Christian Bible Study Made Simple: Two Fish Podcast
The Two Fish Podcast, hosted by Nick and Aaron, is a Christian Bible Study, with a goal to go through scripture together while keeping it simple and having practical application to our everyday lives. Our prayer is that Christ takes the Two Fish and spreads it through out the world.
Christian Bible Study Made Simple: Two Fish Podcast
Unpacking Hebrews 2: The Urgency of Salvation and Jesus's Supremacy
This episode also tackles the human condition through the lens of Adam and Eve's story, highlighting the significance of Jesus's sacrifice and his temporary state lower than angels. We discuss Jesus's triumph over death, his shared humanity, and his ultimate glorification, reinforcing his dual nature as fully God and fully man. As we anticipate Hebrews Chapter 3, we prepare to delve into the comparison between Jesus and Moses, affirming Jesus's superiority using a blend of Old and New Testament scriptures. Join us for this enriching discussion on these essential teachings and their applications in our daily lives.
welcome back to the two fish podcast. My name is nick, I'm aaron and this week we're back in hebrews, chapter two, where we talk about warning against neglecting salvation that's right, two fish community.
Speaker 2:We are back. Uh, we are in a new studio this week, uh, with different equipment set up, so the sound is a little different. Give us a little bit of grace as we try and figure out the new settings and the new sound in the room. We're dialing it in.
Speaker 1:I don't know if we've told that on. I know we talked about it on facebook live. If you missed the live version and live taping of this, it's unedited. It's horrible this week because we are in the new studio, but, for context, I sold a house that's where our studio was and so we're now at Aaron's house. We moved over here and so he got a little office here and we're slowly turning it into the podcast room. We kicked his wife out of her craft room and we've taken over.
Speaker 2:No, this was her office. Oh it was. Yeah, she's still got a craft room.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I don't even feel bad now. So, anyway, if you want, go check out Facebook Live. This week's episode is a little rough. You're listening to the edited version, so make sure you follow and subscribe, or whatever you got. If so, make sure you follow and subscribe, or whatever you got. If you have not listened to Hebrews, chapter one, go back and pause this one. Go back and listen. Go back and listen to it. There is a lot of context in chapter one that kind of we build on Hebrews. I think we said last week this is a lot different than any of some of the other letters that we've done and studied through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is definitely different. The one thing, the one major difference and I think we need to keep repeating this is the content is more wrote to Jewish Christians and not to the Gentiles. So the writer of Hebrews, who we don't know we went well into depth on that in the last episode don't know, but it is wrote to the Jewish Christians. So these would be Jewish that have recently converted to being christians and this guy is throwing the hammer at him yeah, and this guy meaning we don't actually know who it is.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of speculation again, we're not going to go into all that. Go back, listen to hebrews chapter one. Uh, but today is hebrews chapter two, so let's get right into it. Hebrews chapter two, verse one. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested to us by those who heard it, while God also bore witnesses by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Speaker 2:Right there, verse 1, he's telling us we've got to pay attention, We've got to be diligent in our daily activities so that we don't drift away from God. So that's you know, doing daily, devos being in the Bible every day. Well, jesus told us to go, get in the closet and shut the door, basically, and get alone with him, right, so you can look all throughout the context of the New Testament especially, and see ways that you need to stay connected and things you need to be doing. One of them, obviously, listen to the Two Fish podcast. But we need to do those things so we don't drift away. It needs to become one of your habits, not just a once in a while. Or I show up Sunday and that is my dedication to Christ.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a class in school, college or high school or even elementary school. You go a year in algebra, you take a whole summer off. You don't touch algebra, obviously, because who wants to do algebra during the summer? And then you go back your next year and you've got to review it because you don't remember any of it. It's important that we pay close attention. It's a constant. We talked about this before sanctification of our salvation. We have salvation, we've accepted Christ as Christ followers, but we need that constant sanctification, that constant working out our salvation. And if we go a long period of time without diving into it in this context, the word it's going to be easier and easier and easier to drift away from it and what it teaches.
Speaker 1:Verse number two just verifies the writer's verifying, for since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just punishment Right there he's saying this is reliable because we have firsthand sources he himself says later, later also poor witnesses. It was attested to us by those who heard it. So it's reliable in the fact that this isn't just made up. There was a bunch of us who were there, there was a bunch of us who heard it. I would actually speculate this part.
Speaker 2:This verse two, is speaking to the old testament and some of the things we read in chapter one where he's talking about the angels coming and prophesying through Moses or Aaron or Elijah right, and those things that he spoke through the angels to Moses or when he spoke to Moses through the burning, bush and a couple of other ways. But those things proved true, I would say, is what he's pointing to in this and you can look back on those. You can go to the Old Testament and you can look at those and you can look them up and you can go to other history documents and you can see that they came true and those are the things that happened. It wasn't just speculation, they were prophesied and that is what was wrote in history.
Speaker 1:Then verse 3 kind of continues. I think we're going to do a lot of back and forth here. We're going to get into a Psalms 5 through almost the rest of the chapter. Part of a Psalms.
Speaker 1:You talked about verse 2 being Old Testament Now I think verse 3,. How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? So he's talking about every violation of disobedience receives his just punishment. Now, in current context, how are we going to get? We can't escape the same thing if we do not, if we ignore such a great salvation that we have, that salvation of jesus, this salvation which was first announced by the lord and was confirmed by those who heard it.
Speaker 2:So we're really mixing in here old testament, new testament stuff yeah, and I think the the really cool thing is first announced by the lord and has been confirmed by those that heard him say it. So the main people in that would be his disciples right yeah, people that Jesus physically touched and ministered to.
Speaker 2:The apostles, and then you factor in the people that he performed miracles on and he told to go forth and sin no more. Right, that would be the people I'm thinking of when he's saying confirmed to us by those who heard him, when he's saying confirmed to us by those who heard him. I would also point to this guy was in the circle of the 12. Yeah, he might not have been one of the 12, but he was in that very tight circle and was amongst them and heard some of this firsthand, if not directly.
Speaker 1:Second, second, hand, yeah, first number. Moving on, verse number five reads it is not to angels that he has subject the world to come, about which we are speaking. This was for us, this was for mankind, this was for humanity, who was made in the image of God. Verse number six but there is a place where someone has testified, and this is where we roll into the Psalms.
Speaker 1:King David writes what is mankind? That we are mindful of them, a son of man, that you care for him. You made him a little lower than angels. You crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet. In putting everything under them, god left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them. Pause right there. Here he's talking about mankind. He's created angels. Now he's created humans, mankind, to rule and reign over the earth. If we study, if we go, if we go to genesis, it talks about how god created adam and he gave him, and his job was take care of the earth that I've given you, take care of things there. Everything is under your, and god left nothing that was not subject to them. Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them. I think that's part of sin, that's part of the fall of man, adam and eve sinning, and that's also, I think, due to the fact that the second coming hasn't happened. We haven't had complete right, we don't.
Speaker 2:We don't get the view. God has right with that. I mean, that's kind of where mine my mind goes. We don't get the full. God has right. I mean, that's kind of where my mind goes.
Speaker 2:We don't get the full view of how things work and we don't get the God view because we can't handle it Like, honestly, we can't handle a whole heck of a lot outside of our own family circle, right, like you get involved in too many things and we fall apart. So you take the picture of god and he's controlling everything down to the smallest atoms of the world, and if one atom's out of place, it all falls apart yeah, I think I guess that's where my mind goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, points right back, as you're saying that, to verse one. Therefore, you need to pay close attention, therefore, so that we don't drift away. We are so busy we don't stay there, we can't even stay there. How are we going to see the whole thing like God does?
Speaker 2:That's good, verse 9 here. But we do see Jesus, who was also made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that, by the grace of god, he might taste death for everyone. So right there that. I mean, that is modern day. Two sentences, right? Um, we get the pleasure of seeing jesus to a degree. We didn't get to walk with him, right, but this writer did. He got to physically probably see him, and for that little little while, while Jesus walked earth and was fully man but yet had divine nature in him, he was lower than the angels. Now that he came and he died on the cross and rose again three days later, he has been crowned with glory and honor because he suffered that death for you and I I think that rolls right into 10 and bringing many sons and daughters to glory.
Speaker 1:It was fitting that god, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. I think that just ties right in so well there. By the grace of god, he tastes death for everyone. He suffered so that for everything, for whom and through whom exists for god.
Speaker 1:He's making their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Because up up above, it says again up towards the top, verse two and this is old testament and new testament. I think here we go again. Every violation of disobedience receives a just punishment. Whatever we do, whatever was done in the past old or new it's it deserves a just punishment. Moving back forward there, verse 10 it was fitting for whom and for whom and through whom everything exists, that the pioneer of their salvation, the one who, just the one who, made salvation, should make it perfect through the suffering, and that is that just punishment for us. So he's created a way out and he's making it perfect by suffering the punishment, so that we don't have to yeah, he sacrificed the perfect lamb, his one and only son.
Speaker 2:Right and I. I just had this conversation on monday night bible study and we talking about like when we die and how we get to heaven and what that might look like. I'm like and cause where we're at was we were in Jude and talks about our judgment and like there's still a judgment in the new Testament. But my example was I sure hope, when I'm judged, that Jesus is walking right beside me and he's like, hey, you don't, you don't have to face what nick is facing over there. Nick's in front of him. Now nick's not gonna be in front of the judge getting getting the hammer thrown at him for all the things he did wrong. As we walk by the judge, jesus raised his hand and he's like, hey, I got this one and we bypass the courtroom, yeah, and we go sing holy, holy, holy, right yeah, verse number 11, both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.
Speaker 1:So jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. It's I like that scene you painted, jesus, is like nope this one's mine. Remember that punishment I I took. It was for everyone. Nick here accepted it, aaron here accepted it, the two fish community accepted it both. The one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. I think that really tying us in as together with Christ, together with God.
Speaker 2:Right, and it says so. Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Verse 12, he says and again he says here I am and the children God has given me. So, if I understand that correctly, that's basically saying Jesus is going to wrap us in his arms and walk us in there and say here are my brothers and sisters. These are the ones that accepted me, just like you said, the two fish community. We accept that Jesus Christ was the son of God. He walked the earth as man, he died on the cross for our sin and he rose again three days later.
Speaker 2:And I think verse 14 here is really good. It's a reminder, I think, of who we are, Since the children have flesh. That's us. We have flesh, we have fleshly desires, Since the children have flesh and blood. He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him. Who holds the power of death? That is the devil. So right there, Jesus came, and he's one of us. He was flesh and blood, just like you and I, and he broke the chains of death.
Speaker 1:I think that was necessary. Well, I know, but I'll say it. I think it's necessary that God did become. I mean, he's fully God, no matter what, but he's also fully man. He goes through the same things that we went through, the same temptations the same suffering, if not more so than most of us here, especially here in america. We think we're stuff, we're suffering when we get someone that tweets about us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we want our cheetos to run out yeah, but god went through christ went through the same things and I think, think that was and went without sin.
Speaker 2:I think that's necessary to be that perfect lamb.
Speaker 1:You talked about the perfect sacrifice of just punishment for the just punishment.
Speaker 2:Right, there's no way that any one of us could be the perfect lamb Like we're going to have sin.
Speaker 2:I have heard of people that think they don't sin. They're like I don't sin at all and that is sin in itself, lying Right Like the Bible tells you, there's no way that you cannot sin. And to say that you don't sin is sin, because somewhere in your flesh you are sinning, whether it be your actions or perhaps your thoughts. But we are born sinners, like your kids. Don't kids come out knowing bad behavior? They don't know the good behavior, or sometimes they do, but oftentimes you're teaching them things not to do because they just willingly do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at the end of that verse says so that he might break the power of him who holds the power of death, the devil. That is the devil, verse 15. And free those who are and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. I mean by the fear of that punishment, by the fear of judgment, because we all know I mean there's things in all of our past that were like man. If I could only take that back if I actually got what I deserved. There's things in all of our past that we're like man. If I could only take that back If I actually got what I deserved. There we have that fear of that.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think by nature we know a judgment's coming, Whether we're on the wrong end of it or whether we got that Jesus with us there's going to be a judgment and there's things that it's like man. I wish I could take that back. I've got a fear of death because of that man, I wish I could take that back.
Speaker 2:I've got a fear of death because of that. Yeah, I mean, it's the, the fear of dying and not knowing what's after. But when you put your trust in christ and do your best to follow him, you you have that to look forward to and you shouldn't fear death. You should fear not dying to yourself, but you should not fear physical death yeah, I I said this.
Speaker 1:I think it's been almost two years now. I got the opportunity to speak at my grandpa's funeral. He's a pastor for his whole life and, um, I haven't just recently listened to it was recorded, it was live streamed because of um certain situations, but I'm gonna listen back through there. And I remember I lost my place in. I had it printed out and I lost my place and I remember and I thought it was funny because I'm like there's probably people there don't understand my grandpa, but didn't understand because I said I'm not, I'm not sad that my grandpa's died. And then I lost my place and there was about a three second pause till I could find it.
Speaker 1:And I think it ain't almost any funeral, especially an unsaved person Like how could you say that at a funeral, I'm not, I'm not sad. My grandpa died and then I caught my. I'm super happy for him because I know what he's got, where he's at now, and I know what he's got now and it's that there. There's no, my grandpa had zero fear of death because he knew it was only so I'm so happy for him.
Speaker 1:He's now in a place with no pain and no sorrow. You know what I'm saying I think, there's a lot. There were probably people in that room that were like what is he about to say? Like I'm not. There's a hole there and I'm sad about that, but I'm not sad that he's passed right, because you not only do you have that belief, you knew that, he knew that he knew that jesus was his lord and savior.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you can.
Speaker 1:You can have that um assurement that he's where he belonged and it's not verse 16, I mean it's for us for 16, for surely it is not angels he helps, but ab Abraham's descendants, which is us. For this reason he had to be made like them, saying like us, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and then he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he able to help those who are being tempted. There we kind of skipped ahead there he lived a life just like we did.
Speaker 1:He just lived without sin. He was that perfect lamb like you talked about. If you read the old testament, leviticus and all those, there's a lot of rules. It's the law that moses was handed, handed by god when you it was required. You couldn't just take any lamb and you had some goats out here. Those were some ugly looking goats, right. You couldn't just bring some random goat for a sin that you committed.
Speaker 1:It had to be a pure and blameless lamb or goat to atone for that sin and that was just foreshadowing, or god already had planned with jesus. Jesus had to come fully man, just like us, so that he could live and be tempted just like us, so that he could live and have that bridge to perfection.
Speaker 2:I think this, uh, this hebrews chapter two is, first, a great reminder that we got to pay close attention, right, it isn't something that we can kind of just show up, pop in and out of, yeah and and do willy-nilly, right, it is, um, every day we gotta walk, wake up and die to ourselves and remind ourselves that jesus is who he said he was. And that's what this hebrews writer is doing here in chapter two. He's telling you that jesus came. He's telling the jewish christians jesus came and he was fully man and he died for you, and to this day, jewish people struggle with this belief, right? So you can go back to this and I think you pointed to this I don't know if it was last week, but like that struggle, it would be a struggle.
Speaker 2:You're living under the Old Testament and this guy comes right and flips the script and you're just supposed to jump on board. That would be hard to do, yeah, but as the writer pointed to, you can be assured of these things, because there are numerous writings out there, both in the bible and you can even find them outside the bible that attest that jesus was an actual man. They don't agree that he was son of god, but they attest that Jesus was an actual man. They don't agree that he was son of God, but they attest that he was a man and the things that happened to him were factual and the way he died. And then, if you look at the apostles and the way they died, there's reassurement in that because it would have been really easy for them to throw their arms up in the air and say you know what I'm? I'm done with this stuff. I'm no longer going to tell this lie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no one dies for a lie so I think, as we reflect on hebrews, chapter 2 here, that we need to pay attention and we need to be willing to share that jesus is who he said he was, and then he came fully man. And then next week we're going to dive into chapter three, where the writer is going to talk about how jesus isn't greater than moses, or jesus is greater than moses. Right, not that he's not greater than moses, but he is greater than moses. So this community is probably struggling with food. Well, we know he's. They're struggling with who jesus is right, because he's already laid it out in chapter 1. He's laid it out in chapter 2. And we can see in the headings of chapter 3 and 4 that this guy is just proving who Jesus is and walking us through Scripture, both old and mixing in some of the new right. So we look forward to next week in Hebrews, chapter 3.