specifically in the Bible, a priest represents sinful people to a holy God and makes atonement for them, offers sacrifices for them. The people are sinners who need to be redeemed. They need to have their sins covered and expunged and dealt with. They need an intermediary that somehow brings atonement for their sins, propitiating the just wrath of God through a holy sacrifice presented on behalf of the sinful people.
You see this theme again and again in the Old Testament, especially in Leviticus. Leviticus is like a handbook for priests. 
And in their system of priests, there was one priest that was the chief priest. The high priest. The big priest over the other priests. To top priest.  The priest of priests.
And he had a particularly special role. It was his job (you can read about this in Leviticus chapter 16) to make atonement for all of the people once a year on the Day of Atonement (Hebrew: “Yom Kippur”) where the high priest took the sacrifice (the blood of a bull), and he went into the tabernacle, into the holy place, and then into the holy of holies, the most holy place. 
The high priest took that sacrifice all the way in where no one else was allowed to go, and he made atonement for the sins of the people. He put that blood on the atonement cover, “the mercy seat,” on the Ark of the Covenant in the most holy place and everything was safe for another year. Only the high priest. 
So the Hebrews knew all about that. They were so thankful for that. This concept was central to their worldview.
And this pastor who is writing to them is insisting that Jesus is the high priest, and not just any high priest, but their high priest, our high priest, our great high priest. The high priest of high priests! Who has done what no other high priest has ever or could ever do.
And that makes all of the difference. If they understand this, it will cause them to fix their eyes on Jesus. Which is what he’s been trying to do to them this whole time. 
“Great High Priest”
I have only two points of application for this passage, and they are easy to find. Twice in these three short verses the writer says, “let us...” and then gives a strong word of application. Here’s the first one. It’s in verse 14.
Because Jesus is our Great High Priest...
#1. HOLD FIRMLY.
Hold firmly to your faith in Jesus. Look again at verse 14 and see its glory.  Keith put it on the front of your worship bulletin. You can’t miss it.
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.”
Hold onto Jesus and don’t let go.
Do you hear how he’s like a broken record? How many ways can he say it?
“Fix your eyes on Jesus.” “Fix your thoughts on Jesus.” (Chapter 3, verse 1)“Hold on to [y]our courage and the hope of which we boast” (3:6).“[H]old firmly till the end the confidence we had at first” (3:14).
This pastor desperately wants these Christians to hold fast to their faith in Jesus Christ.
Because he knows what’s at stake. For the last two chapters, he’s been warning them that if they fall away and don’t keep their faith in Jesus, don’t hold firmly to Jesus, then they will fall in the desert. They will not enter the promised land. They will not reach glory. They will not enter God’s (sabbatismos), His Sabbath-Rest.
But if they hear the gospel and believe and keep believing, then they will!
Remember verse 9. “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Heb. 4:9-11). 
That’s what’s at stake. So he says, “Hold firmly to the faith we profess.”
Fix your eyes on Jesus, and don’t turn back.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record myself, I want to ask you how you are doing at this yourself? Are you holding firmly to the faith we profess? Are you keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, or are you drifting away? I’m so glad you’re here today so I can ask you.  Where is your focus?  What is your faith trained upon? Which direction are you headed? Are you running the race with Jesus or are you veering off course?
The greatest thing about this letter is that it has these warnings and these exhortations to fix our eyes on Jesus, but it helps us to heed to the warnings and to fix our eyes on Jesus by teaching us and reminding us just how great He is!
And how much greater He is than anything and everything else and anyone and everything else.
In the first couple of chapters, he showed us how Jesus is greater than the angels, as amazing as they are. And then he showed us how Jesus is greater than Moses, as faithful he was.  And then he showed us how Jesus is greater than Joshua and how His rest is greater than the rest that Joshua led his people into.
And now, he’s going to show us that Jesus is greater than Aaron the High Priest and all of the other High Priests who came after him.
Great high priest. Greater High Priest! Greatest High Priest!
And he starts by pointing out where our great high priest went. Where did he go?
Church, where is Jesus right now? He’s at the right hand of the Father.  What does verse 14 say?
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens...”
What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the ascension, isn’t he?
We don’t think enough about the ascension. Jesus lifting off to heaven. We read about it briefly two weeks ago on Resurrection Sunday in Luke 24. It’s also in Acts chapter 1. Jesus blasting off. We don’t think enough about the ascension, but the writer to the Hebrews is going to make sure we do some more!
And it’s not just that He ascended. The old NIV has, “gone through the heavens.” Other versions say, “passed through the heavens.” It’s picturing Jesus as not just going to heaven, but going through the heavens–perhaps the first heaven of the atmosphere, the second heaven of outer space, and the third heaven of that holy dimension (if we can speak that way) of the place where God Himself dwells in unapproachable light (see 1 Timothy 6:16).
Jesus didn’t just go into the Most Holy Place in the mostly symbolic tabernacle here on earth.
He went into the Most Holy Place in the Universe!
And He didn’t just go there for Himself. He went there as our great high priest!
We’re going to think deeply about this for the next several months. Here’s what it says in chapter 9, verse 24. 
“Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.”
I think that’s what he is talking about in our verse 14.
Our great high priest has gone through the heavens to the heavenly sanctuary to represent us to God! “To appear for us in God’s presence” as our mediator.
The ladies in the choir just sang about this in verse 4:
"Living for me, living for me,Up in the skies He is living for me;Daily He's pleading and praying for me,All because Jesus is living for me."    -W. G. Ovens & Gladys Westcott Roberts
And we all sang about this, too. We'll probably be singing this one a lot this year:
“Before the throne of God aboveI have a strong and perfect plea:A great High Priest whose name is Love,Who ever lives and pleads for me.”
My name is graven on his hands, My name is written on his heart.I know that while in Heav'n he standsNo tongue can bid me thence depart.”  - Charitie Lees (Smith) Bancroft
While in heaven He stands! Our high priest has gone through the heavens.
Why ever would you want another high priest?! These folks were tempted to fall back on Judaism. If they could, they were tempted to run back to whoever was the high priest at the temple in Jerusalem. We’re all tempted to find someone else to be our high priest.
But none of them has done what Jesus has done!
Because He’s (v.14), “the Son of God!” And God the Son. He’s all the things we’ve been reading about from chapter 1 on.  And He’s all we need.  And so we need to hold firmly to our faith in Him. Amen?
And that’s not all that makes Jesus great. Look at verse 15.
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.”
Wow. What a great high priest!
Now, in English, we’re not supposed to use double negatives most of the time. Nobody’s not supposed to do that. (Gets confusing.) But when you do it well, you can really emphasize something.
See the double negative in verse 15?
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses...”
The two negatives cross each other out. We do have a high priest Who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Our high priest understands!
That’s amazing. Our high priest understands what it’s like to be us. That’s mind-blowing. Especially because we just saw how exalted He is! He’s gone through the heavens. He’s the Son of God!
He’s glorious! He’s One of a kind.  And yet, He understands. Why?
Because He became one of us, right? The Son of God became the Son of Man. He took on humanity. He became weak for us.
There is greatness in His weakness.
What did we just sing?
“Jesus Christ, one Lord of creationFrom the Father, begotten, not made.He is the Light from Light eternal And the God of every age.”
That doesn’t sound very sympathetic!
But then it says:
“For this world and for our salvationHe came down from the heavens aboveborn of a virgin and the Spirittruly man and truly God.” “The God We Love” - CityAlight
And He was so much a man that he could be tempted. He could be tested. He felt temptation every single day. 
I don’t think we think about His temptation enough either. Jesus was truly tempted. We read about it in Matthew chapter 4 and Luke chapter 4 and then again in the Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22.
Satan came after Him hard.  The enemy tried to get him to disobey the Father’s will. He threw everything at Jesus. And it was truly tempting! There wasn’t anything inside of Jesus that was sinful or wrong. So He didn’t want something sinfully from His own heart. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t look good to Him. He felt the temptation with every fibre of his human being. Look at Jesus in the garden. Wrestling. Sweating like drops of blood. 
Don’t ever say that Jesus doesn’t know what it’s like to be tempted. Nobody’s ever been tempted like Jesus was. Especially because He never gave in. Sometimes I get out of temptation by giving in to it. To my shame. But Jesus never got out of temptation by succumbing. He knows like no other what it’s like to be tempted. And that’s good news for you and me.
Because His heart goes out to us. He’s sympathetic. He’s compassionate. He’s a merciful high priest.
I can imagine a high priest who doesn’t care.I can imagine a high priest who cannot relate.I can imagine a high priest who turns sinners away because they are weak.
But not this One. He gets us. He fully identified with us. Jesus knows what it’s like to be weak. To feel weak.
Tempted for meTempted for meThere in the garden He was tempted for me. (Or at least, “like me.”)
But He never gave in. Verse 15 says, He “has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin.” 
And that makes Him the Great High Priest! Great in His weakness to be tempted and great in His strong victory over that temptation. Because that means Jesus doesn’t have to be cleansed Himself. Aaron and his sons had to be atoned for themselves first (cf. Leviticus 16). But not Jesus. And it also means that Jesus could present His own blood as the atoning sacrifice.
And so we’re saved!
“When Satan tempts me to despairAnd tells me of the guilt within,Upward I look and see Him there,Who made an end of all my sin.Because the sinless Savior died,My sinful soul is counted free,For God the just is satisfiedTo look on him and pardon me.”
He’s this perfect fusion of sympathy and sinlessness, empathy and purity, weakness and victory. He’s our great high priest! And because of that, we can draw near to God.
#2. APPROACH BOLDLY.
Look at verse 16 with me. Every Christian who knows it loves this verse. Our great high priest sympathizes with our weakness, was tempted in every way, yet was without sin. Verse 16.
“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
You and I are invited and expected before the throne of God. We are supposed to come to God for help. And we can expect to be heard when we ask for it! We can get mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.
When is that? Most of the time, isn’t it? It’s today. It’s tomorrow. It’s when life gets hard. We need help.
And, church, we don’t deserve it.
If we get help, it will be mercy. Help that we couldn’t do on our own. If we get help, it will grace. Help that, by justice, we shouldn’t receive. You and I? If we go up to the throne of God, we should be turned away. We are sinners. We have rebelled.  We have given in to temptation time after time. Why should we expect good things from the God we’ve spurned?
And it’s not because He missed it. It’s not because we’ve pulled a fast one on Him. Remember verse 13. “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Why should we expect good things from that God?
Because of our great high priest, that’s why! 
Church, where is Jesus right now? He’s at the right hand of the Majesty on High. He’s right there at the throne! It’s a holy throne of a holy God, and yet for us it’s a “throne of grace.” It’s a throne where we can expect a welcome. It’s a throne where we can expect help.
Do you need help today? I know you do. Where are you going for help? Go to the throne of grace. Because of our great high priest, we are accepted there. We are forgiven. We are covered. We are loved. We are not turned away. We are embraced.
“What do you need, my child?” That’s how God is towards us when we pray. When we worship Him. When we draw near to Him, we find grace.
What are you praying for these days? Are you too scared to pray? Are you too scared to bring your troubles and cares to the throne? Are you too intimidated to pray to come to the throne?
If you have faith in Jesus, you don’t have to be scared. He understands. He cares.  He’s calling you to come to Him. 
Verse 16 says, “Let us then approach the throne...with confidence.” Some of your translations may say, “boldness” or “courage.” He’s saying, let’s march right in there and ask. Don’t be afraid. Fear God. Be worshipful. Be respectful. But be expectant. Not timid. Not terrified. But bold! Tell Him what you need. Tell Him how it hurts. Tell Him how He could help. 
Be bold. Come! Approach boldly. 
Because you will not be not alone at the throne.
You’ll be there with your great high priest.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19
Bonus Historical Message: The Gift of My Rest - A Fictional Letter of Sabbath Theology08. "A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God" - Hebrews 4:1-13

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book was a dream about a dream. What a masterpiece! Jonathan Eig has achieved the nearly impossible with King: A Life–a beautiful reconstruction of a very short yet outsized life. This biography is meticulously sourced history without feeling academic in any way.

I was amazed at how Eig brought together all of the threads to tell a complete and complex story. I especially appreciated how unflinching Eig was in presenting Dr. King’s glaring flaws (mostly hidden in his lifetime) in the context of his nearly immeasurable achievements. Eig also tells the complicated and often untold story of what Dr. King stood for beyond civil rights that wasn’t popular then and isn’t often emphasized now.

It’s not a dreamy easy read–pain on every page!–yet is worth any time invested. I understand MLK today in ways I never would have before reading King: A Life.

View all my Goodreads reviews

“A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God”Fixing Our Eyes on JesusThe Letter to the HebrewsLanse Evangelical Free ChurchApril 12, 2026 :: Hebrews 4:1-13
You’ve may have noticed as I read this passage that there’s a word that gets repeated over and over and over again in it.
It’s a four-letter word in English, but it’s one of the good four letter words.
In fact, it means something incredibly wonderful. 
What is it? What’s the word that gets repeated over and over again?
R-E-S-T. Rest.
Ahhhh. What a good word! “Rest!”
Now, I am not very good at resting, but I love the idea of rest.
Rest is when the work is done.Rest is when the toil is over.Rest is when the problem has been solved.Rest is when the broken has been fixed.Rest is when the trouble has ended.Rest is when there is nothing to worry about.
Rest is when things are settled and stable and safe and secure from all alarms.
Isn’t rest wonderful?
What do you think of when you think of the blessing of rest?
A good night’s rest.A restful day off.A truly restful vacation.
The feeling of crossing off every single item on your to-do list and nothing  hanging over your head. No more constant motion.
Some of you are like, “I don’t know what that feels like, but it sounds pretty good.”
No more fighting. Nobody coming after you.Nothing to prove. Nothing to lose.
Just...rest.
Imagine if all of life was like that.
Every need met.Nothing stressing you out.Peace and wholeness and shalom on every side.Not that you couldn’t be active, but that you didn’t have to be.
Like what the Sabbath day was supposed to be for the people of Israel in the Old Testament. 
They didn’t have to work to eat that day. God provided all the manna, and He said once a week, “Take it easy today. I’ve got you. Don’t do anything today but rest and enjoy Me. It’s the Sabbath, and I’m giving it to you.”
Imagine if life was like that all the time! Imagine if life could be like that every single day. 
And then we read verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 4 which is where we get the title of this message:
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God...”
God is offering and promising to His people a special kind of rest. Not just a day of rest but a life of rest that is like the Sabbath day but even better and all the time.
The word for “rest” in verse 9 is special, and it’s possible that the pastor who wrote this letter made it up on the spot. He might have “coined” it. This is the first time this word appears in all of Greek literature, and it’s the only time it appears in the Bible.
It’s “sabbatismos,” and you can hear how it has “Sabbath” embedded in it. It’s not just “rest” (which is wonderful all by itself) but “Sabbath-rest.” Rest all the time like what the Hebrews enjoyed in their Sabbath day. It has more of the flavor of “celebrating the Sabbath” and delighting in the God Who gives the rest.
There remains, then, a sabbatismos, “a Sabbath-celebration” for the people of God. And that is good news for you and me.
And we’ve been singing about it already this morning, haven’t we?
One of my all-time favorite worship songs that we do here as a church. Sing it at my funeral, okay?
“No chilling winds nor poisonous breath Can reach that healthful shore; Sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, Are felt and feared no more.
When shall I reach that happy place, And be forever blessed? When shall I see my Father’s face, And in His bosom...rest?” - Samuel Stennett (1787)
That song is singing about the Sabbath-Rest, the “sabbatismos” for the people of God.
Not just a day in a week, but “one eternal day.”
“All o’er those wide extended plains, Shines one eternal day; There God the Son forever reigns, And scatters night away.”
I think that’s what verse 9 is talking about, and I can hardly wait.
“A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God.”
Now, this passage is very complex and complicated with deep and wonderful theology, but the bottom line is very simple: The writer wants us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
Remember, that’s the point of the whole book, and the point of our whole series, and the theme of our whole year together as a church family. We need to keep our spiritual eyes–the eyes of our hearts–fixed on Jesus.
This letter was written to some (primarily Jewish) Christians who were apparently considering dropping out of the race of faith in Jesus Christ.
They were scared. Life was getting was really hard. Persecution was coming at them fast. And they were thinking about trying to go backwards and just be old covenant Jews instead of New Covenant Christians. And this pastor writes to warn them against that very bad idea. Impossible to do, and terrible even if you could. He writes to warn them against apostasy–turning their back on Jesus and walking away from Him forever.
And he’s done that by reminding them how great Jesus is and how much greater Jesus is than anything and everything and anyone and everyone in the Old Testament, as great as they all were.
He’s pointed out how Jesus is greater than the angels. As wonderful as angels are!
He’s pointed out how Jesus is greater than Moses. As faithful as Moses was!
And here in chapters 3 and 4, he’s pointing out how Jesus is greater than Joshua and how Jesus’ rest is greater than the rest that Joshua led his people into. As great as that was–for those who reached it.
Jesus is greater than all of that, so we need to fix our eyes on Him. That’s the bottom line, so keep that in mind as we delve into this deep theology together.
Now, I know that it’s been about a month since we were in Hebrews together.  So let me try to bring you back up to speed.
We’re actually dropping into the middle of a warning section of the letter. 
The writer is kind of preaching Psalm 95 at them. (Do you remember this?)
He believes that the Word of God is “living and active” and speaking to them in his day (and therefore to us in our day), so he has drawn their attention to the song of Psalm 95 which was written about a thousand years before, and it was a warning song by King David to warn the people of his day to not fall away. (Do you remember this?)
We read all of Psalm 95 and sang some of it. It’s all about how the LORD is a great God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of His hand. It’s so good (and restful!) to belong to Him.
And then without warning, the song turns into a warning.
David writes in Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest’” (Psalm 95:7-11).
And there’s our word, “rest.” It’s the last word of Psalm 95.
And what “rest” was that? It’s a rest that these people if they make the wrong choice will not enjoy. In the Psalm, he’s referencing the “rest” that the people of Israel did not to get to enjoy when they did not get to enter the Promised Land. David’s song was referencing a story that happened nearly 500 years before he was born. (So 1,500 years before Hebrews and 3,500 before us.) The Retreat of Unbelief in the Book of Numbers chapters 14 and 15. (Do you remember that story?)
The people of Israel had been rescued from Egypt and marched up to the Promised Land, and then they had sent 12 spies into Canaan. And 2 of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said, “This is going to be great! Wait until you see the rest that God has for us.” But the other 10 spies said, “It’s impossible. There are giants in the land. And we’ll get squished like bugs.”
And the people listened to the 10 instead of the 2, and they rebelled against God and refused to enter the Promised Land. They turned away. Apostasy.
And therefore God was angry, and rightly so, and He said in His wrath, “You will never enter my rest.” And a whole generation died in the wilderness. Probably more than a million adults. 
They were bound, they were bound, they were bound, for the Promised Land. But they never arrived!
And Psalm 95 sings, “Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them.”
And the Book of Hebrews says, “Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them. Don’t be like them. Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart.”
Does that make sense? Are you with me?
Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus.Don’t turn your back on Jesus.Don’t stop believing in Jesus.
Or else...you will miss the rest.
But you don’t have to miss the rest! Here in chapter 4, the writer is encouraging us because he notices that the song of Psalm 95 is making a promise that God’s people can still enjoy God’s rest. God’s rest is still “on offer.” Look at verse 1 of chapter 4.
“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.”
I only have two points this morning to summarize this passage, and here is number one.
A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God?
#1. IT STILL REMAINS!
Verse 1 says, “...the promise of entering his rest (God’s rest) still stands...”
Don’t be discouraged by all of this warning talk. Heed the warning, but hear the promise! God still is offering His rest! It’s still accessible. It’s still around. It’s still promised for all who believe in Jesus and keep believing in Jesus. 
He’s going to say it again in verse 6 and in verse 9. Verse 6 says, “It still remains that some will enter that rest...” And verse 9 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.” That’s so important. “It still remains.”
This rest is real. And it’s still available for all of God’s people.
Don’t miss that! In fact, it’s the whole point. This rest remains, it is real, and it is wonderful. It’s worth singing about, and it’s worth taking care to not miss. Listen to verse 1 again. 
“Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.”
Don't miss this. “Be careful.” In fact, that could be translated “Be fearful.”  As Christians, we are not supposed to be afraid of many things. We are supposed to fear God and not much else.  But this is one thing to be afraid of–missing out on the Sabbath-rest for the people of God. It’s one way of fearing God. And the writer includes himself in this warning. “Let us be careful...” “Let us be fearful” to not fall short of this rest.
How do you “fall short” of it? By not believing. Look at verse 2.
“For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”
Who’s he talking about? He says that we have had the good news preached to us (the gospel), just as they did. I think that means just like Joshua and Caleb gave the good news about how good the Promised Land was to the Israelites.
“It’s flowing with milk and honey!“We’re going to have the best rest there!”
And we have had something similar (and better) preached to us. What kind of rest do we expect?
Revelation 21, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
That’s where the songwriter got:
“Sickness, sorrow, pain and death, Are felt and feared no more.
All because Jesus is alive. Alleluia!
But did they listen to Joshua and Caleb? No. Did they believe? No! V.2 again.
“...but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.”
That’s the key. Faith is the key. You get the rest if you have the faith. That’s what he says in verse 3.
“Now we who have believed [we who have faith] enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'”
It’s really simple. If you believe in Jesus, you will enter that rest. If you do not believe in Jesus, you will not enter that rest. Let me say that again. If your faith is in Jesus, then you will enter that rest. If you do not have faith in Jesus, then you will not enter that rest.
Is the difference whether or not you hear the good news? Both heard the good news. Some people hear the good news and do not believe. 
And some of them seem like they are headed for the Promised Land. They sing the song, “I am bound, I am bound, I am bound for the promised land...” But they are not. Because they do not believe. They do not combine hearing with believing.
You’ve got to hear the gospel and believe the gospel. And keep believing the gospel, or you will not enter His rest.
Now, this pastor who is writing this letter notices something else in Psalm 95 about this rest that remains. He notices that God keeps calling it, “My rest.”
Isn’t that interesting? I wouldn’t have seen this. I just thought it meant “the rest that God gives to His people,” but this pastor writing this letter sees something deeper. He sees that this rest actually belongs to God. It’s God’s own rest. 
What does that make you think of? When we talk about God “resting,” where does your mind go? All the way back to the beginning, right? Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Look at verse 3.
“And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: ‘And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.’”
This pastor may not know the reference (it’s Genesis 2:2), but he’s seeing something deep here.
God rested on the seventh day of creation. Not because He was tired. Not because He was worn-out. “Oh, boy, after making those humans, I sure could use a break!” But because He was finished with what He had started, and it was time to stop and enjoy it.
And to give His people a model for their rest. What did He eventually call that seventh day?  “The Sabbath.” That’s right. 
He rested, and He told the Israelites to rest.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Rest.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Sabbath.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Rest.
And that was on the model of His own schedule for creation week. 
I’ll say that this rest remains! It’s eternal! It’s divine! God is offering for us to share in (some mysterious way) the rest that He has enjoyed since creation! It remains and remains and remains and remains. And it’s still being offered to us Today. Look at verse 5.
“And again in the passage above he says, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.”
He’s just repeating it all again for emphasis. If you hear the gospel and believe, you will enter that rest. But if you hear the gospel and do not believe (or stop believing) then you will not go in. You are disobeying the gospel.
Don’t do that! That’s why this song, Psalm 95, exists. Verse 7.
“Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’”
He’s fixed on Psalm 95 right here, isn’t he? He keeps repeating it over and over again. He probably had it playing on infinite repeat on his Spotify.
He focuses on this word, “Today.” We noticed that last time.
What “Today” is he talking about?
David meant Today for his dayHebrews meant Today for their day.And I think it means “Today” for us, too.
Isn’t the Word of God amazing?! It’s “living and active.” It’s powerful and effective. A song that David wrote 3,000 years ago about a disobedient people 500 years before that, and it’s still speaking to us Today.
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 
How is your heart today? What’s it like? Is your heart soft? Is your heart tender towards God? Is your heart pliable and hopeful and trusting? Is your heart open? See to it, church, that it stays that way. Do not harden your heart. Fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s our only hope. Today!
He’s talking to you Today. And He’s telling you about another day. A day that is still to come. Look at verse 8.
“For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.”
Now, wait a second. What is he saying?
He’s making another point about Psalm 95. He’s really studied that Psalm. He’s pointing out that Joshua and Caleb and the second generation did get to cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised the Land, and the book of Joshua says that God gave them rest on every side (see Joshua 21:43-44 and 22:43-45).
But Psalm 95 warns the readers that there is still a rest that they might still miss. That means that Joshua did not give them all of the rest that God has for His people. There’s another day than Today.
There is a Sabbath Day that lasts for eternity. Verse 9.
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God...”
What is that?
That’s the kingdom!That’s glory!That’s heaven!That’s Sabbath living every day for ever and ever.That’s true rest.
That’s what the Sabbath Day was simply a shadow of. That’s what the Promised Land was only a picture of. That’s why we sing songs like: “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand.” And we don’t mean the actual Jordan River. That’s just a foreshadowing of our life right now, looking into the Promised Land that is still to come when Christ returns.
Heaven! The new heavens and the new earth.
“On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand, And cast a wishful eye To Canaan’s fair and happy land, Where my possessions lie.”
Where do your true possessions lie? Where is your true home? Where will you find true and lasting...rest?
“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; [v.10] for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”
God rested, and so will we! Our work, our striving, our fight will be over! We will be settled and stable and safe and secure from all alarms. The struggle will be over. We will have rest from our enemies. And not just the Amalekites and Canaanites, but sin and self and Satan. The world, the flesh, and the devil will bother us no more!
John the Revelator said in chapter 14 of the Apocalypse, “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them’” (Revelation 13:14).
Doesn’t that sound so good? There still remains a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. And all of the people of God will enjoy it forever!
I can’t wait. Can you? 
When?
“When shall I reach that happy place, And be forever blessed? When shall I see my Father’s face, And in His bosom rest?”
Come, Lord Jesus! Bring the rest that remains.
The application of all this is in verse 11. Here’s where he’s going with this. Verse 11.
“Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”
Here’s point number two of two.
A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God?
#2. STRIVE TO ENTER IT.
Do whatever it takes to enter that rest. Don’t be left behind. Don’t get to the Jordan and then turn back! Don’t believe the lies that say that it’s not worth it. That it’s not true. That it’s just all a big scam.
Verse 11 says, “Make every effort to enter that rest.”
As Keith put on the front of your worship bulletin, “Strive to enter that rest.”
Now, don’t get this wrong. Some people right here might think that this is saying that we need to do something to save ourselves. 
No, no, no. We know that’s not how it works! We cannot save ourselves. Our good works will never save us. We do not strive to save ourselves. The rest of this whole letter will make that abundantly clear.
Jesus saves us!  Jesus saves us through what the choir sang to us just a few minutes ago. The Wounds of Gods! And the Empty Tomb. Jesus is the One who provides the rest. He provided purification, and then He sat down at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 1:4). We cannot earn our salvation. He provides our salvation.
He’s our Joshua! It’s not obvious to us, but it would have been obvious to them that the name “Jesus” is a derivation of the Hebrew word Yeshua (Joshua). “Yahweh Saves.” [In fact, in the King James “Joshua” is translated “Jesus” in v.8!]
So, Jesus is our Joshua. He has provided us with the ultimate rest! And our part is simply to believe. And keep believing. We have to put our faith and trust in Jesus alone and what He did on the Cross and at the Empty Tomb. And keep our faith there. So we need to do whatever it takes to keep believing.
It’s sounds a bit strange, I know. It’s like we have to strive to not strive. We have to strive to rest. I heard one pastor say once that we need to “wrestle to rest.” That’s right.
What in your life might keep you from believing? What in your life might threaten to knock you out of the race? Hebrews says do whatever it takes to get that out of your way so that you keep on believing. 
And help each other! Entering the Sabbath-rest is a group project that we do together. The word for “make every effort” or some of your versions will say, “strive” can actually be translated “hasten” or “race.” Race to rest.
In other words, “Fix your eyes on Jesus and run the race before you.” And don’t take your eyes off Him. Not for one second. Strive! Not to earn your salvation but to keep on believing no matter what. Do whatever it takes so you keep on believing. [cf. “[L]et us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run” the race! (See Hebrews 12:1.)]
And don’t try fool God. Don’t try to pretend. Don’t just put on a show. God knows what’s going on in your heart. Verse 12.
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. [He’s saying that Psalm 95 is speaking to you and calling you out. And penetrating the impenetrable. You can’t trick God into thinking that you’re believing when you’re not. Verse 13.] Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
You can’t fool Him. So don’t try. Instead, trust Him. For real. Believe. And keep believing.
Race to rest in Jesus.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18
06. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6
07. “Today, If You Hear His Voice” - Hebrews 3:7-19

“Really!”Resurrection SundayLanse Evangelical Free ChurchApril 5, 2026 :: Luke 24:34
Christ is risen!He is risen indeed!
Indeed. Today, I want us to focus in on that last word of the “Easter Acclamation.” The word, “indeed.”
I almost entitled this message, “Indeed,” but I didn’t want you to think it was an ad for a job search company.
“Indeed.”  That’s a word we all know, and we all know what it means, though we don’t tend to use it all the time. I wonder how many of us used the word, “indeed” this week outside of worship and outside of searching for a job.
It almost sounds like a “Lord of the Rings” kind of fantasy word, “Indeed.” You have to say it with a Shakespearean accent.
“Indeed, we had pizza for supper last night. Indeed.”
“Indeed, we hid 1,000 eggs for the egg hunt yesterday at the Ark Park, and the Challenge teens hid almost another 2,000 eggs at people’s houses. Indeed!”
“Indeed” means that it’s true. That’s it’s not just a story. It’s not just fiction. It’s fact. “Indeed.”
In a word, it means “Really!” This is reality. This is the way it really is. And in Luke 24:34, a bunch of followers of Jesus came to the same conclusion: That Jesus had really come back from the dead.
Look with me at Luke 24:34. There’s a group of Jesus’ followers who gathered in Jerusalem on or just after that amazing Sunday which we’ve been celebrating all morning. They had had the most bewildering day, and they were comparing notes.
In the room were the Eleven Apostles (minus Judas, of course, who had betrayed Jesus and left Him). And there were others with them who were also followers of Jesus, and there were these two disciples, one of them was named Cleopas (we don’t know the second one’s name perhaps Mrs. Cleopas?, these two disciples), who had just had the most amazing experience of their life! And they all got together back in Jerusalem and compared notes. Look at verse 33.
“They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’”
(Simon is another name for the Apostle Peter.)
Do you see the word, “indeed” there in verse 34? It’s in there. It’s in the Greek original of Luke 24:34. The Greek word is “ontoes.” “Really.” 
The NIV translates it, “It is true!” 
The CSB, the Christian Standard Bible says, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
The KJV and ESV both say, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”
The NASB and the NLT both say, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon.”
“Ontoes.” Really. This is a fact. 
That’s so important! We have all gathered here today to make a big deal of the resurrection. And that’s because it’s true. This isn’t a myth or a fairy tale. It’s not just a story that we tell the kids or ourselves to make us feel good. It's not just a song. It's not just a season. It's not just a Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus is a fact! It’s real!
Do you believe that?
It is increasingly difficult these days to separate fact from fiction. There are a lot of scams out there. So many people are lying to us. And now we have robots to lie to us, too. Artificial Intelligence. A.I. Great tool, perhaps, in the right hands. Terrible tool in the wrong.
Sometimes, it’s hard to tell what is true and what is fake. I have a pastor friend who has begun gathering information about the common scams that target church members, and he’s been teaching his congregation how to keep from getting scammed these days, especially online. And one of the best ways is to check and make sure that the stories line up. Call the bank to make sure. Call your credit card company. Check with a different family member to see if what you are supposedly hearing from someone who needs money is true. Check with others to make sure the stories line up. And if they don’t line up, be very very wary.
These people in Luke 24 were checking with each other to make sure that the stories all lined up. And they concluded that they did!
It was all true. It was all real. Christ is risen indeed.
Do you remember when you first came to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead? 
Maybe you’ve always been told it’s true. And maybe you believed it when you were little, and then you started to doubt and question. Do you remember when you were finally convinced?
Maybe you aren’t so sure. Maybe you have been dragged here by someone today. You’re not convinced yet that this is all true. 
Can I encourage you to make it your life’s mission to find out? Because everything hangs on this.
If Jesus has come back from the dead, it makes all the difference in the world.
It means that that God is real.It means that miracles are real.It means that Jesus is trustworthy.It means that there is life after death.It means that forgiveness is real.It means that resurrection is real.
If Jesus can be raised from the dead, then so can you and I.
If Jesus is raised from the dead, then His kingdom will come.
And all bad things must come to an end.
Really!
It means all of that and so much more if this is all real.
It gives us something to build our lives upon. I don’t know about you, but I want to build my life on fact, not on fiction and certainly not just on feelings. Feelings come and go. They lie to us. But I want to know what is really real and build my life on that.
Whenever I struggle in my faith (And I do. Pastors struggle, too.), I start back at this foundation. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Yes! And then I build everything on that bedrock fact once again.
If you are trying to figure this out right now, there are many books I could recommend that examine the evidence and help you make up your own mind.
This week, I read this little book, “Did the Resurrection Really Happen?” by Timothy Paul Jones. I’d be glad to loan you my copy.
Whatever you do, don’t put this off. There’s too much at stake.
The group said (v.34), “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon [v.35]. Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.”
That’s amazing story, too, that you can read in verses 13 through 32. These two disciples, one of them named Cleopas were walking on the road to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were bewildered by everything that had happened that week.
What a week! Starting on Sunday with the triumphal entry of Jesus on that little donkey’s back, “Your king comes to you!”  And everybody thought they knew what was happening. The King had come! “It’s happening!” And then it all went sideways.
Well, these two are talking and a third person joins them on the road. And it’s Jesus. But for some supernatural reason, they can’t tell that it’s Him.
And He asks them, “What are you guys talking about? What’s going on?”
And Cleopas is like, “What rock have you been hiding under?! We’ve been talking about Jesus.”
“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 
In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see” (Luke 24:19-24.).
Cleopas there is talking about the first part of Luke 24. You might want to read that yourself this afternoon. We studied it in-depth a few years ago as a church.
These women had gone to the tomb where Jesus was buried. Yes, He was buried! That’s what you do with a corpse. You bury it. But these women had gone to visit the tomb, and they found that the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty!
#1. HIS TOMB WAS REALLY EMPTY.
There was nobody there. No body there.
There were a couple of angels...whose clothes gleamed like lightning. I can’t imagine what that was like. They did had not yet harnessed electricity. There were no LED lights. Aside from the sun, lightning was the brightest thing you can imagine. These two angels were like made of lightning. Ever close your eyes after seeing lightning, and you can still see the outline behind your eyelids? 
And these electric angels had a message, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you...The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:5-7).
And the ladies ran back and told the Eleven, and Peter (and John) ran to the tomb, and they saw that it was empty. Really!
Peter saw the strips of linen that Jesus had been wrapped in. But no Jesus. And he wondered what was going on.
Cleopas and his friend are telling Jesus this story as they walk to Emmaus together. They were having the hardest time putting it all together.
And Jesus is right there with them, and He actually rebukes them and explains to them how all of this was predicted in the Old Testament. He said, “‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:25-27).
There’s part of me that would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that Bible study! 
But I’m also not too sure I’d want to be rebuked like that by Jesus or to not know that it was Jesus who was explaining the whole sweep of the Bible from Moses and all the Prophets how the whole Old Testament is about Jesus Himself.
#2. THE SCRIPTURES ARE REALLY FULFILLED.
In the suffering and death and resurrection of Jesus the Scriptures are really fulfilled.
The Christ had to suffer these things and then enter His glory. The Bible says so.
I want to invite you all to come back next Sunday as we continue our study of the Letter to the Hebrews. Because we have been learning this very thing–that everything in the Old Testament pointed towards Jesus. Right now, we’re in chapters 3 and 4 where we’re learning that the Promised Land pointed to Jesus.
The whole Bible is about Jesus. According to Jesus! And it’s all coming true in Jesus. And these two disciples are learning this from Jesus, as they approach Emmaus. And Jesus acts like He’s going to continue on the road, but they ask him to stay with them, and they stop somewhere to eat.
And that’s when they recognize Who He is! He took bread, gave thanks, broke it with His nail-scarred hands, and gave it to them. And then He was gone!
But it was Him! They knew it was Him. And they were saying to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
And aren’t all of these Scriptures really fulfilled in Him?! That’s the kind of heart-burn that I want to have! 
And they can’t sleep. They are so excited by what has happened, that they turn around and go back the seven miles to Jerusalem and find the others. Verse 33 again.
“They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together  and saying, ‘It is true! [“ontoes,” really!] The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.'”
And we don’t even know when Jesus appeared to Simon Peter. None of the gospels recount that part of the story. It’s clear that it happened, we just don’t have the details. Paul talks about it again in 1 Corinthians 15. Peter got his resurrection appearance. What a moment that must have been!
It was real. This wasn’t a hoax. It wasn’t a scam. It wasn’t a hallucination. It was real.
And then Jesus showed up again! Look at verse 35.
“Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.” (Luke 24:35-43).
#3. JESUS IS REALLY ALIVE!
He’s not a ghost. He may have abilities to come and go in ways that mortals do not.But He is flesh and bones.
He showed them His hands and feet. He said, “Touch me.” “Really! This is Me.” And He eats a piece of fish. “Watch me. Here I go.” He’s not a ghost.
And He’s not a zombie. A dozen years ago, I preached a sermon on Resurrection Sunday, “Jesus Is Not a Zombie.” He is not the un-dead that can be killed again. He is alive and now has the power of an indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16)!
Really! Really! Indeed!
This is worth singing about.This is worth building your life upon.This is worth staking everything on.
We have all gathered here today to make a big deal of the resurrection.
And that is totally right as long as this is true.
But what fools we are if it is not! If Jesus has not come back from the dead:
that means that God is NOT real.that means that miracles are NOT real.that means that Jesus is NOT trustworthy.that means that there is NO life after death.that means that forgiveness is impossible.that means that resurrection is a fake.
If Jesus has not been raised, then we are still in our sins and won’t rise again (see 1 Corinthians 15:13-17 for more on this). If Jesus has not been raised, then you are I certainly won’t be.
And Jesus’ kingdom will never come. And all good things will come to an end.
What do you think? We all need to decide. And we need to be honest about it. There’s too much at stake to play games here.
For me, I believe Cleopas and Simon Peter and Mary Magdalene. I believe His tomb was and is really empty. I believe the Scriptures were and are and will really fulfilled in Jesus. I believe that Jesus is really alive.
And because I believe, I rejoice. I love verse 41 where it says that they were struggling to believe because of the joy and amazement!  This seems too good to be true. Jesus was dead. He was a corpse. All of our hopes and dreams had died with Him. And yet here He is! 
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Here He is. Showing us His nail-scarred hands and feet. And sending us on a mission to proclaim the good news.
The chapter ends with the risen Jesus giving His disciples one last reminder of the gospel and a mission to share it the whole world. Look at verse 46.
“He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised [the Holy Spirit]; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ [And then 50 days later.] When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”
And then (the book of Acts says) they proclaimed that gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth–even to Central Pennsylvania.
Really! And we’ve all gathered here today to make a big deal of it. And that is absolutely right. 
Who can you tell today that all of this is true? That you have become convinced that His tomb was open and really empty. That the Scriptures were really fulfilled. And that Jesus is really alive.
And that means that repentance and forgiveness of sins can be preached in Jesus’ name. We can turn from our sins and be forgiven because Jesus has paid for our sins and was raised for our justification. We get the gift of His righteousness because Jesus is really alive.
And one day all bad things must come to end.
Really!

“Your King Comes To You”Lanse Evangelical Free ChurchPalm Sunday :: March 29, 2026Matthew 21:1-11 & Zechariah 9:9
King Jesus has a plan to go public in a big way.
For three years, Jesus has been in the public eye, but He has been somewhat secretive about His full royal identity.
He has taught up and down the Judean and Galilean hillsides, with unmatched authority. He has done many miracles which were sign-posts of His divinity. He has clashed with the Jewish religious authorities.  
But He has also been, at times, somewhat “cagey” about Who He truly is. Not because He’s lying about Who He is, but because He wants people to figure it out for themselves, to not get or spread the wrong idea, and to wait for just the right moment to go public in the biggest way.
And that moment is right now.
Jesus has set His face like flint and led His disciples right up to Jerusalem as so many other Jews were gathering in that capitol city (often called “Zion” for the little mountain it’s seated on) for the coming feast of Passover–that yearly festival commemorating Israel’s rescue from Egypt. When God saved them from Pharaoh. Fifteen hundred years before, when the LORD killed all the firstborn of all their enemies but passed over all the firstborn of Israel whose doorways were marked by the blood of the lamb.
Jesus has a plan to go public this day in a big way.
This is clear by this little mission He sends these two disciples on. Look at verse 1.
“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away’” (vv.1-3).
Interesting, huh?! I don’t know if this is His supernatural foreknowledge at work or if He has secretly prearranged this in a more natural way, but Jesus clearly has a plan that He is putting into action. These two guys are to go to the next village on their way up to Jerusalem, and there will be two donkeys. One will be female, a mother. And the other will be her male child, a colt. 
Mark and Luke tell us that the younger donkey had never been sat upon. Good thing his momma’s with him to calm him down. We don’t need a bucking bronco donkey for this event! 
But the Lord does “need” these two donkeys. He’s got to have them. He’s requisitioning them. He’s “the Lord,” and He needs them for what He is about to do.
The two disciples are to untie the two donkeys and bring them to Jesus because He’s going to ride them into town.
This is the big reveal! This is the moment when Jesus goes public in the biggest way. And He has carefully chosen His ride. 
And it’s not a mighty warhorse.And it’s not a chariot.And it’s not a tank or fighter jet or an aircraft carrier.
It’s a little donkey.
Why?
Well, it’s important to understand that kings did ride donkeys. Donkeys can be regal. They can be royal. 
Sometimes we get the idea that no king in his right mind would ever ride a donkey. But many kings did ride donkeys in those days, and there are several examples of donkey-riding kings in the Old Testament. King David rode a mule (the offspring of a donkey), and he specifically put his son Solomon on his own mule to ride into town when Solomon assumed his position as the successor to the king (see 1 Kings 3:33, 38, 44).
But you did not ride a donkey into town if you were coming in war. You rode a donkey into town if you were coming in peace. You rode a donkey into town to mark–not your pretension and power and battle-readiness but–your gentleness and humility and peace.
And Jesus did it because He wanted to set off all of their alarm bells that He was the Messiah that they were waiting for. Jesus did this on purpose, and Matthew understood that. Matthew understood why Jesus was doing it this way. Look at verse 4.
“This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'”
There’s our sermon title for today, “Your King Comes to You.”
Jesus was clearly claiming to be their king.
And He arranged for this donkey ride to ring that prophetic bell.
“See Who I am? I’m the king that was predicted in Zechariah chapter 9!”
Now, Matthew doesn’t quote the whole verse. Mark and Luke don’t quote Zechariah at all. Matthew and John both point out the obvious connections with Zechariah chapter 9.
If you have your finger there, let’s turn back and look at it real quick. Zechariah 9:9.
You understand that the whole Bible is hypertexted, right? Your whole Bible is tied together in an intricate web of interconnections. We’ve seen that in the Book of Hebrews as the author has made so many of his points from the Old Testament.
Matthew, the gospel-writer, loves the word “fulfill.” It’s almost His favorite word (after “Jesus”) because he loves to show how Jesus fulfills the promises and predictions and patterns of the Old Testament. 
Here, it’s the prophecy of Zechariah. I’ve never yet preached from Zechariah in three decades of preaching God’s Word. One of these days, we’ll study the whole thing together. 
And when we do, hold onto your hats, it’s a wild ride! You thought Daniel was wild and crazy? So is Zechariah! It’s like the Book of Revelation for the Old Testament.
And it’s full of Jesus! Zechariah was written about 500 years after King David and 500 years before King Jesus. Also somewhere between the timing of Daniel and the timing of Esther that we studied last year. 
I did a little dive into Zechariah this week, and it is wild. Interestingly, after the Psalms it’s probably the Old Testament book most referenced in the Passion Week narratives. Up there with Isaiah 53. 
I won’t try to explain all of Zechariah, but there are many prophecies in Zechariah that had not yet come to pass. And one of them is this prophecy in chapter 9 to the people of Jerusalem that their king would come to them, and this king appears to be the Jewish Messiah. The king of all kings. The king who is going to solve everything and fix everything. The king whose rule will “extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:10).
Look at Zechariah 9:9.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
For five hundred years, the Jewish people have read that prophecy and waited for its fulfillment. For five hundred years–years when the Jews were under the thumb of Persia and Greece and now Rome–they have read and re-read Zechariah and longed for it to come true.
And now Jesus is pulling this little stunt with the donkeys, and Matthew knows what is going down.
Now, notice that Matthew doesn’t quote the whole verse. If you toggle between the two passages, you’ll notice that Matthew leaves out some of the words from Zechariah 9:9. 
That’s not because he doesn’t believe the whole thing. He just doesn’t think he needs to quote the whole thing to get across his point. Matthew is counting on his readers to “double-click” (so to speak) on his quotation and go back and study the whole thing in context.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
One thing we immediately notice is the call to rejoice and shout. Matthew just includes that the Daughter of Zion should see her king coming. But the fuller passage in Zechariah says how Jerusalem should feel about it and react to it.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!”
Get loud!Raise your voice!Make some noise!
This is worth celebrating. Your king is here. Your king has come to you. That’s not something to yawn at. This is what you’ve been waiting for.
Was that part of the prophecy fulfilled on Palm Sunday?
Oh yes, it was. Turn back to Matthew 21. Look verse 6.
“The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them.
A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ‘Hosanna in the highest!’” (vv.6-9).
They got loud. They could see what was happening. As Jesus sat on that little donkey with the makeshift saddle of his disciples’ cloaks, the people pretty quickly figured out what was going on and they rolled out the red carpet. Actually the green carpet!
They put their cloaks down to symbolize their submission and their honor to the coming king and then cut palm branches (hence Palm Sunday) to spread them on the road as a natural royal green carpet.
It says “a very large crowd.” Can you guess how many people? Conservative estimates are that Jerusalem had about 70,000 people living in it at that time. But this is Passover. And you know what happens to State College on game day? You know how it balloons? Scholars estimate that Jerusalem would balloon to at least 250,000 people during Passover. We don’t know how many saw Jesus coming, but it wasn’t just little crowd. It was huge.
“Hey! Look that’s Jesus, and look what He’s riding. He’s riding a little donkey. And there’s it’s momma. Hey! You know what this means? That’s Zechariah 9:9 right there. You know Who He’s saying He is? He’s saying that He’s the rightful king. He’s Great David’s Greatest Son. And here He comes!"
And the crowd grows. It becomes a parade. Some ahead of him. Some behind him. Nobody worried about the Romans and what they think.
And everybody shouting!
“Hosanna!” That word literally means “Save!” or “Save us! or “He will save us!”
And it seems to have become a word that just is an exclamation of praise. Praise to the Son of David.
Praise “in the highest.” Meaning, the most praise? Or maybe, “Let the angels praise Him!”
“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” That’s a quote from Psalm 118 which we double-clicked on a few years ago on another Palm Sunday. 
Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!
They shouted. They rejoiced.
And Jesus...took it.
One of the most amazing things about this, to me, is how Jesus doesn’t stop them. He doesn’t shut them down or try to re-direct them. He doesn’t point them to someone else. He just sits there on the little donkey, swaying back and forth, riding forth into Jerusalem while these people shout praises at Him!
Because He knows that they are right.
They are not over the top.They are not inappropriate.They are appropriate! 
Jesus is the King!
And He’s okay with everyone knowing it.
This is King Jesus’ plan to go public in a big way!
And it shook the city. I don’t know how many people were there for the triumphal entry, but soon everybody heard what had happened. Look at verse 10.
“When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’ The crowds answered, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee’” (vv.10-11).
“Who is this?” That’s the question! What do you think of their answer? 
It’s not bad, but it’s not enough is it?  Yes, Jesus is a prophet, but He is so much more. The crowds shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David” is much better. Because He wasn’t just a prophet. He was the coming king. 
“See, your king comes to you.”
What kind of a king is He?
Jesus is obviously a different kind of king than we are used to, and He was a different kind of king than they were used, too.
Let’s turn back to Zechariah 9 to see what it says this king would be like.
I see three adjectives. Two of which Matthew skipped over when he copied  verse 9 into his book.
The first one is:
#1. RIGHTEOUS.
“See, your king comes to you, righteous...”
What does that mean?
That means that He is right. “Righteous” means that this king does what is right and what is good. It means that he is just. He loves justice. He loves what is right. And He is characterized by this. He doesn’t just do the right thing sometimes, when it benefits Him. He does the right thing all the time and never anything but the right thing!
He never does the wrong thing. Can you imagine?
This is very different from the rulers that Israel had known. Even the greatest of them, kings like David and Solomon had massive failings in righteousness. They did not always do what is right. They did not always do what was good. They did not always do what was just.
And we see it today with those who rule over us. And in us when we have dominion over others. We fail to exercise righteousness.
But not this King! He is righteous.
King Solomon wrote a song about Him. Psalm 72. You might want to read it this afternoon.
I’m sure that on some level he wanted it to be true of himself, but he clearly failed to live up to it. Psalm 72 begins:
“Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor. He will endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations.  He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. In his days the righteous will flourish; prosperity will abound till the moon is no more. He will rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 72:1-8).
Wow! And if you look down at verse 10, you’ll see some very similar words to describe the King Zechariah expects to come.
He is righteous!
And that gives us a model to follow. We should be righteous, too, and as far as it depends upon us to work towards righteousness in our society. Do the right thing!
But it also gives us hope because we will so often fail to do the right thing. But there is One who will not fail to be righteous. And He has come...and He is coming again.
Now, that He is righteous is very important for the next adjective.
#2. SAVING.
“See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation...”
That’s how the old NIV puts it. Along with the ESV and the KJV. The NASB say, “endowed with salvation.” 
But some translations like the CSB and the updated NIV have “victorious.” “Your king comes to you, righteous and victorious...”
The idea is that this king has won a great battle to save His people. Or even perhaps has been saved in battle Himself. Perhaps the battle was not going His way, and then He won after all.
This might be one of the reasons why Matthew doesn’t include that line in his quotation because, on Palm Sunday, Jesus still had His greatest battle in front of Him. Not sure.
Either way, it’s true of Him. Jesus brings salvation! This king is a saving king. Saving His people from their greatest enemies.
Now, one of the reasons why the people got excited was because a bunch of them thought that the Messiah when He came was going to overthrow their Roman oppressors.
He was going to storm in and kick out Pontius Pilate and all of Caesar’s other cronies and send them packing back to Italy where they belonged. But that’s not the kind of king that came that day. He didn’t come in on a military mount. He came in on donkey. 
But He still came to save. He came to save His people from their greatest enemies. From sin, and self, and Satan. And to do that, He had to be righteous, and He had to be this next word:
#3. HUMBLE.
The old NIV has “gentle.”The new NIV has “lowly” like the old KJV.The ESV and CSB have “humble.”
Your king comes to you...humble.
The Hebrew word in Zechariah is “ani” which can mean “poor” or even “afflicted.”
It’s not the kind of word you might expect to describe a king!
Especially a king whose coming is good news.
Who gets excited about their “poor king” coming?
“Oh, our poor king.”“Oh, here comes our ‘afflicted’ king.”“Here comes our lowly king.”“Here comes our gentle king.”
Who gets excited about gentle kings?!
Christians, that’s who. Because we know that down is the way up in God’s world. We know that suffering is the path to glory. We know that the one who wants to be first must be last and take the place of servant. We know that gentleness is true strength. That’s why we get excited about a king riding a little donkey.
Zechariah says, “See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
He’s the long-expected king, but He’s probably not like the king you expect. (Even though you should.)
This king is humble.
Have you ever read the book Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund? It came out about 6 years ago, and we gave a copy to everybody who was in the church at that time. I highly recommend it as a study of the heart of Jesus. 
He that’s who said He is at heart. When He invited us to Himself, He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29).
That’s the kind of king we really need.
And, praise God, that’s kind of king He really is.
So how do we apply this to our lives? Let me suggest three quick ways from these scriptures.
– RECEIVE YOUR KING!
Remember, the whole city was abuzz with the question, “Who is this?” And a bunch of them got it wrong. Some of them got partial credit with, “the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” (Matthew 21:11). But a bunch of them decided, in the end, that Jesus wasn’t even worth listening to.
By the end of the week, the crowds weren’t shouting “Hosanna!” They were shouting “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” And they did.
This same week that they put down the branches, Jesus was betrayed,  mocked, flogged, and crucified. They put a crown of thorns on His head and whipped Him red. 
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
They didn’t receive their king. We must or else. Who do you think Jesus is? Is He righteous, and saving, and humble? 
Is He your king? Do you act like it? Do you lay down the Green Carpet for Him and do what your king says? I’m amazed at how often I see people claim Jesus is their king but act the exact opposite of Him. And the exact opposite of how our king tells us how to live. And I’m ashamed of how often that has been true of me.
Is He your king or isn’t He? Make up your mind. 
It says, “See, your king.” See Him! Recognize Him. Receive your king and rejoice that He has come.
– RAISE HIS PRAISE!
That’s the second application. The very thing that Zechariah told Jerusalem to do, we should, too.
Rejoice greatly! Shout!
What do you shout for?  We shout all the time when we are happy about things. Go to a sporting event. And you’ll hear people shouting all the time. One of these softball girls hits a dinger. Haley W. hits a dinger over the fence, whoo! We shout for joy.
We need to do that about our king! 
Let’s shout “Hosanna” together. We’ve sung it already. But we should shout it, too. Let’s do it this way. I want you to pick two numbers between 1 and 10. Okay? Like 2 and 7 and or 4 and 9. Can you do that? Got them? Now, I’m going to count to 11, and when I hit your numbers, I want you to shout “Hosanna!” which means, “He will save us!” “Praise the Savior!” And when we get to 11, we’re all going to show “Hosanna in the Highest!”
And I don’t want any mumbling, okay? You don’t have to shout as loud as you can, because we are inside. You don’t have to scream.
But this is our king. Righteous, saving, humble. Amen? Here we go:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10!  “Hosanna in the Highest!”
Raise His praise. And not just here on Sunday mornings in this room. Every single day be grateful this is your king. That He has come and is coming again.
“We will feast in the house of Zion.We will sing with our hearts restored.He has done great things, we will say together.We will feast and weep no more.” - Sandra McCracken
Come, Lord Jesus!
And last, but not least:
– REMEMBER HIS SACRIFICE.
Our righteous king brought us salvation by being humble.
That donkey ride was not just to get attention.That donkey ride was not just ringing a bell of fulfillment.That donkey ride was showing us how He was going to save His people.
He was going to be humble, gentle, lowly, poor, afflicted.
He was going to take the last place.
He was going to take the nails. He was going to be pierced for our transgressions (see Isaiah 53:6). He was going to be crushed for our iniquities.He was going to take our punishment.And die.
And we are called to remember that every single day.
And especially this week.
In Zechariah chapter 12, there is another prophecy that the Apostle John recognized as all about Jesus (see John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7).
Through the prophet, the LORD says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zechariah 12:10).
This same king who came so gently on Sunday, would be pierced for us on Friday.
Our righteous king brought us salvation by being humble.
Remember His sacrifice for you and me. 

***
Previous Messages on Palm Sunday

“Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name of the LORD!” - Psalm 118 - March 25, 2018"The Son of the Sick King" - Psalm 41 - April 14, 2019"Shouting for the Son of David" - Matthew20:29-21:17 - July 14, 2019“For You” - Luke 22:14-20 - April 2, 2023"The Hour Has Come" - John 12:12-26 - April 28, 2024

“Today, If You Hear His Voice”Fixing Our Eyes on JesusThe Letter to the HebrewsLanse Evangelical Free ChurchMarch 15, 2026 :: Hebrews 3:7-19  
In today’s section of the sermonic letter to the Hebrews, we have another serious warning.
This pastor who is writing this letter of exhortation to this group of primarily Jewish Christians is concerned that they may be going off the rails. He’s concerned that they might be tempted to veer off the path, out of the race of faith in Christ.
So, he’s started writing this letter to encourage them (and all of us!) to fix our eyes on Jesus. And to not stop fixing our eyes on Jesus. 
He’s been motivating us to fix our eyes on Jesus by reminding us Who Jesus is and how much greater Jesus is than anything and everything else including the angels and including Moses.
Last week, he got into Moses (verses 1-6).  He told these Hebrews that the great Moses was faithful as a servant in all of God’s house. Worthy of much honor. But Jesus is faithful as a Son over all of God’s house. Worthy of infinitely greater honor and attention. He urged his readers to fix their thoughts on Jesus. To consider Jesus and meditate on Jesus and fix our thoughts on Jesus as the apostle sent on a mission from God to save us and the faithful high priest to represent us to God through the sacrifice of His own flesh and blood. 
He said, “Fix your thoughts on Jesus”... or else. In verse 6, he said that we are God’s “...house [or household, God’s family], if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” Which implies that if we do not hold on to our courage (our bold confidence in Jesus) and the hope of which we boast (and glory in Christ Jesus), then we are not actually a real part of God’s household after all.
And it’s that scary thought that prompts him to write the warning of verses 7 through 19, our text for today.
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
Listen to the first part, verses 7 through 11.
“So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.’”
The title of this message is taken right from verse 1 (and also verse 15!) and also from Psalm 95[!] where it was written first in holy Scripture:
“Today, If You Hear His Voice”
That word “Today” is very important in this section of the letter to the Hebrews (3:1-4:13). It shows up in verse 7 and then in verse 13 and then in verse 15, and then we’re going to see it again and again in chapter 4. “Today,” he says.
When does he mean, “Today?”
Well, interestingly, he’s quoting from Psalm 95 which was written about 1,000 years before Hebrews was! That’s the psalm on the front of your bulletin. The psalm I read from earlier. The psalm that we were singing at the start of our worship time. And the psalm that was just read to us. 
It was written 1,000 years before this pastor wrote Hebrews!
And it starts with that beautiful reminder that we should bow down and worship and kneel before the LORD our God our Maker. We should be thankful and sing to the Rock of our salvation. Because He is the great God and the King above all Gods. He made everything, and He is our God, and we are His sheep, just the sheep of His hand!
And then, without warning, the psalm turns into a warning! 
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts...”
What day is “Today?” It was the day of the psalmist! It was the day it was written as a song for Israel to sing and pray and heed. 
I read this week that Psalm 95 was often read on the Sabbath at the start of a weekly time of worship and learning in the synagogues of Israel. So, “Today” was the day that the Psalmist wrote it, but it’s was also every day that the people heard it. Every Saturday.
And the writer to the Hebrews applies it to his readers in that day in the first century, about two thousand years ago now. 
And so it’s appropriate for us to say that this “Today” is...today.
Isn’t that amazing?! In a sense, this is the same “Today” as when the psalmist wrote it 3,000 years ago.
How can that be? Well, it’s because of Who was the Author behind the author. Who does Hebrews say wrote Psalm 95? What’s it say in verse 7? “As the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today...’” Ultimately, the Holy Spirit wrote Psalm 95. And He’s eternal, so He can say a word that lasts 3,000 years and it still be “Today.”
And, at the very same time, that word “Today” expresses urgency. Even though it’s been 3,000 years, it will not always be “Today.” Certainly many people have lived and died during this “Today.” You and I might die today. 
The psalmist and the epistle-writer both want those who hear God’s voice in this moment to respond.
“Today, if you hear his voice...”
#1. LISTEN UP.
I have four points of application I want to make from this passage this morning, and that’s the first one.
Today, if you hear his voice, listen up. Don’t block your ears. And whatever you do, don’t harden your hearts.
There is a potentiality that the ones who have been singing, “We are the sheep of His pasture,” will find themselves hardening their hearts against their Shepherd.
Don’t do it! Don’t join them. Don’t put your fingers in your ears. Don’t harden your heart. If you do, you’ll be acting like whom? Who is the most famous person in the Bible to harden his heart?
Pharaoh, right? The enemy of God. The enemy of God’s people in the Book of Exodus. God said, “Let my people go.” And Pharaoh said, “No.” God was speaking to Pharaoh through Moses, and Pharaoh refused to listen. And then God’s people refused to listen to Him, too.
That’s what the psalmist was writing about in Psalm 95. ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did” (vv.7-9).
What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the Book of Numbers and the Retreat of Unbelief. Probably the lowest, saddest moment in the Torah.
God’s people had been rescued from Pharaoh and escaped from Egypt. They had seen the Ten Plagues and not been touched by any of them. They had walked on dry ground through the Red Sea parted on both sides. They had seen Pharaoh’s army drowned. They had been to the mountain and been given the Law through angels (2:2). They had been fed manna. They had built the Tabernacle. They had drank water that came out of a rock!
And then one day, God said “Ok. It’s time to go into the Promised Land.” 
And they said, “No.” You can read about this in Numbers chapter 14. Maybe this afternoon, go back and read the story that inspired the song that is quoted in the letter and is applied to us today.
Moses sent twelve spies into the Promised Land to get some intel before their God-sent invasion. And they all came back and agreed that the Promised Land was as wonderful as promised, but ten of them said that it was impossible to conquer. There were giants there and giant problems there. “We are like grasshoppers. There’s no way.” And two of them (Joshua and Caleb) said, “With God we can do it! Those giants are grasshoppers to Him.”
But that entire generation of Israelites who had left Egypt refused to go into the Promised Land. They hardened their hearts against God. And not just once but again and again for forty years! The psalm says that they tested and tried God for forty years and saw what He did and still they rebelled. It wasn’t just once but repeatedly. Verse 10.
“That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' [This is what they are like.] So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'” (vv.10-11).
What a sad and scary thought. God made a promise that the entire generation of Israelites would not enter the Promised Land. He promised that they wouldn’t get the promise. “I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
We’ll talk more about that word “rest” next time when we get to chapter 4. The writer of Hebrews thinks it stands for something much bigger than just physical rest in the land of Canaan. 
For the Israelites then it was rest from their enemies and a home of their own flowing with milk and honey. And they were barred from receiving it. The door was shut in their faces. Because they refused to listen.
Now, we know that the second generation was eventually let in after the forty years was up. Caleb, Joshua and all of those who were kids during the Retreat of Unbelief were eventually allowed into the Promised Land.
But all of the rest of them died in the wilderness. More than 600,000 just counting the men. More than a million, I’m sure. 
And that cautionary tale inspired this song, Psalm 95, a real banger, that says, “Don’t be like them!” And Hebrews quotes that psalm and says, “Today[!], if you hear his voice...”
#2. WATCH OUT.
Now here’s the warning. The warning is in verse 12.
“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”
See to it. Take care. Look out. Watch out, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a hard heart that turns away from the living God.
The Greek word for “turns away” in verse 12 is “apostaynai.” We get our word “apostatize” from it, “apostasy.” That means to willfully, stubbornly, finally reject and forsake God. To put your fingers in your ears and turn your back away from the living God.
He’s warning them. They’re in danger. God has spoken by His Son, and they are in danger of ignoring Him. Today, if you hear His voice, watch out. ...
Now, we all need to hear this warning. Sometimes more than others. But we all need it. Because we can be in this danger and not realize it.
You know when the danger comes? When things are going really well (and we forget that we need God from whom all our blessings flow) and when things get tough.
That’s what was happening to these Jewish Christians. They were starting to be persecuted. Things were getting rough. All of a sudden, following Jesus wasn’t so fun.
It was the same thing for the Israelites in the wilderness. They weren’t the only ones handing out tests in the desert. God was testing them, too. He allowed hard times to fall on them. He let them see the giants in the land.  There was suffering on the menu. God was testing them. 
And they failed.
This pastor tells these brothers and sisters to watch out that they don’t fall into the same trap as their forefathers did.
Don’t let your heart grow hard.Don’t let your heart grow cold.Don’t let your heart grow sinful.Don’t let your heart be taken over with unbelief.
Don’t stop trusting Him.  Watch out. Or you won’t be let in. 
Where is your heart right now? What’s it like? Is your heart soft? Is your heart tender towards God? Is your heart pliable and hopeful and trusting? Is your heart open?
See to it, church, that it stays that way. Fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s our only hope. Today!
And He’s talking to you today. When it says, “Today, if you hear his voice...” he’s not talking about some mystical out-of-body experience where God invades our soul with some extra-biblical word from God. For you and me, we are hearing from Him any time we open this book and read God’s Word!
Greg Strand talked about that this week at Stay Sharp.  He said some people say, “I just want God to speak to me.” But they keep this book closed. This is the chief place where He speaks to us! Today!
The Holy Spirit is speaking to us today as we read His Word. Are you reading His Word? Last week, we talked about making a plan. Setting an alarm. Putting it on the calendar.  You want to hear God’s voice? “In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son” (1:2).
Listen up and watch out. Because it’s possible to make what looks like a good beginning and yet have an awful ending.
“See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”
How do you keep from doing that? How do you keep from becoming a statistic? 
Well, I’ll tell you one thing. We do it together. Look at verse 13.
“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
#3. HELP OUT.
Today, if you hear His voice, help out your brothers and sisters in Christ by encouraging them. You see, fixing your eyes on Jesus is a group project. Notice that he says, “one another.” We can’t do this alone. We need each other. I need you, and you need me. We all need the church. Not just this hour of singing and praying and preaching, but church as family. Church as community.
We need to be in each other’s lives.We need to be in each other’s faces.We need to be in each other’s inbox.We need to be in each other’s ears.
Verse 13 says, “Encourage one another...” How often? Daily!
It’s not enough to just come to church once a week (or once a month). We need to get into each other’s ears every single day with encouragement.
The Greek word there is “parakaleo.” It’s the same word that we learned all about last Summer in Thessalonians. Remember that there are two flavors to encouragement: consolation and exhortation. Comfort and calling. And we need both. We need to be reminded of God’s promises and His work in our lives. And we need a good swift kick in the pants.
We need to be exhorted and challenged to keep trusting in God’s promises. We need to help each other out. We don’t run the race by ourselves. We run the race together. 
We’re coming into track and field season right now. And I’ve been to some of your track meets. You run better if someone is running alongside you. And you run better if someone is shouting encouragement from the stands. 
“Encourage one another daily...” Who do you need to encourage today?
Write their name down right now. Somebody’s name came to your mind. Write their name down and make a plan to say something, write something, text something encouraging them today to fix their eyes on Jesus. While they still can!
He says, “...as long as it is called Today.” That’s not forever. Tomorrow will come some day. The window will close. This moment will pass. But as long as it is called “Today,” while we have the opportunity, we should be encouraging each other to trust in Jesus. Because here’s what’s at stake. Look again at verse 13.
“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
If we are doing our job of encouraging each other to fix our eyes on Jesus, our hearts will not get hard. And they will not be fooled by the lies of sins.
You know that sin lies, right? “Sin’s deceitfulness.” Sin lies. What lies does sin tell?
“I’m just a little sin.”“I don’t hurt anyone else.”“It’s just this one time.”“You can stop any time.”“Everybody else is doing it.”
Here’s another one:
“You can’t help it.”“You can’t stop.”“This is just who you are.”“This sin is a giant in your life and you are a grasshopper. You will be crushed. You might as well give in.”
Sin lies and lies, and as we give in to sin and believe its lies, then our hearts can grow cold and hard. When you are sinning, it gets harder and harder to remember what is real. To remember Who God is. To remember Who Jesus is. To remember where Jesus is!
This church was in danger.
And this pastor said, “Church! You’ve got encourage each other. You’ve got to get into each other’s faces and remind each other Who Jesus is! You’ve got to get into each other’s ears and remind each other what Jesus did. You’ve got to remind each other where Jesus is right now! You’ve got to remind each other what is true.”
As long as it is called Today.
Or else some of you (some of us) may not make it. Look at verse 14.
“We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”
#4. HOLD ON.
Today, if you hear His voice, hold on to Jesus Christ.
Verse 14 is very encouraging and also a little scary. It’s supposed to be both.
First off, it says that we have come to share in Christ! Wahoo! We are His house (like it said in verse 6). We share in the heavenly calling (like in verse 1). And there is nothing greater.
And that is right now. We have come to share in Christ, right now. But for that to prove to be true, we have to have hold on to Christ till the end. “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”
Now, that doesn’t mean that we somehow earn our salvation by willpower. No! We can’t earn our salvation. Never could. Never will! Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But we have to continue in our faith. We have to continue to believe.
The Bible has no category for a saved person who is not trusting in Jesus. A believer who doesn’t believe?! That’s not a thing.
And it’s not saying that we will somehow make it all happen by our perseverance. No, our perseverance shows that it all happened.
“We have come to share in Christ [right now by God’s grace!] if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first [by God’s grace].”
But we do have to hold on to Jesus. Today! Verse 15.
“As has just been said [Psalm 95]: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.’ [And then presses it home with a series of rhetorical questions.] Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? [Yes, it was them.] So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief” (vv.15-19).
They didn’t hold on.
And that’s scary because they had all of those blessings. They had seen God do so many great things. But they stopped believing. They listened to sins lies. They didn’t listen to Caleb and Joshua who were trying to encourage them as long as it was called Today to trust the Lord and take hold of the promises and enter the Promised Land. No, they never made it because they didn’t hold on.
Canaan was closed to them. Because they didn’t believe.
Don’t you be like them. Hold on.
Some of you are worried now, hearing this, that you have turned away from the living God and are in danger of never entering His rest.
If you have turned your back on Him, I urge you to repent right now if you still can. Today. Don’t wait. There is no guarantee that you can break out of that if you’re going down that road. Take your fingers out of your ears. Repent or fall as a corpse in the desert.
But most of you who are hearing this just need reminded to keep trusting Jesus.
Are you trusting Jesus?Are you obeying Jesus?Do you love Jesus?
Then don’t worry that you have fallen away.
Worry if you never worry if you have fallen away!Worry if you don’t care any more.Worry if you don’t care if you sin.Worry if you don’t believe any more.
Worry if this word of warning doesn’t scare you at all.
Today.
Today, if you hear His voice. (And we are right now because the Holy Spirit is speaking through His Word:
Listen up. Don’t let you heart grow hard.Watch out. Don’t let you heart turn away from the living God.Help out. Encourage each other daily. Get in each other’s faces with the good news of Jesus!And hold on to Him because He’s worth it.
Church, fix your eyes on Jesus.
Today.

***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9
05. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-1805. "Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus" - Hebrews 3:1-6

“Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus”Fixing Our Eyes on JesusThe Letter to the HebrewsLanse Evangelical Free ChurchMarch 8, 2026 :: Hebrews 3:1-6  
“Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus.”
That’s the point of the message today, and it comes right out of verse 1. 
“Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus...”
So this message is going to be all about thinking. Studying. Focusing. Considering. Reflecting.
What did you focus on this week? What consumed your thoughts? We all had things we had to focus on this week. 
Many of us have a job, and we had to focus on our work. Solving a problem. Making a product. Marketing a product. Ordering supplies. Teaching or training someone. Operating equipment. Programming the computer. Driving someone somewhere.
This week, Jenni English was teaching Keith Hurley all the things that he now has to do to keep the church office humming along. 
We have to focus on our work.
Many of you are students, so you had to focus on your schoolwork. Focus on  a lecture. Focus on a paper. Focus on a test. Studying your textbook. 
Some of you are athletes so you had to focus on your sport. If you don’t keep your eye on the ball, you don’t connect it to your bat, and it might connect with your head!
Some of you are in theater, and you have to focus on your lines.
We all live in families of one kind or another, so we have had to focus on the family this week, I’m sure. Listening to each other. Living in community with each other requires focus and attention.
I’m sure that many of us focused on the news this last week. There is so much going on in the headlines. So much to process, to consider. 
Some of us focused on entertainment, paying attention to the newest season of our favorite show or our favorite sports team or our favorite online influencer. Or going deep into a book or a game.
What did you focus on the last seven days?
There is so much to focus on.  If you don’t focus, you don’t get anywhere. If you don’t focus on the road, you don’t reach your destination. If you don’t focus on your diet and exercise and medication, then your health deteriorates. If you don’t focus on the correct time, you are late for church when Daylight Savings hits!
And it’s so easy to lose focus.
The writer of this letter to the Hebrews knew that. He was worried that his readers who were scared of impending persecution were going to lose their focus on Christ and drop out of the race of faith and try to go back to just being Jews. 
So he wrote them this pastoral letter to urge them to fix their eyes on Jesus.  And keep them there. And here in verse 1, he urged them (and us) to keep their (and our) thoughts fixed on Jesus. 
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
“Fix your thoughts on Jesus.”
Some of your versions may say in verse 1, “Consider Jesus.”
And that’s a good translation, too. Sometimes, we use that word to ask somebody to think about something that they haven’t thought about before.
Consider taking the Baptism Class.Consider buying a new phone.Consider using deodorant. (That’s something we might say to someone who hasn’t give it much thought before.)
And that’s true, too. Consider Jesus if you haven’t yet!
But that’s not the primary meaning here. This is more of an exhortation to continue to consider Jesus for those who already have been. It’s an invitation for them to think about Him more deeply, more reflectively, more intensely, more consistently. 
Consider Jesus. Study Him and take note of Who He really is.
The Lord Jesus Himself used this same word when He pointed out illustrations to His teaching. Object lesson. He said, in Luke 12:24, “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”
And then He used it again in Luke 12:27, “Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
Consider. Just think about this. Turn it over in your mind. Focus on a bird. Focus on a flower. And think about what they each teach you about trusting God. 
And the writer to the Hebrews says, “Yeah, do that. Do that focusing but on Jesus Himself.” “Fix your thoughts on Jesus...”
Did you do that this week? Did you find time to focus your attention on Him? Did you set aside time to fix your thoughts on Jesus?
That’s one of the benefits of having a daily devotional time that is the same day after day. Not because it earns you brownie points with God. It doesn’t. But because it builds into your day a time when you know you are going to consider Jesus. Because it doesn’t often happen on its own.
That’s also one of the benefits of Sunday mornings at church. We come together to fix our thoughts on Jesus. We sing songs about Him and to Him.  
“Join all the glorious names of wisdom, love, and powerThat every mortals know that angels ever boreAll are too poor to speak His worthToo poor to set my Savior forth!” [Isaac Watts]
How many names for Jesus does that one hymn have? “Savior, Prophet, High Priest, Shepherd, Lord, Conqueror, King” You can spend all day just reflecting on all of those names.
Consider Jesus. That’s not just for non-Christians. It’s for Christians.  In fact, that’s what it says in verse 1. Notice what the writer calls us. Verse 1.
“Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus...”
This is actually the first time in the letter when the author names the people to whom he’s writing. He has been addressing them all along, but here he gives them a name.
“Holy brothers (and that includes you sisters, too), who share in the heavenly calling.”
This is who we are! And it flows out of what he has just been teaching to them in chapter 2. Remember last week, “Flesh and Blood?”
Jesus took on flesh and blood, and He is our flesh and blood. He became a human like you and me and is not ashamed to call us His siblings. 
He is not ashamed of you, brothers.He is not ashamed of you, sisters.
He doesn’t mind being associated with you. He loves it!
Because He’s one of us, and He’s making us holy. Remember 2:11, “Both the one who makes [us] holy and those who are made holy are of the same [stuff]. So Jesus is not ashamed to call [us] brothers [and sisters].”
We call each other brothers and sisters, and so does He! Jesus calls us, “holy brothers and sisters!” and we are because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. 
And that means that we “share in the heavenly calling.” What’s that? It means that heaven has called, and we’re called to heaven! Jesus is bringing many sons and daughters to glory. And you and I have a piece of that. How does that make you feel?! Does it give you wings?
It’s so easy to forget who we are and even more easy to forget Who Jesus is.
So, holy family who are headed to heaven, “fix your thoughts on Jesus.”
I’ve got three simple points this morning to focus exactly what this letter is telling us to fix our thoughts about Jesus on, and here’s the first one.
Fix your thoughts:
#1. ON WHO HE IS.
Verse 1 calls Him, “the apostle and high priest whom we confess.”
Pop quiz. Was Jesus an apostle? Feels like a trick question. Doesn’t it? Of course He was. And of course He is. That’s what verse 1 says. But it is the only time that the Bible calls Jesus an apostle. All of the rest of the time, it was apostles of Jesus that were being talked about.
An apostle is an authorized representative who is sent on a mission to speak on someone else’s behalf.  The twelve were the apostles of Jesus. Who is Jesus an apostle of?
He’s the apostle of God the Father, isn’t He? How many times when we were reading the Gospel of John did Jesus say that He was sent? 
Jesus was a man on mission. And He was sent by His Father to be His final word. “...in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrew 1:2).
So He comes from God and represents God to us. And what’s this other name for Him in verse 1?
“High priest.” Guess what a high priest does?  He represents us back to God! A high priest intercedes before God on behalf of the people.
And Jesus is both! He is both the apostle and the high priest. He comes down and speaks for God, and He comes up and speaks for us! Just think about that! Consider Jesus.
The writer says that this is “whom we confess.” This is Who we say we believe in.  Jesus, the apostle and high priest.
The author just brought up this idea of Jesus being a high priest in the last chapter, and he’s going to come back to it again and again in the middle of this book. It’s a major theme of Hebrews.
He said in verse 17 that Jesus “had to be made like [us] in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
And you and I can’t think about that enough.
In the next few verses, the writer drills down on that word “faithful.” Jesus is merciful and faithful. That’s who He is. Look at verse 2.
“He [Jesus] was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house.”
Okay. Now he brings up Moses. He might have even said, “Consider Moses. Let’s think about Moses for a second and compare and contrast him to Jesus.”
Question. Was Moses important to the Hebrews? You bet he was! There might not be a more significant figure in Jewish life. Abraham or David are the only ones that come anywhere close. 
Moses was the Leader who brought the Israelites out of Egypt. The Rescuer!Moses was the Lawgiver through whom came the ten commandments and the rest of the Old Covenant Law.Moses was the main Author of the first five books of the Bible!Moses was a Prophet who predicted the future.Moses was the Builder in charge of the construction of the tabernacle and the establishing of the sacrificial system, and his brother Aaron was the first high priest.
We cannot overemphasize how important Moses was to the Hebrews.
But was he faithful?
Yes, he was. He wasn’t perfect. He was very flawed. But he was faithful. You know how I know? God said so! 
In the book of Numbers, Moses’s siblings got mad at him for his choice of a wife. He had married a Cushite, and in a probable mix of racism and envy, Miriam and Aaron were unhappy with his choice.
And they complained about it loudly, and God heard them.
And God spoke to them from a pillar of cloud in front of the Tent of Meeting. And He said, “Listen to my words: ‘When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. [Sound familiar?] With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?'” (see Numbers 12:6-8). And there were some drastic consequences.
Now, we know that was figurative language that Moses didn’t actually see God’s unmediated face because He said that also (Exodus 33:2), but that’s how close Moses was to God!
Moses went up into the cloud on the top of the mountain and heard directly from God, and then remember what happened to his face when he came down from the cloud? It beamed! It radiated light because Moses had looked upon the Lord in some mysterious way. Perhaps a theophany. An appearance of God in some form. Nobody in the Old Testament got so close!
And God said, “[M]y servant Moses[?]; he is faithful in all my house.”
What a commendation! I would love it if He said the same some day about me. “Matt Mitchell? He was faithful in my house. He did what I asked.”
The word “house” there is a metaphor for the people of God. I don’t think he’s talking about the tabernacle right there. I think He means more what we might call “household,” the people of a house. The household was the essential building block of society in that day. It included all of the family and all of the servants attached to the family. And God was saying that He had a household, and that Moses was a faithful servant in it.
The Jews revered Moses. And rightfully so because God said that Moses was faithful. And this writer agrees. He’s not dissing on Moses. But he is comparing Moses to Jesus. Look at verse 2 again.
Jesus “...was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house.”
Jesus is like Moses in being faithful.
But He’s so much more. Number two. Fix your thoughts:
#2. ON HOW GREAT HE IS.
Or how greatER He is. And listen to verse 3.
“Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything” (vv.3-4).
Now, that was saying something to these Jewish Christians!
They should know it, but did they feel it in their bones? Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses. Should Moses be honored? Sure! God honored him and called him faithful. But is Jesus greater than Moses? It’s not even a contest!
You and I probably don’t feel this so much because we don’t have that deep connection to Moses. But think about somebody you do have a deep connection to. Maybe it’s a parent or grandparent? Maybe it’s a teacher from your past. Maybe it’s a great leader that you have always learned from and looked up to. Maybe it was your pastor when you were growing up.
We all have heroes. And while we shouldn’t put our hope in them (because they will all fail us in some way and some in terrible ways), it’s not wrong to look up to them as examples when they are faithful. Who is it for you?
My Dad turns 80 years old tomorrow. He’s one of my biggest heroes. He’s completely trustworthy. He has been faithful in God’s house, and I’m grateful. 
But Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Chuck Mitchell. And Chuck Mitchell would agree. 
And Moses would agree! That Jesus has been found worthy of greater  honor than him.
Remember when Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on that high mountain and who showed up out of the blue? Elijah and...Moses! 
And they met with Jesus. And then a cloud enveloped them and they disappeared and then all Peter, James, and John saw was Jesus. And God spoke to them. And what did He say? “Hey was that Moses! He’s really something!” No, He said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5).
Fix your thoughts on Him. And how great He is! And did Jesus’ face radiate? It did. But it wasn’t just a reflection because He’d come to close to God. It came from within Him because He is God! 
His face shone like the sun! Because He is the Son. He “is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3)! He’s so much greater than Moses.
And these folks were considering backing away from Jesus and going back to just following Moses. This pastor is saying that’s spiritual suicide.
We’ve seen already that this whole letter makes a sustained argument that Jesus is greater, better, superior to everything else including everything that is truly great in the Old Testament. 
In chapters 1&2 it was the angels. Here in chapter 3 it is Moses.
“Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses.” And that’s saying something.
How much greater? Verse 3 says “just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.”
Have you ever been to a great house? One with an amazing design?  Heather and I love to tour beautiful buildings. We’ve been to a few designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, for example. “Falling Water” right here in Pennsylvania. Which is greater? “Falling Water” or the guy who came up with Falling Water and all of those 531 other buildings that were built that he designed? Which is greater? Faithful Moses or the God Who made Moses? It’s not really a contest, is it? Verse 4.
“For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.”
And guess Who Jesus is? He’s God the Son. He made the house. He designed the house. That’s why we should fix our thoughts on Him. He’s so so so great!
Again, not saying anything bad here about Moses. Look at verse 5.
“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future [He was a prophet. He faithfully predicted Jesus coming! Verse 6.] But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house.”
Do you hear the differences?
Which one was faithful? Both of them.
But Moses is faithful as a SERVANT IN all God’s house.Jesus is faithful as a SON OVER God’s house.
That’s a huge difference.
The servant doesn’t own the house.The servant doesn’t inherit the house.The servant is a vital part of the house and can be faithful in it.
But the Son?! The house is His and will be His because of His Father.
And what about this Son? Was He faithful? Oh, yes, He was. And oh, yes, He is!  That’s the whole point.  “Christ is faithful....” (v.6)! Fix your thoughts on this. Fix your thoughts:
#3. ON HOW FAITHFUL HE IS.
How trustworthy, how dependable, how reliable Jesus is. He can be trusted. Amen?
Who is Jesus faithful to in this part of the letter? We immediately run to His faithfulness to us. And that’s true. He always keeps His promises to us. And we’re going to sing about that in just a second.
“Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.” (Thomas Chisholm)
But that’s not where this writer focuses in these verses. No, he focuses on Jesus’ faithfulness to God!
Look up at verse 2 again, “He was faithful to the one who appointed him...” Verse 6 again, “Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house.” Everything the Father asked the Son to do, He did. Perfectly. Everything the Father is asking the Son to do, He does. Jesus is faithful.
“Great is Jesus’ faithfulness, O Lord to Thee!”
Just think, for second, what would have happened if He wasn’t. Imagine if Jesus had been unfaithful to His Father. Imagine if Jesus had given in to the temptation in the garden to push that cup away from Him. Imagine if Jesus had said, “I am no longer willing to go to the Cross. You can’t have my flesh and blood.” “I am not your apostle any more, Father, and I am not their high priest.” It’s unthinkable. All would be lost.
But Jesus was faithful. He is the “the author and perfecter of our faith.” For the joy set before Him, He “endured the cross, scorning its shame...” He was faithful unto death.
And where is He now, church? He “sat down at the right hand of the throne of God!” (See Hebrews 12:2).
The Father said, “Well done, My Son. Come on up here. You’re a great high priest. You are merciful and faithful. You have saved your people from their sins. You’ve satisfied my wrath. You have made atonement.  Come on up here and be honored! Over the whole house.”
That’s why these precious people should fix their thoughts on Jesus! Because, as great as Moses was, he was just servant, but the Lord Jesus who took on the form of a servant was and is the Son, the Apostle and High Priest whom we confess.
What’s the application of that? Hold on to Jesus. Put your trust in Him and focus on Him every single day. Because this is all true for those all who belong to Him. That’s the point of the last sentence in verse 6.
“And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”
We are His house! We are a holy family who share in the heavenly calling. And we are His house. If we hold on to our courage (or better our "bold confidence") and the hope of which we boast. The hope in which we glory.
There is an implied warning embedded in those words. If we do not hold on to our faith in Jesus and our hope in Jesus, then we show ourselves to NOT be His house. If we let go of Jesus and turn our back on Jesus and walk away from Jesus and never return to Jesus, then we will not end up sharing in the heavenly calling. 
Our assurance of salvation comes, in part, by our perseverance in faith. And our perseverance in faith comes, in part, because we are assured of such a great salvation. 
The point of verse 6 is that the Word of God is calling us to hold on to the Son of God. Don’t let go.
Or else! He’s going to say a lot more about that “or else” in the next section of chapter 3. It’s scary what will happen if we totally let go.
So don’t let go! Hold fast.  Hold firmly. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Keep your thoughts fixed on Him. Consider Jesus. Now and always.
And this week. Are you going to do that? Let me encourage you to make a plan. You have a lot of things to focus on this week.
When are you going to fix your thoughts on Jesus?How are you going to fix your thoughts on Jesus?When are you going to open your Bible?When are you going to pray?When are you going to meet with other Christians? 
This week.
This last week, I was meeting with a younger Christian, and we talked about how Sunday morning church is a Saturday night choice. You’ve got to set an alarm. You’ve got make a plan. You’ve got to go to bed.
Same thing with Bible. Same thing with prayer. When are you going to do do it? How are you going to do it. You know you need it. You know He’s worthy of it!
Fix your thoughts on Who He is–the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
Fix your thoughts on how great He is–greater than Moses, greater than all of your heroes combined. He made all of your heroes!
Fix your thoughts on how faithful He is–to God and because He was faithful to God, we can be saved forever.
And He’ll be faithful to us, as well.
Hold onto Jesus and fix your thoughts on Him.
***

Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-905. "Flesh and Blood" - Hebrews 2:10-18

“Flesh and Blood”Fixing Our Eyes on JesusThe Letter to the HebrewsLanse Evangelical Free ChurchMarch 1, 2026 :: Hebrews 2:10-18  Today, we need to fix our eyes on the humanity of Jesus. 
We need to fix our eyes on the humble humanness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the first four messages in our series on the sermonic letter to those Hebrew Christians–who were tempted to take their eyes off of Jesus and fall out of the race of faith–the emphasis has been on the exaltation of Jesus. 
And that is right! Jesus is exalted! He is the Son of God and God the Son! 
He is superior to the angels! He is the maker of all things, the sustainer of all things, the owner of all things. The radiance of God’s glory and the perfect picture of His nature. Jesus is God’s last Word. 
And where is He now? Church, where is Jesus right now? He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (1:3)! He is exalted! And we should fix our eyes on Him. And not take our eyes off of Him. And pay careful attention to Him and the great salvation He has announced and provided. 
Jesus is exalted. Last week, the writer said (v.9), “[W]e see Jesus...crowned with glory and honor!” And we sang, “Crown Him! Crown Him! Crown Him! Lord of All!”
But there was a step before that crowning that Jesus had to take. There was a step downward before that exaltation that the Son had to descend. And that is that He had to become a human. He had to take on (v.14), “flesh and blood.”
[VIDEO WILL BE EMBEDDED HERE.]
“Flesh and Blood.” 
The Son of God had to become one of us. That phrase “flesh and blood” is really good because it expresses a couple of different things at the same time. One is the literal fact of having actual flesh and actual blood. Jesus had both. 
He didn’t just seem to be human, but He was (and is) fully human. There was a heresy in the first few centuries after Christ called “docetism,” where the false teachers spread this idea that Jesus was fully God, fully divine, but He only seemed to be fully human. 
It would be gross and wrong, they thought, that the Son of God would have actual flesh and actual blood?! Eww. That would be beneath God and sully God if the Son had all of the weaknesses and indignities of humanity.
But that is, of course, what we were just celebrating two months ago at Christmastime, wasn’t it? 
The Word became flesh! And He dwelled among us. And He had blood. 
Stop for a second and feel your pulse. Put your fingers up on your jugular. Do you feel with your flesh the thump thump of your heart pumping blood through your body?
Two thousand years ago, when Jesus did that, He felt the exact same thing. He had flesh, and He had blood. And that’s what this section of the letter is all about. 
And we also use that phrase “flesh and blood,” to talk about family. Right? Pete and Isaac down here are my own flesh and blood. “We are family” as Sister Sledge might sing. We share in flesh and blood as a family.  And that’s also what this section of the letter is all about. 
There is all kinds of family language: brothers (and implicitly sisters), and children and descendants and sons.
Flesh and blood. Jesus in His mission to provide such a great salvation took on human flesh and blood. Why? 
This passage is going to say that it was “fitting” and appropriate and the right thing to do and even will say, He had to do so. He had to be made like His flesh and blood brothers. How come?
Because it takes flesh and blood to suffer and die a human death. It takes Christmas to get to Good Friday. Flesh and blood. So we need to fix our eyes on the humanity of Jesus. 
The writer has already started us on that focus. Last week in verses 5 through 9, he pulled out Psalm 8 and preached a message to us about how human beings were made and meant to rule the world. Remember this?
We were made to wear crowns. And, at creation, everything was placed under our feet. But we ruined it. We humans broke the world instead of ruling it wisely and well, and now we do not see things the way they supposed to be. Chapter 2, verse 8.
“Yet at present we do not see everything subjected to [humanity].”
“But [v.9] we see Jesus! ... now crowned with glory and honor.” At the right hand of the throne of God. How did He get there? He started there, but how did He get back there? First, He was “made a little lower than the angels” so He became a human being, like us, taking on flesh and blood, and then...He died a human death. Verse 9.
“But we see Jesus...now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
Jesus is exalted and crowned in this way because He suffered death. And to do that, He had to take on flesh and blood.
I have three points this morning I want to make to summarize what Jesus accomplished by partaking in flesh and blood, and here’s the first one. We’ve already sung this line this morning in “How Deep the Father’s Love.”
#1. TO BRING US TO GLORY.
Jesus took on flesh and blood to bring His children to glory. Look with me at verse 10. It flows right out of verse 9. Verse 10.
“In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
Now, there’s a lot there in that verse, and the logic is not obvious at first. He says it was “fitting,” so that means “appropriate.” It was the correspondingly right thing to do that God–the One Who made everything and that everything is for–would make the author (or your version might have “captain” or “source” or “pioneer” or “leader,” and that’s got to be Jesus) perfect through suffering.
Wow! “Perfect through suffering?” What a thought?! What does he mean?
One thing he cannot mean is that Jesus was morally imperfect and needed to be made morally perfect. No. Jesus was sinless, and this author insists on that more than any other book in the Bible (see Hebrews 4:15, 7:26)! He does not mean that Jesus was sinful and had to be perfected through suffering to become sinless. No way.
What he means, I think, is that Jesus, in His humanity, was being perfectly equipped to save His people.
Jesus was taking on all of the qualifications of a perfect savior. And one of the chief qualifications of a perfect savior was suffering. He couldn’t save His people without suffering.  Suffering was essential to being the perfect Savior, and so Jesus was made perfect through suffering.
Now, that’s counter-intuitive to us. We think that suffering should always be avoided whenever possible. But the Bible says that suffering is the path to glory, and God’s people will all walk it. And so must their Savior.
The writer calls Jesus, the “author” of our salvation. The same word that he will use in Hebrews 12:2 when he tell us to fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race set before us fixing our eyes on Him as the “author” of our faith.
The Greek word there is a little hard to translate. That’s why our English Bibles give us so many options. (Maybe Keith will talk about it tonight at the class on Bible translation?)
The basic idea is a something like a trailblazer. Somebody who goes first and makes the way? Like an author who is the source of the story, getting the story started and first to get to the end because it’s His story. 
Or like a pioneer who sets out first and makes the trail. Jesus took the route of suffering and made that the way of salvation.
And the writer says that that was “fitting” for God to do to Him! Why? Because everything is about Him, it was right for God to make Jesus perfect through suffering. Because He is worth it all. And because He’s gracious like that. And because the Son Who would suffer is that same God who would get the glory for stepping down into death for His children so that they would be brought to glory.
“In bringing many sons (and daughters too!) to glory...”
And what blew me away this week was realizing that he does not just mean “gloryland” there. I think about “bringing many sons to glory” as being “bringing many Christians to heaven.” And it does mean that, but the glory here in context is the glory of verse 7 and verse 9.
It’s the glory that we were originally supposed to have as God’s image-bearing rulers of the world! He’s saying that we’re going to get our crowns back.
Jesus is going to fix everything so that we, fellow-humans, will be crowned with glory and honor–not because we’re so amazing in and of ourselves but–because Jesus perfectly suffered for us in His flesh and blood.
We’re going to be brought to glory and share in it! Church, we’re going to be glorified!
And Jesus is going to exult in that. He’s going to be so happy that we are brought to glory. I think that’s the point of the next three verses where the author makes his points again from quotations drawn from the Old Testament. He knows that these Jewish Christians will appreciate arguments from the Hebrew Bible. Look at verse 11. It’s the verse that Jenni put on the front of our bulletins today. Verse 11.
“Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. [Notice the family language.] He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.’ And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again he says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me’” (vv.11-13).
The writer has 3 quotes from two different passages in the Old Testament. Psalm 22, verse 22 in Hebrews 2:12 and Isaiah chapter 8, verse 17 and verse 18 in Hebrews 2:13.
There is a lot going on here, but the basic point is not complex. The basic point is simple. The basic point is that Jesus is so pleased and excited that He is bringing many sons (and daughters) to glory. And He calls us family. V.11 again.
“Both the one who makes men holy [that’s Jesus] and those who are made holy [that’s us] are of the same [NIV has] family [your version might say “Father,” the Greek is simply, “one” but the basic idea ends up the same].”
You and I are made of the same stuff as Jesus.  Jesus is the made of the same stuff as us! Flesh and blood, right? It’s not like we’re one thing and He’s another. Yes, He’s more, but He is not less. He’s 100% human. Just like we say in Article 4 of our Statement of Faith echoing the Nicene Creed. That theology comes from right here.
“Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same [flesh and blood]. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don’t miss that. Jesus is not is not ashamed to call us brother or sister!
Did you get that?! Jesus is not ashamed to call you brother. Jesus is not ashamed to call you sister. Jesus is not ashamed of you. Jesus is not ashamed to be associated with you.
Do you believe that?
That doesn’t mean you and I haven’t done things that we should be ashamed of. But see Who Jesus is in verse 11. He’s the one who makes us holy. He’s One who sanctifies us. And He’s become one of us. So He’s not ashamed to be associated with us. He’s not ashamed that we are in His family.
Let that sink in. Some of you live in shame all the day long. Jesus is not ashamed of you. You don’t have to be ashamed. You don’t have live in shame. You can hold your head up high. Because of Jesus, your head is being fitted for a crown! He is bringing you to glory. Glory!
Do you need proof this is how Jesus thinks of you? Verse 12 says to check Psalm 22 where “He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises’” (2:12).
We’ve studied Psalm 22 before. It’s the one that is so clearly about Jesus and His crucifixion? It begins, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Jesus quoted it about Himself on the Cross. We read it this time of year. “...they have pierced my hands and feet” (v.16). “They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing” (v.18). It’s about the crucifixion. 
But then the Psalm takes a turn towards the end that is clearly about the resurrection and the ascension to the right hand of God the Father! The Psalmist (who turns out to be Jesus) declares that He will be rescued. He will saved. And “we will feast in the house of Zion.” The kingdom will come in all of its fullness (see Ps 22:22-31). 
He is sure of it! So he says, “I will declare your name [God] to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”
He calls us brothers, and He says He’s going to sing with us! Have you ever thought about that? That the Lord Jesus is going to sing with us in glory?!
And what will He sing? Verse 13. 
“I will put my trust in him.” That’s Jesus’ song. He gets it from Isaiah 8:17 (look it up this afternoon), “I will put my trust in him.” And then Isaiah 8:18 says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
And the writer to the Hebrews says that Jesus sings that one, too.
“Here I am! I’m right here. I’m alive! I’m on the throne. I’m at the right hand. And look who I’ve got here....The children God has given me.”
He’s talking about you and me. He’s got His arms around our shoulders, and He’s so excited and pleased to present us to God. “Don’t they look great in their crowns?!”
He’s not just “not ashamed.” He’s pleased to call us His family. That’s how He feels about you if He’s making you holy. 
He’s bringing us to glory, and He’s not ambivalent about it. No, no. It was the thing that sustained Him through the agony of the cross. For the joy set before Him of glorifying His father and bringing His children to glory, He endured the Cross. That’s what made it worth it to Him. That’s why He took on flesh and blood! To sing with us in glory.
#2. TO DEFEAT OUR ENEMIES.
Look at verse 14. “Here am I and the children God has given me.” Verse 14.
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil–and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (vv.14-15).
Here’s where he uses the words, “flesh and blood” though in the Greek, it’s actually the other way around, “blood and flesh” but the meaning is the same.
The children have flesh and blood. That’s us. Everybody here has flesh and has blood. We can feel our pulse. So our Savior shared in that. Literally, “shared in the same.” 
The Son of God who had never suffered. Had always dwelled in unapproachable light. Was impassable. Could not suffer in His divine nature. Became a little baby that probably screamed for His milk. Took on flesh and infirmity. He got tired. He got sick. He didn’t know everything. He became limited. And He bled. And He died.
And in that dying, He defeated our greatest enemies. He defeated the devil, and He defeated death itself!
“...he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death–that is, the devil...”
The devil does not have ultimate power over death (only God does), but he does have some power over death, and he sure loves death. He loves how he tempted us to sin and then how death came! And put a death grip on us. But Jesus died (and rose again) to destroy the devil and his work!
That word the 1984 NIV translates “destroy” can mean “render inoperable or ineffective” or “reduce to nothing.” The updated NIV has “break the power of” (NIV 2011). One commentator I read this week says that Jesus “defanged the devil” at the Cross (Douglas Moo).
He lost. Satan was beaten by Jesus’ death. That’s why he kept trying to get Jesus to avoid it.  He tempted him at the start of his ministry to skip the Cross and then again in the garden. But Jesus chose His death. Because He knew that He would be defanging the devil. So you and I don’t have to be scared of Satan any more. Wary of him, sure. He’s still prowling around. But if you resist him, he must flee. And someday soon, we will crush him underneath our feet once and for all.
But that’s nothing. In His death, Jesus defeated an even scarier enemy than Satan. Jesus defeated death itself. Remember verse 9. Jesus tasted death for us by the grace of God. And we know that He then spit it out! He took on the wrath of God death that we deserve, the death of judgment, and absorbed it so that we won’t have to. So that, yes, we might die physically, but after that, we won’t enter into the eternal death that we deserved. So now we don’t have anything to be scared of.
If we belong to Jesus, we don’t have to be scared of death. Did you get that from verse 14?
Here’s why He took on flesh and blood. He “shared in their humanity so that by his death he might...free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
We were supposed to rule the the world. But instead we became slaves. Slaves to fear. And specifically fear of death.
Are you afraid of death? It’s normal to be. And it holds us back from so much living. But we can be free! You don’t have to be afraid. You don’t have to be ashamed (because Jesus calls you His sibling).  And you don’t have to be afraid even of dying. Because Jesus died for you! You don’t have to be scared. You don’t have to be scared of death because what is waiting for you now on the other side. Because of Who is waiting for you now on the other side!
Death is still an enemy.  But like the devil, death is a defeated enemy. And it really can’t hurt you if you belong to Jesus. Because He let it hurt Him. The Son took on flesh and blood so that He could die and kill death in the process (and see Revelation 20:14!). And one day, death will be no more. Do you believe it? Verse 16.
“For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.”
He’s back to angels!
Jesus is not an angel. Jesus never was an angel. Jesus didn’t become an angel. Jesus became a human. He came to save humans. He came to save Abraham’s descendants. And that doesn’t just mean biological Jews. It means all of those who have faith in God’s promise like Abraham did. Jews on the inside (see Romans 4:16, Galatians 3:9). Jesus came to save all who will believe in Him. Is that you? Verse 17.
“For this reason he had to be made [had to! Had to be made] like his brothers in every way [flesh and blood], in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”
Last point for today. Why did Jesus take on flesh and blood?
#3. TO BECOME OUR PERFECT PRIEST.
This is going to be a major theme in the rest of the letter. In fact, he’s going to come back to the idea of Jesus being our high priest again and again, and in chapter 5, he’s going to focus on Jesus being merciful and compassionate and in chapter 3, the very next chapter, he’s going to focus on Jesus being faithful. 
So we don’t have say everything right now. But what I want to point out for sure is that Jesus is our perfect high priest. He is the total package. Merciful and faithful in service to God. He did all that was needed once and for all. And He made atonement for the sins of the people! That means that He dealt with the problem of sin once and for all. Both wiping sin out and absorbing the wrath of God for sin in our place. And the only way that He could do that is if He was flesh and blood. He had to be like us in every way. 
It takes a human priest to be the high priest for humans. And it takes a flesh and blood priest to offer His own flesh and blood!
Because Jesus is like and unlike every other high priest there ever was. He is like them because He’s a human like every other high priest was. But He’s unlike every other high priest because the sacrificial offering He presents to God is His own flesh and blood. He made atonement for the sins of the people. 
And then He sat down. Remember chapter 1, verse 3. “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” It is finished. Our sins are forgiven. They are paid for. They are gone. Because Jesus suffered for us.
His suffering was real. There wasn’t anything fake about Jesus’ suffering. It was agony. It was torment. It was excruciating in every way. He didn’t just seem to suffer. There is no saying that Jesus got off easy or that Jesus doesn’t understand what it means to suffer. Jesus’s suffering was as real as it gets.
And because of that, He can help us. He can help us to be forgiven forever, and He can help us to get through trials and temptations every single day. That’s where he goes in verse 18.
“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he [Jesus] is able to help those who are being tempted.”
What’s he talking about? It was so hard for Jesus. He was tempted, and it never stopped. Our temptations often stop because we give in to them. But Jesus never gave in. And He hated sin more than ever had, so when He was tempted to sin, it was even more painful than we can imagine.
How much He felt like giving in! Think about Jesus in the garden sweating drops of blood. “Take this cup away, Father. Please!” But not my will but your will be done.
He didn’t give in. He never gave in. And we don’t have give in either. He is able to help those who are being tempted to give in. And to give up.
These Jewish believers were tempted to give up. They were tempted to throw in the towel.They were tempted to go back to Judaism alone. They were tempted to drop out of the race and stop following Jesus.
But this pastor wrote them this letter. "Don’t give in. Don’t give up. Jesus became flesh and blood for you to bring you to glory. He is not ashamed to call you brothers and sisters.  You don’t have to be ashamed no matter what they throw at you! Jesus took on flesh and blood for you to defeat your enemies. You don’t have to be scared of the devil any more. You don’t have to be scared of death any more! And you certainly don’t have to give in to temptation any more. Because He suffered, and He paid for your sins. You don’t have to give in to them either. Don’t quit! Don’t stop!"
Fix your eyes on the humble, suffering humanity of Jesus.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-14
03. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4
04. "We See Jesus" - Hebrews 2:5-9

“We See Jesus”Fixing Our Eyes on JesusThe Letter to the HebrewsLanse Evangelical Free ChurchFebruary 22, 2026 :: Hebrews 2:5-9  
We’re going to start today with a pop quiz. See if you’ve been paying attention! Are you ready? Five questions.
QUESTION #1. “In the past God spoke to [us] through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by...[What? Or Whom]”? 
ANSWER: His Son! The owner of all things, the maker of all things, the sustainer of all things. The Son! He’s the “radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being.” He’s the full and final revelation of God to us! The Son.
QUESTION #2. Which is greater...this Son or the angels of God?
ANSWER: The Son is infinitely greater than the angels. Angels are great! Angels are amazing. But they are nothing compared to the Son. Angels are created. The Son is the Creator. Angels are winds and fire. The Son never changes. We don’t worship the angels. We join the angels in worshiping the Son. 
QUESTION #3. On Whom should we, as Christians, fix our eyes?
ANSWER: Jesus! We should fix our eyes on the Son. That’s the whole point of this letter.  
Chapter 12 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
The Son is worthy of our attention. He’s worthy of our focus. Last week, we learned in the first four verses of chapter 2 that we should pay careful attention to the Son so that we don’t drift away. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus so that we don’t neglect this great salvation that He has announced and provided. 
QUESTION #4, if we ignore His great salvation, will we escape? Yes or No?
ANSWER: No. We will not escape if we ignore such a great salvation. That’s the flipside. That’s the warning of what will happen if we refuse to fix our eyes on Jesus. We will drift away, and we will not escape. There’s so much at stake.
One more question in our pop quiz for today. Well done, so far. One more question, and [big hint] I have already said the answer in the last few minutes! 
QUESTOIN #5. According to the Book of Hebrews, where is Jesus right now?
ANSWER: At the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
I quoted it already from chapter 12, verse 2. It’s also right there in verse 3 of chapter 1, and the writer also quoted Psalm 110 verse 1 in chapter 1, verse 13, as applying to Jesus when he asked, “To which of the angels did God ever say, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’?”
What’s the answer to that one? To which of the angels? Not one of them! But He did say that to the Son.  He did say that to Jesus. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you feet.” And He did!
Right now, the Son is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Now, I think that’s what’s uppermost in this pastor’s mind as he writes this letter to this struggling church of primarily Jewish believers.
Jesus sitting at the Father’s right hand.
And this writer so wants to encourage these precious saints to focus on Him!
But it’s hard. It’s hard for them to focus on Jesus because life is hard. And because they are starting to be persecuted for following Jesus. And because they are feeling alone and insignificant and scared. And things just aren’t the way they are supposed to be.
Do you ever feel that way? “This is not how things are supposed to be.” I feel that way a lot.  There’s a reason we feel that way. It’s because they aren’t!
So this shepherd wants to encourage these struggling sheep to focus on the One who is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high because that will get them through.
He reminds them, “We See Jesus.”
Those words are in verse 9. “We see Jesus.” We lift up the eyes of our hearts to see Jesus where He is. And we fix our eyes on Jesus. We see Jesus, and it makes all the difference.
Let’s work through the passage. It’s really part of a longer section that goes to the end of the chapter, but I felt like studying all of that was biting off more than we could chew. So we’re just focusing today on verses 5 through 9. The writer picks up his argument again about how much greater Jesus is to the angels. Verse 5.
“It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.”
Same deal. The angels are amazing, but they are not everything.
The angels are not going to be the rulers of “the world to come.” That’s an interesting phrase isn’t it? He says he’s been writing about a new world coming, and the angels are not going to rule it. They are servants but will not be the masters (see 1:14).
Now, that might be surprising. There are some ways in which angels are currently ruling this world. Remember back in the book of Daniel chapter 10, where the curtain was peeled back a little bit, and we learned that the archangel Michael was some kind of a “prince” (see also Daniel 12:2). And Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says that there unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms (KJV: “principalities” and “powers”).
But in the world to come, it will not be angels who will be at the top of creation, ruling all of the world.
So, if not angels, what kind of being will rule the world to come?
I don’t think it’s the hippopotami.
The answer may surprise you. 
Of course, God is the Ruler over all. That’s the same forever and ever. The Ancient of Days sits on the eternal throne. Always has, always is, always will.
But the writer of this letter says that God has made a certain kind of being who He’s going to place over all of the world to come.
And it’s going to be the kind of being that He originally intended to rule over all of creation. And he’s got the Bible to prove it. Look at verse 6.
“It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet’” (2:5-6). Stop there for now.
What kind of being will rule over the world to come?
It will be human beings.
Not angels, amazing as they are. It will be you and me. The Bible says so.
Isn’t it funny in verse 6 where he says, “There is a place where someone has testified...” Like he doesn’t remember where it is in his Bible. I feel that don’t you? That happens to me, too. “I don’t know. It’s in there somewhere.”
Actually, he’s probably assuming that they do know exactly where it is. So he can be vague, but they all know where it says:
“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honorand put everything under his feet.”
Where does it say that?
That’s in Psalm 8, which we read at the head of our worship time this morning.
It starts, “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1).
You might want to read it again this afternoon.
You know how I said, that Hebrews is a lot like a sermon? It’s a letter, but it reads a lot like what I do every Sunday in explaining and applying the Bible to the flock. Well, here in the first part of chapter 2, the writer is preaching on Psalm 8. He’s taking it out and looking at it and applying to their lives.
And Psalm 8 marvels at the placement of humanity in the world. The focus here is on humanity. Look again at verse 6.
“...there is a place where someone has testified: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”
King David was astonished to think that God would think about little old him!
David was blown away that the majestic God of the universe would care two figs for little David.
David says in the verse right before the one Hebrews quotes, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place...what is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:3).
I have four implications of this passage for our lives today as applications for us this morning, and here’s the first one.
#1. BE AMAZED.
Let yourself be amazed at your place in the world and in God’s own heart.
David looked up at the night sky. He had been a shepherd, you know. A lot of nights looking up at the Milky Way, smelling sheep, and he says, “When I look up there and see just how small I am...the heavens, the moon, the stars...I am so small.”
And those things up there are just your “fingerwork.” Like Heather’s knitting. The stars the galaxies are just the fingerwork of God.
And when I think about that, I feel so small. And that’s right! We are small.
We like to think about ourselves as big. As the measure of all things. We act like we are the center of everything. No! God is the center of everything. God is the measure of all things. And He is immense! 
He’s majestic! But He’s also “mindful” of us. He cares about us?
What I always say about Psalm 8 is that it puts us in our place. Which is small and also significant. It’s tiny and also beloved. God knows your name. God cares about little you. 
I would imagine that the first readers felt insignificant, especially if they were experiencing government sponsored persecution. I mean, when the government comes after you, you can feel so small and defenseless. Who do you call?! You can’t call the police. They’re the problem. You feel so alone. And in the big old universe. So alone.
But Psalm 8 says that we are not alone. And that God has His mind on us. And that blows David’s mind!  Because we’re not just loved, but we we’re given a position of authority in this world. Verse 7.
“You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet’” That’s amazing! Human beings were made just “a little lower than the angels,” and we were given “crowns.” King Adam and Queen Eve were made the rulers of Creation. They were given the glory and honor of bearing the very image of God. Listen to Genesis chapter 1:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’” (Genesis 1:26-28).
That’s amazing?!!
That’s what human beings are supposed to be!
You and I were made to wear crowns.
That’s why we are supposed to be so respectful of other human beings.
Because they bear the image of God and are therefore royalty. 
That’s why abuse is so evil. That’s why mistreatment of other humans, no matter who they are, is so wrong. Inhumane means ungodly. That’s why we honor both men and women. Not one or the other. Both of the two sexes are made in the image of God. That’s why we put money in baby bottles to help convince parents to carry and raise their little princes and princesses. And it’s why take we responsibility for our domains. Because we were given a job to do. We’re supposed to tend the garden, so to speak, of this world.
God crowned us with glory and honor and put everything under our feet.
And by everything, what do you think he means? V.8
“In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him.”
“Everything” means “everything” in all creation! Human beings were made to rule wisely and well.
And yet...Look again at verse 8.
“Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.”
Things are not the way they are supposed to be.
Do you feel it? We all feel it. This world is broken. And we broke it! We are broken, and we broke the world. We failed to rule it well. We failed to rule it wisely. We failed to reflect the image of God. We fell into sin, and we spread it all around. And we invited the curse and death.
We’ve done a bad job of ruling the world. So much so that a fallen angel is often right now called, “the prince of this world.” We do not see everything subject to humanity. 
Oh, we still throw our weight around, but it’s nothing like what it’s supposed to be.
Do I need to convince you of this? Just scroll on your phone, and you will see. We are doing a bad job of ruling the world, and creation isn’t cooperating either. Our enemies are exercising dominion over us. 
Death, for example, is the reigning champion. Everybody here is living with it. It’s coming for everyone in this room.
We were made for so much more, “Yet at present we do not see everything subject to” us.
But! There is more to the story, isn’t there? Here’s our key sentence. Verse 9.
“But we see Jesus...”
This is the first time his personal name is written in this letter. Jesus. It always emphasizes His humanity and His mission to save us. “But we see Jesus!” And that makes all of the difference. Because see what Jesus has done?
The writer uses the language of Psalm 8 and takes it all to a new level. V.9
“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels [He became a human like you and me! Stepping down from heaven and assuming a human nature just like ours, taking a spot as a servant, a little lower than the angels, we see Jesus], now crowned with glory and honor [not just because He’s the image of God but] because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”
What’s He talking about? He’s talking about where Jesus is right now.
Church, where is Jesus right now?
He’s at the right hand of the Majesty on high. How’d He get there? He is crowned with glory and honor. How come?  Because He suffered death, even death on a Cross.
And He was victorious!  He came back to life. He was raised on the third day and ascended into heaven! And all God’s angels are worshiping Him (1:6). 
That’s where we see Him. We don’t see Him with our physical eyes. We see with the eyes of our heart where Jesus is. 
He is crowned!He is honored!
The First Adam failed. But the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus, won the victory!
And He’s waiting until the Father makes His enemies a footstool for His feet. And then He’s coming back to rule here as He does there. 
Implication number two:
#2. BE PATIENT.
Be amazed at your place in the world and in God’s heart, and be patient while you wait for Jesus to take His place over the world.
“It is not to angels that [God] has subjected the world to come...”
It is to humans that He has, and most specifically one particular human has led the way.
We see Jesus!
Jesus is the quintessential human. He’s everything that we are (barring sin) and everything we were supposed to be! And He’s coming again to rule the world as it should be.
I can’t hardly wait. But we have to wait.
But while we wait, we wait in hope. We wait, understanding where we are in the story. Creation, Fall, Redemption. New Creation.
We are not forgotten.We are not alone.We are small, but we’re on God’s mind and in His heart.
Things are not the way they are supposed to be, and it’s our fault.
But Jesus has tasted death and spit it back out!
Jesus has conquered death so that death will not have the last word for you and me. Jesus is going to fix it all. He’s going to fix everything. And everything is going to be put under His feet.
Implication number three:
#3. BE THANKFUL.
We see Jesus...suffering death, by God’s grace, in our place.
He tasted death, experienced the full force of death, for every one of us who are His. He died the death that we deserved.
We’re going to talk more about this next week because Jesus’ flesh-and-blood-humanity and death is the focus of the whole rest of the chapter. And all of what His death means to you and me.
But we know just from verse 9 that it was “for” us. And that it was a gift. It says “by the grace of God.”
We didn’t deserve. We couldn’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it. We couldn’t earn it.We can’t even pay it back. It’s got to be a gift or nothing.
And, praise God, it is a gift!
Have you received the gift? The gift of eternal life that comes from the death of Jesus Christ? If you have not, you are headed to destruction. You are headed towards Hell. And you deserve it. But you don’t have to go there. There is such a great salvation you can have instead! You are invited to turn from your sins and trust in the Savior. To put your faith in Jesus and what He did on the Cross.
He endured the Cross.He scorned the shame.And He sat down at the right hand of throne of God!And one day, He’s coming back to set everything right.
Jesus is the quintessential human. He’s the Son of Man (like in verse 6) and also like in Daniel 7 which we learned about this time last year.
Where Daniel saw, “...one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.  He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14).
Remember, all bad things must come to end.
And then we will reign with Him!
Daniel 7 also said, “Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him” (Daniel 7:27).
You and I will get to wear those crowns after all!
In fact, the Bible says that one day we will in some way judge the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)?!
Be amazed.Be patient.Be thankful.
And lastly:
#4. BE FOCUSED.
Be focused on Jesus. Because it’s all about Him. Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus. Not for one second.
Do you see Him? He’s seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High.
Yes, things are a mess right now. Things are not as they ought to be. But things are going to change. Guaranteed by the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the accession of Jesus, and the present session of Jesus at the right hand of the throne of God.
Let’s stay focused, not on angels, not on ourselves, not on how hard life is, not on what we cannot yet see, but let us stay focused on Him.
We see Jesus.

***
Messages in this Series:

01. "The Son" - Hebrews 1:1-4
02. "Superior to the Angels" - Hebrews 1:5-1403. "Such a Great Salvation" - Hebrews 2:1-4

“Such a Great Salvation”Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus Lanse Evangelical Free ChurchFebruary 15, 2026 :: Hebrews 2:1-4  
Pay attention to Jesus.
Pay close, careful, focused, heart-attention to the Son of God. 
That’s the main point of application in these four verses. 
And that’s, of course, the point of the whole book. Our series’ title comes from chapter 12, verse 2. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Pay attention to Jesus.
That’s what we’re here to do today, and we’ve been doing it, praise God! And that’s what our church is here for, praise the Lord! To focus on that “one single candle, shining so bright.” And to not take our eyes off of Him. Pay attention to Jesus. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
Interestingly, this is the first explicit point of application that the writer to the Hebrews makes in his sermonic letter.
He jumped right in to an amazing description of Jesus as “the Son” in the first paragraph, and then he gave a complicated Old-Testament-based argument that the Son is superior to the angels in the rest of the first chapter (remember that?), and there are many implications for all of that deep theology, but this is the first application that he wants to draw from it.
Notice the word “therefore” in verse 1. “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
What have we heard? We have heard from God through His Son. Because Jesus is everything that he said He is in chapter 1, we should pay careful attention to Him. 
Pay attention to Jesus...or else.
These four verses of chapter 2 are not just the first application that the writer includes in his letter, they are the first clear warning.
Embedded in the Letter to the Hebrews are several serious warnings against falling away from following Jesus. Not only does the writer encourage us to fix our eyes on Jesus, he constantly warns us that we are serious trouble if we do not.
Listen to verse 1 again. “We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.” So that we do not get lost.
Have you ever gone body-surfing in the ocean?
You go to the shore. You go to the beach. You lather up with sunscreen. You head out for a swim, and the main thing you do is ride the waves as they come in. Up and down. Up and down. Some people can do it for hours. I always want to get back to my chair and my book. But it’s fun. Have you ever been out there enjoying yourself for a long time and you kind of lose track of where your beach towel is? And where your cooler is. And your beach umbrella and your family? And you’re just living in the moment, and then the next thing you realize is that you are really far from where you started.
Those are the undercurrents, right? You can be a mile down the beach. And if you aren’t paying attention, you can get sucked out into the ocean. You have to keep an eye on your kids, right? And an eye on some of the adults, too. If we are not paying attention, we can just drift away.
The writer is warning us to pay attention to Jesus or we might drift off and be lost.
Now, that sounds kind of scary because it is. It’s a warning! And the writer was concerned that some of his Hebrew readers were in danger of doing that very thing.
But notice that he includes himself. “We must pay more careful attention.” He’s not saying anything to them that he isn’t saying to himself.
And he expects them to heed this warning and to not drift away. Because he’s told them just how worthy Jesus is of our attention. He’s the Son! Heir all of things, maker of all things, sustainer of all things. The radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. He never changes, and He sits at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven (see 1:1-4). That’s the Son! Superior to all of the angels. 
So we need to hear and heed this warning, but we should also be encouraged by it if we are paying attention to Jesus. If you are paying attention to Jesus, then this passage should encourage you. 
But if you are no longer paying attention to Jesus or on the brink of ignoring Jesus, then this passage should serve as a “wake-up call” for you.
Why would we stop paying attention to Jesus? How would you answer that for yourself? 
I think one thing would be distractions of this world. There are so many thing vying for our attention. Good things and bad things. We can get so caught up in the rat race, in our jobs, in our families, in our sports, in our politics, in our entertainment, in our social media, in our accumulation of money and possessions, that we take our eyes off of Jesus and start effectively worshiping those things instead.
What is it for you? What keeps drawing you away from focusing on the Son?
Last time, we talked about angels. Some of these folks might have been tempted to fix their eyes on God’s amazing supra-human messengers instead of the Son. Angels are good, but they are infinitely inferior to Jesus. We don’t worship them. We join them in the worship of Jesus.
What is it for you? Maybe not angels, but what is that undercurrent that threatens to pull you out to sea away from Jesus?
For the original recipients of this letter, it seems that it was persecution. Life was getting hard. They were being attacked for following Jesus, and they were tempted to stop focusing on Jesus and go back to “just being Jews.” That was hard enough. 
Can you relate? Life is hard enough without the added pressure of people attacking you just because you follow Jesus. And so...you start to drift.
Life is hard so you stop coming to church every Sunday.
Life is hard so you stop meeting with other Christians for Bible study and encouragement and prayer.
Life is hard so you skip your Bible reading today and then again tomorrow and then before long you don’t remember the last time you opened that thing.
Life is hard so you skip your prayer time this morning. You’ll do it later.  You’ll do it tomorrow. You’ll do it next week. You’ll...drift away.
Now, I’m not saying, and neither is the Bible, that we are sinning if we miss church for good reasons or that you have to legalistically read your Bible and pray every single day to somehow maintain your salvation. 
No. No. No. It doesn’t work that way, and I’m not trying to shame or guilt anybody. We don’t need legalistic religion.
But we sure need Jesus! And if we don’t have Him, we are lost.
And we pay attention to Jesus by reading His Word, praying in His name, and meeting with His people. It doesn’t have to be this church, but we need the church! Because the church is Jesus’ people on Earth, and we need Jesus. Amen? You don’t have to listen closely to me, but you do have to listen closely to Jesus. 
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
I’ve seen so many people drift away.
Don’t take your eyes off of Jesus. It’s dangerous. That’s what the writer emphasizes in next two verses. Look at verse 2.
“We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away...For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (vv.1-3).
Do you see his logic? What’s he talking about?
He’s, once again, contrasting the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. The Old Testament with the New Testament. The Law given through Moses and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Look more closely at verse 2.
“For if the message spoken by angels was binding...”
Aha. We’re back to angels. What message is he talking about? That was the Law given through Moses at Mount Sinai. There were apparently thousands of angels, “myriads of holy ones” (Deuteronomy 33:2) present and helping to hand down the Law through Moses to the people at Mount Sinai.
“For if the message spoken by angels was binding [reliable, true, applicable] and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment...”
What’s he talking about there? He’s talking about all of those times in the Old Testament when the people disobeyed, and the Lord brought judgment. Think about the golden calf. Think about the quail. Think about the wilderness wanderings. Think about the man who broke the Sabbath and was executed. Think about all of those times in the Old Testament when they broke the Law, and they received the retribution of God. 
Was that good? Of course it was good! It was holy. It was right. It was righteous. God is holy, holy, holy, and He judges sin.
Now, here’s the logic. It goes from lesser to greater. If God was just and right to bring that earthly judgment on those sins against the lesser Old Covenant (and He was) then... Verse 3. “...how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?”
What’s the answer to that one? How shall we escape? 
We shall not. No way. No how.
Do you see the logic here? Remember in chapter 1, verse 1, the writer said that, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways...” And that was good! But now, He’s spoken to us through, something much greater. He has spoken through His Son! 
So what do you think? If you disobeyed the prophets and ignored the prophets and you got God’s justice, what happens if you ignore the Son? 
Some people think that the Old Testament is stark and scary and full of God’s wrath. Well, it is...for those who are disobedient. But they also think that the New Testament is just sweetness and rainbows and soft things. But the New Testament is even heavier in some ways because the Son is so much more worthy and glorious.
If you reject the Son of God and the salvation that He offers, then there is no escaping the eternal judgment of God.
That’s what we learned about all week at the Theology Conference.
If we ignore such a great salvation, how shall we escape?
We won’t! We just won’t.
So these Hebrews who were considering going backwards and falling out of the race and ignoring Jesus, were in danger of eternal judgment. Because the salvation is so great, the punishment for ignoring it is so great, as well.
Pay attention to Jesus.
The word for “ignore” in verse 3 could be translated “neglect” or “disregard.” It means to make light of something and consider something else (anything else) as more important.
Do you remember the parable Jesus told (in Matthew 22) about the king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son and sent his servants to bring in those who had been invited? 
But then the guests refused to come? So the king sent some more servants and said, “Tell them that the beef brisket is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!”
“But they paid no attention [same word in the Greek, ignored, neglected, paid no attention] and went off–one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.”
And do you remember how the king responded? “[He] was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (See Matthew 22:2-10.)
“...how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” (V.3).
Now, this probably raises some questions for some of you. It does for me, too. And I don’t necessarily have all the answers.
Some of you have very tender consciences, and this kind of talk makes you worried that you’re going to miss your salvation because you have sinned here or there. You have lost your focus on Jesus from time to time, and this wigs you out. 
I believe that if you love Jesus and are even just wanting to fix your eyes on Him, that is the last thing you need to worry about. 
We do not save ourselves by being sinless or keep ourselves saved by focusing on Jesus. No. But if we are saved, we will focus on Jesus. If we are truly saved, then we will heed this warning. But if we are truly saved, we will pay attention to Jesus because He’s the One who saves us and because our hearts will want to pay attention to Him.
The very fact that you are here today to worship Jesus should encourage you that you are fixing your eyes on Jesus. It does me! The very fact that you are singing, “Here’s my heart, Lord! Speak what is true” should encourage you that you are paying careful attention to Jesus.
But! If you are dropping out or considering dropping out of the race or have checked out, then let this be a warning to you. If you are not singing the songs at least in your heart. If you are turning your back. If you are putting your fingers in your ears when Jesus speaks to you, then be warned. Be scared. Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
Because we (any of us) shall not escape if we ignore such a great salvation.
Why would we even want to?!Why would we want to ignore this salvation?! It’s crazy!
You can almost understand those outside of the church. Maybe they haven’t heard. Maybe they’ve been turned off by church people. (None of those are excuses. There are no excuses.)
But for those who have heard about Jesus?For those who have sung the songs and prayed some prayers?For those who have been loved by Jesus’ people?
To then turn their backs on Jesus and walk away forever?
If that’s you or me, we will not escape. And Hell will be the right place for us for all eternity.
Some of you are worried that’s it too late for you. As we get further into this letter and bump up against some of the even more heavy warnings, you may feel that even more strongly. 
What I would say to you is that if you have started to walk away and regret it, and you can turn around and return to Jesus and run back into His waiting arms, then do it!
And if that’s you, then you haven’t gone too far. It’s only those who cannot find repentance that have gone too far.
That’s why the writer warns these folks. He’s saying, “Don’t go there! We must pay more careful attention. We must not drift away. Let’s not drift out to sea!”
Focus on the shore.Focus on the Son.Pay attention to Jesus.
Because He has provided “such a great salvation.”
And it’s all true. That’s the point of the rest of verse 3 and all of verse 4. We can trust that this salvation is true because...just look at the witnesses to the gospel message! Verse 3.
“This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (vv.3b-4).
You see the three steps? Announced, confirmed, testified?
Salvation was announced by Jesus Himself! “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is here.” “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus says so! Salvation is announced!
And then (second step) the salvation was confirmed to us (notice he includes himself again) “by those who heard” the Lord. That’s the apostles. That’s what we have here in our Bibles. 
And that’s not all. The third step is even more witnesses–not just the Son and the Apostles but the Father and the Holy Spirit! This testimony is triune like our God! V.5
“God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles [that’s the Book of Acts], and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.”
And He’s still doing that today–gifting God’s people to serve the church and share the gospel with the world. It’s true. It’s all true. The Triune God and the people of God all bear witness to this salvation. It’s true, and it’s great.
I was trying to think this week why it’s called a “great” salvation in verse 3. I agree with that, of course, but what exactly did the writer have in mind?
What’s so great about this great salvation? And I kept coming back to three things. First, it’s great because we are saved from our sins.
#1. SALVATION FROM OUR SINS.
Our sins are very great because they are sins against a holy God.
The speakers at last week’s Theology Conference emphasized this. We deserve Hell. Hell is good and right and just. Hell is not bad. We’re bad. Hell is good. It’s hard for us to accept mainly because we don’t realize how sinful we are and how awful our sins are before a holy God.
We need to come to see the gravity of our sin and the danger we are in. And then we’ll understand that amazing grace that we have been shown.
We tend to think that maybe an eternal Hell is not justice. And we think we’re maybe more merciful than God. But the merciful One is the One who purified us from our sins. From every “violation and disobedience” and rescued us from our “just punishment” (v.2).
Remember that’s what salvation is. Salvation is rescue!
“Let us love and sing and wonderLet us praise the Saviour’s nameHe has hushed the Law’s loud thunderHe has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame He has washed us with His blood.” - John Newton
And that’s the second thing I thought about in our salvation’s greatness. We are saved from our sin, and we are saved by the Son.
#2. SALVATION BY THE SON.
“He has washed us with His blood.” He didn’t just announce the salvation and then step aside for someone else to deliver it. Like an angel? No, He did it Himself. The Son! The Son of chapter 1 did it Himself!
Chapter 1, verse 4 said that “he made purification for our sins.” Jesus did it. He did it on that Cross. With a love divine, of all loves excelling, Jesus took our place and took our punishment. 
One of the speakers this week said that if you are concerned about injustice, then look no further than the Cross. Because the Holy One of God was crucified for your sins on that Cross. He didn’t do anything to deserve being there, and yet, there He was! Talk about injustice! 
It was such a great salvation because the salvation was purchased by the blood of the Son.
And lastly, it’s a great salvation because it’s an eternal one. We are saved from our sin by the Son forever and ever.
#3. SALVATION FOR ALL ETERNITY.
We are saved from an eternal hell and to an eternal heaven. Or, more precisely, an eternal new heaven and new earth. One ruled by the Son! Because, as we saw last time, He is God and He never changes, and He accomplished our salvation, was resurrected[!], and came to sit at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And one day He’s going to bring the Kingdom of God in all of its fullness to Earth. And He’s going to bring that salvation that He has purchased for us with His blood.
Remember chapter 1, verse 14 says that angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” Salvation is here in part, but the fullness is still on the way. And Jesus is going to bring it some day soon. 
We’re going to see that again when we get to chapter 9.
Where it is written, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrew 9:27-28). And it’s going to last forever!
Notice who will get that salvation. Those who are “waiting for him.”
Not those who have given up. Not those who have checked out.Not those who have turned their back on Jesus and fallen out of the race.Not those who have drifted away.Not those who have ignored such a great salvation!
But those who are paying attention to Jesus. 
May that be you and me. 

***

Messages in this Series:

01. The Son - Hebrews 1:1-402. Superior to the Angels - Hebrews 1:5-14