The Captain of Our Salvation

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Throughout the first chapter of Hebrews, we have seen how the author argued that Jesus holds a unique place in the new covenant, that he calls him the ultimate revelation of God, that he calls him the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He calls him the image and glory of the Father, calls him the creator, calls him the judge, calls him the answer to the problem of sin. He calls him the king who’s mightier than all of the angels.

The writer of Hebrews did not hold back in his account of Jesus, but instead he packed an enormous number of critical theological points into just 14 verses. And as he looked at a first century audience that had kind of grown uneasy with Jesus, he must have realized that their faith was wavering because they didn’t truly comprehend who Jesus is. So he set out just to make it crystal clear to them.

He knew that it was vitally important for people to understand these doctrinal points about Jesus Christ because of the implications that they have for the way that we understand our eternal salvation. And now you and I are nearly 2,000 years removed from the Hebrew Christians who were the primary audience for this book. But the truth in it remains the same even 2,000 years later.

if Jesus had just been a man or any other kind of created being we we would need to look elsewhere for our salvation in fact we would be crazy not to consider going back to the old covenant of works to try to make peace with God by following the law just like they were doing just like they were considering but if Jesus is the only begotten son of God if he is everything that chapter one claims he is, then there is absolutely no one better. Hear me on this. There’s absolutely no one better for us to trust to forgive us, to save us, and to give us peace with God.

No one better. And chapter two explains this. It builds on chapter one and everything it teaches about Jesus’ nature.

Chapter two explains Jesus’ role in salvation. If you haven’t already, turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2 this morning. We’re going to take a closer look at verses 1 through 10.

It says, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will.

For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.

Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man, For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Now this passage is all about the role of Jesus in salvation. And it culminates here in verse 10 with the writer calling Jesus the captain of our salvation. And understanding what that means is going to help us to better understand the entire passage.

The word that we see as captain is really a fascinating word. The word in Greek is archigos. You’ve got it there in your handout.

It comes from two other Greek words, arche and ago, which I’ll explain what those mean. Arche means something that is the first or the greatest. We might use the word chief. And this little word has worked its way into our English language and made itself a familiar part.

An archangel is higher than an angel. An archduke is more powerful than a duke. An arch enemy is worse than an enemy, and so on.

And both monarchs and oligarchs have lots of power over others. That’s the word archaic. Then there’s the word aggo, and it’s a verb that it means to lead or to bring.

In either case, one person is moving a second person from one place to another with him. And those words fit together for the word captain. The problem here is that there’s no really perfect way to translate that word from Greek into English.

The most literal way to translate archigos is to say chief bringer, but we don’t use that word chief bringer. That still doesn’t quite capture everything that the word means. Captain in the King James Version here is a decent translation.

Some of the others are good as well. The New American Standard Bible calls Jesus the author of our salvation. I like that.

The English Standard Version calls him the founder of our salvation here. The Christian Standard Bible calls him the source of our salvation. The New International Version isn’t always my favorite version, but I like the word it uses here.

It calls Jesus the pioneer of our salvation. I really like that, the pioneer of our salvation. I don’t think any of these translations are inaccurate.

None of them are inaccurate. They just don’t tell the whole story. It doesn’t seem that there’s one single English word that can.

The bottom line here, he is the captain. He is the author. He is the founder.

He is the source, and he is even the pioneer of our salvation. He’s all of those things.

mankind was lost in our sins we were alienated from God we were without hope of ever finding our way back to him and then Jesus showed up Jesus showed up and he single handedly blazed a trail a straight and narrow trail back to the father between us and the father and because you and I cannot even muster enough righteousness in our sin sick condition to follow him he picks us up and he carries us down that trail all the way there so let me say this very clearly salvation is from first to last the work of Jesus Christ he’s the author of salvation because it was his plan with the father before the foundation of the world he’s the founder of salvation because there would be no way if he hadn’t gone and made one he’s the source of salvation because he shed his blood and he died to pay for our sins in full and he’s the pioneer of salvation because he showed us the way back to the father and he’s the captain of salvation because he will lead us there.

He’s all of those things. He is the chief bringer when it comes to salvation. If you need to move from darkness to light, if you need to move from sin to salvation, from slavery with Satan to fellowship with God, if you need to move from hell bound to heaven bound, then Jesus alone is the chief bringer.

He is the captain of your salvation, the one who can move you from one place to the other. And verse 1 tells us to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard. And what this verse is referring to, when it says the things that we have heard, it’s talking about the truth about Jesus.

The writer was telling his audience, go back to chapter one. Now, they didn’t have chapters in those days, but he’s telling them, go back to those things we’ve just talked about. He had just explained to them in great detail who Jesus is.

They knew this, and so he advised them to give the more earnest heed to what they already knew about Jesus. In other words, pay close attention. Focus on this.

Keep it in the forefront of your minds. That’s what he was telling them. And folks, it is necessary for us to keep ourselves reminded of who Jesus is and what he’s done for us.

Why is that necessary? The author of Hebrews said, lest at any time we should let them slip. If we don’t intentionally, if we don’t intentionally stay focused on Jesus, our focus will drift unintentionally.

It’s just a fact. The Another important Greek word here, parareo. It’s in your handout too, which is translated as slip.

We see it as the word slip. This word would be used to describe something flowing through something else, like liquid through a leaky vessel. Picture putting a colander under the faucet.

It doesn’t matter how long you run the water into it. It’s never going to fill up because the water just runs straight back out. It slips.

Isn’t that a pretty accurate description of our minds sometimes? I’m sure I’m not the only one in the room who goes to Walmart and comes back with a ton of stuff, except for the one thing that I went there for in the first place, because I forgot. It just slipped out of my head.

There’s a reason I tell you to write things down for me, like prayer requests and announcements and things like that. I have parareo of the brain. It slips out.

It slips out of my brain, and you can’t get mad at me for it, because Hebrews says this is how we are. God made me this way. So keep the truth about Jesus at the forefront of your minds on purpose, or it will slip.

It will leak out. Now let’s look at verse 2. The writer referred again to the angels.

It says, For if the word spoken by the angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. When he mentioned the word spoken by the angels, the writer wasn’t talking about anything the angels said on their own behalf. He wasn’t referring to the angels’ opinions about stuff.

He was talking about the law of God. In Deuteronomy 33, Moses described how God came with 10,000 of his angels to bring the law. The King James Version in Deuteronomy 33, 2 calls them saints.

So if you go look that up in your Bible today, it may say saints. But the Hebrew word kodesh means holy ones. And it can be translated as saints.

It can also be translated as angels. Saints is one correct translation. but the context as you read the whole chapter indicates that Moses was talking about the angels.

And the martyr Stephen confirmed this in Acts chapter 7 verse 38 and again in verse 53 when he said the Israelites had received the law by the dispensation of the angels. Then he wrote, then the writer of Hebrews wrote, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. So he’s talking about the law of God handed down by the angels.

then they understood the certainty of judgment too. God sees all things, right? He’s a righteous judge, and as a righteous judge, he will meet out the appropriate consequence for every single act of disobedience.

So here in verse 2, we see that it’s describing the law of God and setting up a kind of a cause and effect statement. Something that says because this is true, that is true. So the writer of Hebrews set up this statement of cause and effect beginning in verse 2.

The first part of the cause says, if the word spoken by the angels was steadfast. Now the second part of the cause, the cause, excuse me, says, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward. We have these two statements where the word if essentially means because. Because the standard of righteousness that’s been codified in the law of God is unchanging and because we can be confident that not even the slightest sin escapes God’s notice and God’s judgment, then there must be a conclusion that we can reasonably draw.

So what is it? Look at verse 3. It says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

Now this question is a rhetorical one. It’s meant to make the readers understand that we can’t escape the judgment of God, and the writer said we wouldn’t escape the judgment of God if we neglect God’s salvation. So then the question becomes, how does someone neglect salvation?

Think back to what we’ve already read. Everything the writer said to them in chapter 1 was about the unique role of Jesus, especially in salvation, when they were having second thoughts about Jesus and about their old covenant. This whole book was written because people were considering looking elsewhere for their salvation.

That’s the whole point of Hebrews, saying don’t do that. Chapter 10 talks about people who claim to be believers but ended up walking away. Hebrews 10 38 and 39 says now the just shall live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him but we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul folks we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ if we don’t have faith in him there is no justification there is no justification furthermore if you draw back from faith in him the bible is pretty clear you were never it’s evidence that you were never justified before him in the first place.

Only by faith in Christ can we be justified before the Father. Only by faith in Christ can we have that standing where the slate is wiped clean of all of our sin. So he was writing to a group of people who were having these second thoughts about Jesus, and he reminded them precisely who Jesus is and what he did to be the one and only Savior of mankind.

And he told them to keep these things purposely in mind. Just after that, he warned them about neglecting salvation. So again, how does someone neglect salvation?

By refusing to believe in Jesus as our Savior and deciding that we just as soon look for our salvation elsewhere. And it really doesn’t matter where. Maybe it’s in our works.

Maybe it’s in a different religion or philosophy. Maybe it’s in merely hoping that we just don’t meet the judgment of God. Regardless, when we look elsewhere for our salvation, when we look for our salvation elsewhere, we are neglecting the salvation that he has provided.

We’re neglecting the salvation that God has provided. That’s the point of this cause and effect statement here in verses two and three. The cause is the holiness and the justice of God.

And the effect is the certainty of judgment. And distilling this down even further, it’s saying because God is holy and just, we will not escape judgment without receiving the mercy that he offers in Jesus Christ. It’s just that simple. And this salvation that he offers is called so great here in verse 3.

You and I were wholly and utterly lost in sin. We were unable to do anything to improve our situation at all, let alone save ourselves. But no matter how great our condemnation is, for all the sin and all the disobedience in our lives, God’s salvation is even greater.

His salvation is greater than your sin. So while you deserve death and separation from God in a literal hell, Jesus died to pay your penalty in full and bear the weight of your sin. and the punishment of your sin.

God’s salvation offered through Jesus Christ is great because it offers us a way of escape, a way to escape eternal separation and be reconciled to the Father. Instead of suffering in hell separated from the Father, we can instead be reconciled and spend eternity with him. But the salvation is also great because of what it tells us about the God that we worship and who he is.

Through the plan of salvation, we see God’s holiness. We see how much he hates sin. how holy and how perfect he is.

But we also see his love and his mercy in the lengths that he went through, went to, to carry out his redemptive plans. Before God ever created us, before God ever created us, he knew how much trouble we were going to be. You think you’re a handful?

I know I am. There’s probably people in town who would attest to that fact. God knew how much of a handful you were going to be long before you ever created.

But he loved us and he created us anyway. Jesus knew ahead of time that he was going to have to die to save us. Before he ever created us, he knew we were going to mess it up and he was going to have to die to save us.

And he went ahead and he created us and he went ahead with his plans to save us out of love for us. That’s how much he loved you. That tells us all we need to know about the love of God.

Verse 3 says that this salvation was at first, excuse me, was at the first, began to be spoken of by the Lord. Jesus planned to purchase our salvation, as I said long before. He planned to purchase our salvation on the cross long before he was ever actually nailed to it.

And he was preparing people for the message of salvation all along. He began preaching the gospel from the earliest days of his ministry. Matthew 4.

17, talking about the beginning of his ministry, says, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He was preaching salvation and repentance at the very beginning of his ministry. But you know what?

It didn’t begin there at the beginning of his earthly ministry. Throughout the Old Covenant, throughout the Old Testament, when the prophets brought messages about salvation, these messages would invariably be about the Messiah and the New Covenant. And when they spoke these things about the Messiah, they were speaking on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the message of the prophets.

He’s also the God who inspired the prophets. The end of verse 3 says that the message of salvation was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. So how would these readers know that Jesus actually did these things?

How would they know that Jesus actually taught these things? They had the apostles. They had the testimony of the apostles who were eyewitnesses to every single day of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

They had the apostles to confirm it. And don’t write that off and say, well, of course the apostles said all this. The apostles were eyewitnesses.

Eyewitness testimony is incredibly important. And, folks, the apostles didn’t get rich and powerful off of the testimony they brought. They spent their lives hunted like animals until most of them were killed in barbaric ways, professing the things that they had seen and heard about Jesus Christ. That makes even a skeptical person like me look at their testimony and say they were telling the truth.

And verse 3 talks about that. Now, as if all of this wasn’t enough, to make these readers look at the captain of their salvation and be sure about him, Let’s look at verse 4. It says, God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.

Folks, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit confirmed the message of salvation that they were preaching through miracles and signs. The Father sent miracles and signs to point people to Jesus. The Son performed miracles and signs to prove that he is the Son of God.

And the Holy Spirit performed signs and miracles through the apostles to validate their preaching to their audiences and prove to the people that these guys really did speak for God. So all along, God was testifying to the truth of this message through miracles and signs. And all of this was meant to point people to Jesus as the captain of their salvation.

Next Sunday, we’ll look at the following six verses together and see how the writer of Hebrews continued to make this point. But for today, I want to stop here at verse four and just stress what these verses have already shown us. Folks, Jesus is the captain of your salvation.

That was the plan of God before the world even began. At every significant event or teaching in the Old Testament, just move the world one step closer to the day when Jesus Christ would fulfill this plan. Then Romans 5, 6 tells us, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

At just the right time, When all things were prepared according to the Father’s plans, Jesus died for us. And he died for us in spite of our rebellious nature, and he died to show God’s great love and mercy toward undeserving sinners. Romans 5.

8 says God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ, the captain of your salvation, stepped forward to take your place. And the cross shows us not only how much God hates sin, but more than that, it shows us how much he loves you.

So this morning, I have to reiterate the fact that Jesus is the captain of your salvation. He is the author. He is the founder.

He is the source. He is the pioneer. He’s the only one who can bring you out of darkness and depravity, out of the isolation of sin and into a right relationship with the Father.

And he can do this for you today because the eternal consequences of your sin have already been handed down. That sentence has already been served. He paid for them in full.

He died for you to pay for your sins, and now he offers salvation to you as a gift. When you receive salvation, your sins are forgiven. You’re made to be at peace with God, and you’re given eternal life, the promise of eternal life in heaven.

Folks, he offers all of this to you as a gift. You can’t earn it. You can’t deserve it.

he already paid for it. All you have to do is to recognize that you’re a sinner, that your sin has separated you from a holy God, and that you need a Savior. Then you’ve got to believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins in full and that he rose from the dead.

And once you’re convinced that only Jesus Christ can save you, you can then ask God’s forgiveness, and he’ll forgive you because of what Jesus Christ did to pay for your sins. He’ll save you, he’ll forgive you, he’ll give you peace with God, he’ll prepare a place for you in heaven, and you may think that can’t possibly be all there is to it. Surely I have to do something.

My friend, if you could do something to save yourself, then what Jesus did on the cross was an unnecessary and tragic mistake. Think about that. If you could do something to save yourself, then what Jesus went through on the cross was a tragic and unnecessary mistake.

No, he died for us. He died for us because there was no other way to atone for the sins that we’ve committed. There was no other way to make things right with the Father.

And let me caution you against trying to find your own way to heaven or peace with God, salvation, whatever you call it. That was the whole point of verses 2 and 3 today that we’ve looked at. God’s law teaches us that his standard is absolute sinless perfection.

Not one sin will go unnoticed. Not one sin will go unpunished. And if both of these things are true, then there is unquestionably no way to escape the judgment, the righteous judgment of God, unless we flee from it through the escape route he has provided in Jesus Christ. Verse 3 says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?

We will not escape if we reject the way out that God has offered and try to find our own way out instead. So if you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, today would be a great day to do so. It’s as simple as I’ve outlined for you.

Recognize your sin and your need for a Savior. believe that Jesus died to pay for your sins in full and save you, and ask God’s forgiveness for the sin in your heart that has led you to rebel against him. In just a moment, we’re going to stand and sing a hymn at the end of the service.

And I’d invite you to respond to God’s offer of salvation. If you have questions, if you’d like somebody to talk with you or pray with you, if you’re struggling with this issue in any way, you’re welcome to come forward. You’re welcome to come visit with me or someone else.

You can pull somebody, you can pull aside somebody who’s seated on your row or near you, if that’s more agreeable to you. We have a number of people in this room who would be glad to talk to you about Jesus Christ. But also know this, you can trust Christ and receive him as your Savior right where you are this morning. This morning, maybe the Bible has convinced you of your need for Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s made it all very clear to you.

Perhaps you know exactly what you need to do. If so, I’d invite you to pray and ask God’s forgiveness and receive Christ as your Savior right where you are. There’s nothing magical about the front of the auditorium down here.

Wherever and whenever the Holy Spirit of God convicts you, draws your heart to Jesus Christ, you can ask God to forgive you and you can be saved wherever and whenever. And I’d invite you to do so this morning. Now to those of you who already are believers, those of you who’ve already trusted in Christ for your salvation, let’s back up even further to verse 1.

Verse 2 and 3 is what I really want you to consider if you’ve never believed, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior this morning. But if you have, I really want you to consider verse 1. This verse says, what this verse says is essential for us to understand today, fellow believers.

It says, therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. You and I cannot afford to coast in our Christian life and just run on autopilot. It won’t work.

Every day we’ve got to place and replace our focus on Jesus Christ purposely. We need to get up every morning with our minds attuned to him, remembering who he is and what it means that we have been bought with the precious blood of the Son of God. Keeping him in the forefront of our attention should cause us to seek to please him, to obey him, and to honor him.

It should make us grateful for all that he’s done for us. But we have to be intentional about it. We’ve got to do it on purpose.

The Bible calls us to give this earnest heed to what we’ve heard, to focus, remember who he is, because if we’re not intentional about it, it will slip. It’s human nature. It will slip.

Those of you who are believers, let me ask you this question. Is the captain of your salvation at the forefront of your mind every day, or is he just an addition to your life that you focus on or ignore as you feel the need? I’m telling you.

No, the Bible is telling you. The Bible’s telling us that if you’re not focused on him on purpose, your focus will drift by accident. Verse 1 is a heartfelt appeal from the writer of Hebrews.

He was genuinely concerned about the people in his day and the possibility that they would allow their faith to be undermined because their focus wasn’t fixed squarely on Jesus. He was worried about them. The same thing can happen to us.

The same thing will happen to us. So today, if you realize that you’ve been looking at Jesus, the captain of your salvation, as someone who’s incidental to your life, as someone who’s there when you need him, but doesn’t really make that much difference to your daily life. Let me tell you, you are on dangerous ground.

That’s not from me. That’s from the Holy Spirit speaking through the author of Hebrews. You’re on dangerous ground.

If we do that, we’re just like Peter. He stepped out of the boat and walked across the water and focused on Jesus, but as soon as he stopped to look at the threatening waves, he began to sink. And if you stop to look at the threatening waves, your faith, folks, your faith will only be as strong as your focus on Jesus.

Hear me on that. Your faith will only be as strong as your focus on Jesus. The good news is we can confess to God the difficulties we have in keeping our focus on Jesus.

And we can ask him to help us give the more earnest heed, as it says in verse 1. We can ask him to help us give the more earnest heed to Jesus, to the things that we’ve heard to what we know about who He is. And folks, when we pray to God and we ask Him for things like that, like to help us be obedient to Him, I believe that is a request that God is ready to grant every time.

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