S4 || Jesus Created the Cosmos and is Above Angels || Hebrews 1:10 - 2:3 || Session 4

Start with the breathtaking claim of Hebrews chapter 1: the same Jesus who walked dusty roads laid the foundations of the earth and shaped the heavens with his hands. We walk through the text step by step, showing how the author of Hebrews applies the divine name to Jesus, places Him above angels, and calls Him unchanging. If creation wears out like a garment, Jesus remains. That single truth reframes faith, hope, and every promise we bank on.

We then pivot from soaring theology to a sober warning in Hebrews chapter 2: do not drift. Most of us don’t renounce truth in one loud moment; we slide away in silence. Drift looks like busyness without Bible, borrowed convictions without Berean checking, and reading Scripture through the lens of our times instead of reading our times through Scripture. The remedy is clear and possible: pay closer attention to what the eyewitnesses handed down. The word was confirmed with signs, wonders, and gifts of the Holy Spirit—evidence we should not treat lightly.

Together we explore why “neglect,” not just “reject,” is the danger of our age. For those outside The Church, ignoring Jesus' rescue leaves no alternate path around a just penalty for sin. For believers, casual faith invites discipline and loss, even as salvation rests secure in Jesus the Messiah. Through Israel’s history and the coming judgment on Jerusalem, we’re reminded that God’s patience is holy, not permissive. The invitation is not to fear for fear’s sake but to anchor to the only One who does not change. If you’ve felt the pull of the worldly tide, this conversation will help you tie the mooring line again—daily Scripture, honest community, and a fresh gaze at the majesty of Jesus.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs an anchor, and leave a review to help more listeners find these studies. Your reflections: where do you notice drift, and what habit helps you stay moored?

Chapters

• 0:20 Hebrews 1:10–14 Read Aloud
• 1:14 Jesus Identified As Yahweh
• 3:30 Creator, Sustainer, Unchanging Lord
• 7:20 Above Angels And All Creation
• 10:40 From Lofty Theology To Warning
• 11:04 Hebrews 2:1–4 Read Aloud
• 12:03 Do Not Drift From The Truth
• 16:46 Neglect Versus Reject Explained
• 21:16 Consequences And Coming Judgment
• 26:00 Steadfast Faith And Daily Attention
• 29:35 Closing And Next Topics Teased

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:20

Welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. Today we are in the book of Hebrews in chapter one. If you were with us last time, we've been breathing some rarefied air, some very rich theological teachings about the Lord Jesus. This is a wonderful book, and it's very deep, very profound. He spends a lot of the book soaring around the heights, talking about who is this man Jesus. We saw last time the writer lifts him up higher than the angels, all the way up to the throne of God. We saw that he speaks of Christ as the Son. He accepts worship. The deity of Christ is strong in Hebrews chapter one. Today we're not finished with these lofty teachings about Christ. We're going to start in Hebrews chapter one, starting in verse 10. And Steve, can you read down to verse 14?

SPEAKER_00: 1:14

You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain, and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle you will roll them up. Like a garment they will also be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end. But to which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

SPEAKER_01: 1:54

With this, again, the writer of Hebrews is quoting the Old Testament. He's very adept at quoting Old Testament passages. Here, verse 10 is quoting Psalm 102, starting in verse 25. He is again giving very lofty praise to the Lord Jesus. Here in Hebrews 110, he's speaking, of course, about Christ. He says, You Lord. So, Steve, what is the significance here at verse 10 of speaking of Jesus as Lord?

SPEAKER_00: 2:24

As we pointed out before, everywhere we see L-O-R-D capitalized in the translation that we're using, the Hebrew word behind that is Yahweh, Y-H-W-H. He's saying something here that's very personable. You, Yahweh, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth. I think that's the significance, is that there's not just a God out there that is the creator of everything. That God has a name, and his name is Yahweh. His name is Yahweh.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

He came to earth and took on humanity and called himself Jesus. It is the you here is Jesus. You, Yahweh, Jesus in the beginning laid the foundations. It's not only claiming that Jesus is Yahweh, but it's reinforcing the idea that Jesus laid the foundations of the earth. God created the world, created the universe, and Jesus was God. That's what it's saying here. Jesus created the universe. It's saying that Jesus is the Yahweh that was already existing in the beginning. Genesis 1.1 speaks of God as already there. That's what it's saying here is that Jesus was in the beginning. John 1 1 opens the same. He was in the beginning. And it says the heavens are the work of your hands. Jesus is the creator of all that exists, the heavens and the earth. Jesus is the organizer and designer of the heavens. All the intricacies, all the size, all the astronomical wonders are the work of the hands of this lowly carpenter, Jesus. All the heavenly throne room, all the heavenly cherubim and seraphim, all of the heavenly thrones and works and clouds. And just remember when we went through the first chapter of Ezekiel, we saw wheels within wheels and the beings with four faces. Jesus created all of that. All of the heavenly things and the earthly things are the creation of Jesus. Steve, it's just quite amazing. And it's a very, very heady teaching that we have here.

SPEAKER_00: 4:48

Even though this is a song from the Old Testament, it's matching up with a couple of New Testament books in both the first chapter of John and the first chapter of Colossians. It says there very clearly that the world was created by Jesus himself, and that the world was created for him, by him, and that it's also sustained by him. In John, it says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. I think it's given a good picture here of the deity of Jesus Christ. It's not just in the New Testament, we see it depicted here in this psalm of the Old Testament, Psalm 110.

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

Hebrews 111 says, They will perish, speaking of all of the heavenly beings and heavenly things. They will perish, but you remain. So the question is, will Jesus ever perish? Will he ever come to an end? And what is the implications of that?

SPEAKER_00: 5:50

Well, if he's God, no, he won't ever perish, and he won't ever come to an end. He's everlasting. That's the implications of it. Short answer is to no, he won't perish.

SPEAKER_01: 6:01

There's only one being that will not perish, and that is the Lord God Almighty. And this passage is claiming that is Jesus. Jesus is everlasting. He was from the beginning, John 1:1. Jesus will never perish. His years will not come to an end, it says here in verse 12. Jesus is, quote, from everlasting to everlasting, Psalm 90, verse 2. I think this is quite profound. Steve, do people today need something that's solid, that's not going to change, that they can depend on, that won't fail, something that's permanent. Do people long for that today?

SPEAKER_00: 6:41

Isn't that why Jesus is described as our rock, our firm foundation? Everybody needs something solid to stand on and something that is solid to be able to lean on and to be behind them, underneath them. Jesus fits that description just perfectly because he is God, and also because he has come here and has fully man and fully God, he can relate to us and know the things that we have gone through. So I just think that he is a perfect example of somebody that we can lean on and trust and believe in, and that he's always going to be there for us.

SPEAKER_01: 7:22

In verse 12, the teachings about how grand Jesus is, they just keep coming and coming. Verse 12 again is speaking of all the creation, all of the earth and all of the heavens. It says, like a mantle you will roll them up, like a garment, they will also be changed. Not only did Jesus put up the universe, but he'll take it down again. He's going to roll up the created world like an old garment. It says he is in control of putting it up and taking it down again. The heavens will change, but he will be the same and will always be there. You are the same, it says. Jesus does not change. God is immutable, is the term that the theologians put on it. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It says in Hebrews 13, 8.11 here says the writer again tells us Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, which means Jesus is God that we mentioned in a previous session. If he's sitting at the right hand of the Father, only royalty sits. And it gets reinforced here. Verse 14, quote, are they not all ministering spirits, speaking about the angels? Angels were created as ministering spirits for God's purposes. Angel just means messenger. Angels are for our benefit, or they render service for our sake. Angels were held up in the Bible as the greatest of the heavenly creation, more powerful than people. One of the main messages in the book of Hebrews, especially here in chapter one, is that Jesus is above all the created things. He is better than the angels. Such a wonderful chapter. We are hard pressed to do it justice. We sit in awe of the majesty of these lofty ideas.

SPEAKER_00: 9:15

I was just fixing to mention that. This is in the section where the writer is addressing the angels and that Jesus is above the angels. This is one of the areas of Judaism. They looked for angels, they looked at Moses, and they looked at the Levitical priesthood as three pillars of their belief system. All of the things that they associated with the angels, the angels were, of course, were messengers that came directly from God to visit them, to help them at different times. It even says at some point that the angels were part of the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The writer is going out of his way here to give a good depiction of who Jesus Christ is, that he's God Himself and He's the creator of all things, which includes the angels. He's directly going to this area of a pillar of Judaism for these Hebrews to assure them that who they have placed their faith and trust in is God Himself.

SPEAKER_01: 10:17

The entire book really speaks of Jesus as being better. And it gives this hugely grand spectacle of who Jesus is. It's very heady atmosphere, very rarefied air that we're breathing, especially in chapter one. It can really make you a bit lightheaded, breathing all of this wonderful teaching. Well, the author knew this, and starting at the beginning of chapter two, he takes a strong steel cable and anchors it back down to the ground and makes sure that we do not drift away. Periodically in this book, he gives some very practical, down-to-earth warnings. That's what we find the first of here at the beginning of chapter two. Steve, can you read the first four verses of Hebrews 2?

SPEAKER_00: 11:04

For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, and by various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will.

SPEAKER_01: 11:43

This first part of chapter two is a warning. There's several warnings in the book of Hebrews, and we need to take these very seriously. It's a warning to make sure that we do not drift away, is the language it uses here at the beginning of the chapter. It says in verse 1, for this reason, or some of the translations say, therefore, the verse is drawing a conclusion based on what was explained in chapter one and says, therefore, or for this reason, Jesus is God and much better than the angels. Therefore, we must pay close attention to what we've heard about Jesus. He's saying, therefore, we need to be very, very careful and pay close attention to who Jesus is and the teachings that have been passed down to us. Steve, are the teachings about Jesus worthy of us giving our time and attention?

SPEAKER_00: 12:39

Absolutely they are. That's the way that we are going to find out more about him and God. And the way that we're going to be able to live our lives is by following the teachings and understanding what he has given. It's the epitome of us becoming more Christ-like. How is it that we can become more Christ-like if we haven't learned or understood or studied the teachings of Jesus Christ Himself?

SPEAKER_01: 13:02

What the writer here is saying is because he's God, because he's better than the angels, then we need to pay very close attention to what he says and the teachings about him. And these cautions are quite serious. Look at the end of verse one. He gives us a specific warning. Steve, what is the warning about? What's the risk here that he's cautioning us about?

SPEAKER_00: 13:25

He's cautioning here about drifting away. The Greek word behind this word, drift, is like a boat that is moored and the ropes are off of it. Just through the action of the tide or something else, it just slowly drifts away from the dock that it's been moored to. He's given a caution here so that we need to pay attention. We need to be alert. We need to understand those things that they've heard from the eyewitnesses that were with Jesus when during his ministry here on earth so that we don't drift away, we being the Hebrew believers, so that we don't drift away from it. We get kind of a picture through that word of it's not something of a quick departure or something of a very, you know, turning away from it all of a sudden. It's something of just a drift away from it. Well, how would that happen? It would happen by just not paying attention of what the eyewitnesses have talked about, the epistles that have been written, other things that talk about Jesus' Christ, the life, his ministry, that through a neglect of studying those, reading about them, just slowly over a period of time, we just drift away from the truth because we're no longer believing in or staying in the truth on a day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_01: 14:56

What he's saying here in the flow of thought is exactly what you were saying, Steve, in chapter one. Because Jesus is God Almighty, then therefore we need to be very careful to pay attention to the teachings that have been passed down to us about him. This is quite serious. Because his revelation is better, then the responsibility to stay true to it is greater. We have been given a great, grand, glorious teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are weak clay vessels, and we leak and we let in some foreign things sometimes. So he's telling us to be very careful. We have a golden teaching in an old clay pot, that namely you and I. So therefore, what he's saying is that we need to be very careful and pay close attention to what was handed down to us so that we don't drift away from it. Now, Steve, how common has it been in the church age for people to drift away from the truth?

SPEAKER_00: 16:02

Well, I think that it's been really more common than what we like to believe. And as I pointed out before, it just happens by people not reading the scriptures and understanding the scriptures. They depend on other people to interpret the scriptures for them. They go to their churches maybe on a Sunday morning, and then they don't do anything during the week in order to study the scriptures on their own. If they're really consistent, they might go back the following Sunday. But when you look at it, that at best is hearing 30 minutes of the Word of God. If they happen to belong to a small group, then they have another 30 minutes. So that's an hour out of seven days of a week that they're actually hearing the word of God and the teaching from it. And so I think it's more common than we'd like to admit that people drift away from it because they're just not putting enough of the word in their life. We have a responsibility. You just mentioned it a while ago. We have been given a great gift by having the word of God here that we can learn about and study about God. If we just go to church and hear an hour's worth of the scripture each week, then I think that you could possibly put that into the category of neglect. Neglecting the word of God for the rest of the period of time of the week, one hour a week is really not, in my opinion, enough time in order to be able to learn more about God, become more Christ-like, and to be able to resist the temptations of this world.

SPEAKER_01: 17:42

We can be fairly sure that people in churches can and do drift away simply because we see it in our day, and also because even before the New Testament was finished being written, there were false teachers that had already crept in. Many of the books of the New Testament were written to contradict false teachers that had already started to creep in to the churches. We must be constantly aware of staying true to what was handed down to us and not drift away to false prophets and false teachers. One of the most common mistakes that I've seen for people to drift away is not so much to be wooed away by false teachers, although that happens, but one of the ways is just to interpret the Bible according to the values of the day, or to interpret the Bible according to what seems right to me. The Old Testament has a passage that says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death. We take our internal feelings on what we think is right, or we take our cultural glasses and we view the scripture through colored glasses of our own culture and we misinterpret the Bible. And what this is telling us to do here at the first part of Hebrews 2 is to be very careful that we don't drift away. As you said, Steve, it's a drift. The current takes us away or the wind slowly blows us away. It's not a wake up one day and you're way downstream. It's I slowly drifted and I didn't realize it. Step by step, I went little by little, then I was way downstream. I was way off track. According to verse one, it tells us how we are to make sure we don't drift away from the truth. Steve, what does it say in verse one? What's the way to make sure we don't drift away?

SPEAKER_00: 19:38

To pay closer attention to what they have heard. As I mentioned before, this is the hearing of the apostles, the ones that were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry. We have that in the form of the four gospels and also some of the other books like 1 John and 1st and 2 Peter. Both of those were people that were eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ Himself. And of course, Paul, while he wasn't a direct apostle there, he will live during the time of Jesus, and he had obviously heard of Jesus as well. Here the writer is being very clear to pay closer attention to what they had heard from those people who were eyewitnesses from Jesus that had been passed down his teachings.

SPEAKER_01: 20:32

In verse 2, it says that the word given in the past through angels, and angels just means messengers, that word was binding on us, unalterable, our translation says. And the point he's making is that therefore this teaching about Christ is of utmost importance. If the old revelation given through God's angels and messengers was binding upon us, how much more this new teaching about Jesus? The theme of the book of Hebrews is contrasting Jesus with the Old Testament. Since the former message was binding on us, the new revelation is of so much more and so much more critical for us. Steve, I have a question from verse three. It says, How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Steve, how will we escape if we neglect the message of Christ?

SPEAKER_00: 21:27

Well, the key thing to say here is that the writer is not saying that they have lost their salvation if they drift away. He is clearly putting them in the classification that they have salvation. He's saying, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The neglect or all the things that we were just talking about, that we don't study the word and we don't understand the teachings of Jesus Christ and et cetera, that have been left to us, and we just drift away from them. That's the neglect that we have. There needs to be a purpose in our lives to study and to find out more about God and Jesus Christ. I think that's the warning there that he has there. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? You know, the Jewish people were under judgment from Jesus whenever they rejected him, whenever the leadership rejected him and declared that his miracles were being done by Beelzebub, by Satan himself. Jesus said that was the unpardonable sin, the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit. He also told his disciples when they were asking about the buildings in the last age, he said that none of these stones of the temple were going to stand on one another, that they were all going to be torn down. There's an impending judgment that's coming. Now, it didn't come until 70 AD, several years after this book of Hebrews was written, but there is an impending judgment that is coming on that rejection of Jesus Christ. The writer's going to make a connection a little bit later here of this argument that there were irreversible decisions that the Jewish people had made in the past and that they had to go through those periods of judgment. I think that's possibly what he's referring to here. He's telling them to stay fast. They were thinking possibly of going back under Judaism because of the persecutions that they were facing. He's giving them reasons why they should stay steadfast with Jesus Christ that he is the right person, the Messiah, and that he is the one that they have followed and chosen to follow, and that he's the correct one not to go back under Judaism because there is some impending judgment that is going to be coming at some point for this rejection of Jesus Christ. We know it to be the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. They didn't know specifically what the judgment was, but there was an understanding that there was going to be some sort of a judgment for this rejection of Jesus Christ by the leadership.

SPEAKER_01: 24:12

Notice here the question exactly how it's phrased. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Notice it uses the word neglect and not reject. Now, there certainly are people that actively reject Christ. We know that's true. But the word neglect tends to have a meaning of just passively letting it by. I'm negligent. I'm neglecting things because I'm not paying attention. So if we ask the question, are there people today that are just very uncaring about Jesus? That just think that other things are more important. They may know about Jesus, but they just don't think he's very important compared to all the rest of the things of life. Well, yeah, there are people that neglect Jesus. The world is full of people that just merely neglect to pay attention to Jesus' message of the good news. And they are missing the salvation. That's what it's saying here. If you're just thinking that Jesus is not important, how are you going to see the salvation? Because it's going to pass you by. Really, I think we can apply this idea of neglect or being negligent to two different people, those outside the church and those inside the church. So, Steve, if we look at people outside the church, if they were to neglect God's loving way to salvation, is there a way to escape God's wrath and punishment?

SPEAKER_00: 25:42

There is always going to be a consequence to the decisions we make. We made that clear through some of the studies of our other books that we can control the decisions we make, but we can't control the consequences of those decisions. What's meant by that is if we do neglect Jesus Christ and the teachings that he has, then we are prone to make some decisions that will lead us down a wrong path into a situation where there's going to be tough consequences to those decisions. Now, this doesn't have anything to do with our salvation. Once we are justified and declared righteous, we have our salvation. But as we go through our life of becoming more Christ-like, we make those decisions. Are we going to follow Christ's teachings or are we not going to follow them? And I think that's one of the things that the writer is talking about here. If the writings of the angels given were binding and were unalterable, then how much more the teachings of Jesus Christ himself, not just about Jesus, but about what he taught himself. If we neglect that, if we don't understand them, that's what happens whenever you neglect them, then we're going to make some decisions that are going to lead us to an area, some consequences that are going to bring some judgment on us. Not judgment for salvation, but judgment for consequences here on earth. This is again leading up to what the writer is going to make in his argument here, that there were some decisions that the forefathers made in the past, which had tremendous consequences on them, and they had to fill out those consequences that were made because of the decisions they made. He's making the argument of stay steadfast, don't drift, don't neglect these teachings of Jesus Christ that's have been given to you.

SPEAKER_01: 27:43

I think this question, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? That question can be applied to two different groups, I think. We can look the people that are outside the church that don't believe in Christ, and we can say, Jesus said, I am the way. No one comes to the Father but through me, John 14, 6. And so there is only one way. Jesus taught that the rest of the scriptures all teach there's one way to salvation and they won't escape. It says, received a just penalty. It says at the end of verse 2 here. There's a just penalty because of our past sins. But I think this also can say things to those of us that are inside the church. There are people inside the church that just drift. They don't really anchor themselves to the rock. They blow with the winds of doctrine. Even if we're Christians, if we neglect the word of God, if we neglect the deeper things about Christ, then we will drift away from it, it says in verse one, and we won't escape God's hand of discipline, what it's saying here in verse three. I think even inside the church that we've seen, just our experience tells us there's people that don't spend enough time really trying to get out of their culture and look at the true teachings of Christ so that we will be anchored down to the truth. Because of that, they drift away. The last half of verse two, they're not going to get away with it. Every transgression, it says, and every disobedience will receive a just penalty. That's true for lost sinners outside the church. And my friend, we cannot say that just because I'm inside the church and I've named the name of Jesus, then I can go live like the devil. There are churches that accept doctrines that there's no way to say it except they're demonic, that they're teaching inside their churches. We will not get away. Israel didn't get away with it, and we will not either. Salvation from sin has reconciled us to God, but we will still have a judgment day. The Bhima seed of Christ will come. And the Implications of how shall we escape if we neglect it. There's only one way to be saved. Every disobedience receives a just penalty. Steve, I think that's just a very serious idea here. As I said, we were up in the clouds with this very heady teachings about Christ, but he takes this strong steel cable and anchors us down to a very serious point, is that we will not escape if we neglect these grand teachings.

SPEAKER_00: 30:29

I think that is a teaching that is neglected in itself in our day and age, that there is going to be consequences to the decisions that we make here. Too many times we just talk about Jesus and the love that he has and that God loves us all and that God wants us to be prosperous and he wants us to be healthy and wealthy and things like that without telling the consequences of some of the decisions. Again, not associated with our salvation, but associated with the life that we're living here on earth.

SPEAKER_01: 31:02

We probably should stop for today because of time, but we're going to ask you to tune in next time because there's still some teachings here in verses three and four. We're going to explore some concepts about spiritual gifts. Be back with us next time as we continue to reason through the book of Hebrews.

SPEAKER_00: 31:20

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.