TiL- Hebrews 2:11-14

The Purpose of Hebrews and the Transition from Old Covenant to New

Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast. We are thankful that you join us. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. Again, we are recording. We are trying something new. Well, new-ish. We've done this for a while now, and it's working out pretty good once we can get together and record a video.

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But we do appreciate your support. We're back in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter two. We're working our way slowly through this book, which is cool. Very slowly. Yeah, very slowly. Which is fine. It's cool. You get more stuff out of it when you take it slow and you dig into it.

Yeah.

Especially because we're headed for a collision course on chapter eight. So we'll slow down before we get there, and we'll be fine.

Absolutely. And we want to take a biblical perspective, a biblical theology type perspective, an overarching. I want to think about what's going on in the world at this time. I want to think about the direction that they're going.

You know, when we go through the Hebrews in the past, or when you've been through a Hebrews class at church, your typical things that you talk about or you work through as far as introduction goes, we know what we don't know is the author specifically.

Some people may be convinced, others are not.

If you read the King James Version, it's Timothy.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

I'll look that up. You keep on going. I'll put up my trusty old Schofield reference Bible.

Well, and some people think it's Paul. Some people think it's a scribe that was with Paul. Maybe was it, they say, Barnabas?

Maybe.

So you got different options out there. But the thing that we do know is that it was written to a Jewish audience, pleading with them not to go back to that which is being done away with, because there's a better here.

And it's not just putting our biblical theology glasses on. It's not just a better, but it's the only, it's the only way. And so we want to take that into consideration when we're looking through Hebrews.

It's the only way, not just the better way. It's the best way. Jesus is the best compared to what they did before, what they had before them, what they had taught to them. So you've got the only, you've got the best, you've got the better, and Jesus is all those.

Things.

He's the fulfillment. He's the replacement. And then also something we're keeping in mind as we go through Hebrews is there's an ending to this old. We're in the transition, the ending of the old and the beginning of the new.

And I think we could hear that in the pastoral epistles, in Hebrews, in the gospels. I think if we will listen, I think it's there. I think we can hear it. Yeah.

Yeah.

The book of Hebrews talks about that. It's like almost the whole thing is dealing with that transition. What was, still is good and right and proper is now being replaced by something better and more sure, better promises.

So while we had things before in type and shadow, now we have them in fullness in reality. So it's not like they didn't have those things in reality before, but now it's all up front in your face. So if you enjoyed part one, hold on, here comes part two, it's even better, which is why it's so dangerous for these folks who are saying, well, I don't know about Jesus.

I'll just stick to what I know in the old Testament. Well, if you don't accept Christ, then you've missed the entire point of what came before. So you don't even have what you thought you had.

Yeah.

And another thing that comes to my mind as I'm hearing the author of Hebrews plead with them or argue with them for this truth about Jesus, about this new covenant, this new way, I can't help but go back to the gospels and hear Jesus talk about, if you're in Jerusalem,.

Flee.

If you're outside of Jerusalem and Luke, don't come in, there's this ending, there's this time of judgment coming. And so therefore you have the author of Hebrews with that in mind, this inevitable drawing a line in the sand that's coming and the horrific way in which it's described.

I think it's obvious that you've got a pleading here. I mean, a long book of pleading. Don't turn back. Listen to Jesus. There's a drawing of a line in the sand. There's a time of judgment coming. Don't turn back or you'll be devastated.

You're doomed.

Right.

And that message really can go to any one of us today. As we'll come from whatever background we come from, come to Christ, what exactly is it you're going to go back to? And if you go back to it, there's still a time of judgment coming.

There's still a future reckoning to be had for those who will reject Christ. So encourage us and mourn us along the way and tell us all sorts of neat stuff to look at and remember.

Absolutely.

Deep into our hearts. Don't let the birds come and steal it away from us as it hits the eardrums.

Christ the Brother Who Sanctifies

Let me read Hebrews chapter two. We'll start in verse 11. We'll pick back up where we left off last time. And I'll read 12 and 13 and you can talk us through it. Verse 11 says, for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father.

For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him.

And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me.

Right.

If we look back, verse nine, even it says that Jesus, because of the suffering of death, was crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. He was made, the next verse, perfect to perfect the author of their salvation and be Christ the author of our salvation through sufferings.

Perfect being not that he was somehow imperfect, but to fulfill or complete or satisfy everything that he had set out to do, everything he was sent here to do by the father. And so we come into verse 11, which says both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified, in other words, Christ who came and died for us, the one who took on flesh and became man and died for us.

And those of us who have been of mankind all of our lives and in sin, those of us who need to be sanctified and cleansed and set apart, both are of one father, for which reason he's not ashamed to call us brothers.

Why?

Because somehow, some way in that way is through fancy technical word, the hypostatic union when Christ became man. That's what hypostatic union means in smaller words. Jesus came born of a virgin, actually a man, still God, actually a man.

So that he was both God and man. And so because he was truly a man, he can call us brothers because he's one of us. You hear people, I don't know, sometimes it gets kind of goofy sounding. They talk about brotherhood of man and they say, usually it comes in some weird forms.

You hear some people who, I don't know if they should be talking or not, but they end up saying some weird stuff. They're not entirely wrong. We should be a brotherhood of man, but a brotherhood of man that is under the banner of Christ, recognizing our creator and in the case of the Christian, our redeemer as well.

So he says, he is not ashamed to call them brothers saying, I'll recount your name to my brothers in the midst of the assembly, I will sing your praise. Now that's a quotation from Psalm 22, which is really, really cool.

Did you want to say anything about verse 11 before we move into the quotation? Because technically we started on the word saying, and I didn't know what you had to say.

Well, let me just say one thing that come to mind as you were talking about the hypostatic union, which is if you go back up to verse 10, for it was it was fitting for him, it was some versions say it was becoming of him.

So it was right for him. It was fitting for him. It was a good thing for him to come in this way. And here we're talking about because we're because of a brotherhood, because of being able to sympathize with us, we have all those things that we can think about.

But also another reason why it was fitting for him and becoming of him to do this, to come as a man is because someone had to make a sacrifice. And the nature of this old covenant was a physical covenant.

And Jesus. Being in heaven, it was fitting for him to if he was going to be the sacrifice, he's the only worthy sacrifice, the only one that could could do it and take away all the sin. He had to come, it was fitting for him to become a man, to enter in this this physical system so that he could lay down his life.

So just helping us understand why it was fitting for him to to come in this way, to create what we call the hypostatic union, 100 percent God, 100 percent man, not only so he could sympathize, not only so we could call him brother, but so that he could fulfill that the physical nature of the law.

Right, well, that had to happen because it was fitting because that's what we deserved. Right. We deserve sin and death or death because of sin. And it was fitting that he would come dying in the place of men because that's what men deserve.

We deserve death and suffering. Right. So in. In verse. Twelve, it says. I will recount your name to my brothers in the midst of the assembly, I will sing your praise. Like we said before, it comes from Psalm 22.

Now, when you start Psalm 22, it doesn't sound like that at all. It sounds much different. It brings everything together because it quotes this one completely in context. And when you realize how in context it really is, when he just gives that little snippet, it helps you understand the whole flow of the passage of Hebrews through throughout this chapter, at least.

It starts off here, Psalm 22, verse one. It says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, does that sound familiar to anyone? If you've read the Gospels, especially towards the end of them, it should, because that is what Jesus said when he was on the cross.

He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why is that? Important to what's going on, because, well, first, a lot of people think that Jesus was actually quoting this entire Psalm while he was there on the cross, that instead of writing out the whole Psalm in the Gospels, they just gave the first line so that way you would know, while Christ was there dying for the sins of men, he quoted this, taking it upon himself, saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why have you turned your back on me? Why does it seem like you've turned your back on me? Why does it look like I have faced separation from you? And the reason why is there's a suffering of death for sins, that Christ was made sin for us, so that way we may become his righteousness.

So that exchange was taking place. And in that moment where he was actually paying for our sins, he was wondering, why is there a, and it's weird to talk about, because when you think of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there's no, you can't divide the persons, otherwise you break the Trinity and it's something else.

It's heretical. So it's tough to wrap your mind around. So there's no sense in which God, the Son, undergoing the punishment of sins was actually removed from the Trinity. He wasn't, God himself wasn't made sinful.

However, the person of Jesus Christ and his humanity was paying for the sins of men. And it's, I got to be real careful with my language there, because you can get real heretical real quick. But I say that to bring up this, that it was fitting for Christ to take on our sins and to take on our sins as brothers, because he became man in order to pay for our sins.

Him being God is the only reason why he survived it, because he was perfect and holy and pure. And that righteousness that he had was then taken from him and given to his brothers. So it goes on further.

It says, Oh my God, I call by day. You do not answer. And by night I have no rest. Yet you are holy and thrown upon the praises of Israel. And you, our fathers trusted, they trusted and you rescued them.

Remember, this is about Christ. He's talking about the fathers, our fathers. He's linked himself with mankind when he came and became man. He feels I'm a worm and not a man, a reproach of men despised by the people, all who see me, mock me, smack their lip, wag their head.

He goes down in verse 11. Be not far from me for distress is near. You go down into verse 19, but you, oh, Yahweh, be not far off. Oh, my strength, hasten to my help. Deliver my soul from the sword, my only life from the power of the dog.

Save me from the mouth of the lion, the horns of the wild oxen. You have answered me. He's in deep distress for his own very life. And he's in distress for his own very life because Christ is experiencing the punishment for sins that he didn't commit.

He's feeling the weight of that sin put upon him in a way that he hadn't experienced before because he had no sin. So he took a sin that was not his. It was placed upon him and he's crying out. Well, he did an anguish in the garden.

Why does it seem like the father has forsaken me, even though the father never forsook the son? Because he knew exactly what he was doing and he was going to raise him up. No, the son laid down his life and picked it back up.

But the inseparable operations, that's a theological term that when one of the persons of the Trinity acts, the rest of them are also acting. So when the son lays down his life and picks it up again, the father is in some way doing the same thing with the son as he lays down his life and picks up again.

The power of the spirit is working there as well to lay down the life of the son and pick it back up again. The Trinity is working in unison in this. We see this, I guess the easiest way would be in creation.

The father speaks, the son acts, and the spirit was hovering over the waters and overseeing the creation of the world. One act of creation, all three persons of the Trinity accomplishing this. So then we come to our verse that's quoted.

So you have all of this about him suffering and being in the place of men. And it comes to this, I will surely recount your name to my brothers. It's God's name. Count your name to my brothers. And who is his brothers?

Is it just those couple of people that were born by Mary after? The half brothers? I don't think so. Neither did the author of the Hebrews.

Right.

In the midst of the assembly. Now, what's the assembly? It's all the nation of Israel. It's all of the people of God, all of those who are in covenant with God. I will praise you. You who fear Yahweh, praise him.

All you seed of Jacob, glorify him and stand in awe of him. All you seed of Israel. For he has not despised and he has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. In other words, he looked down at our estate, one of sin, death and misery and said, I am not going to allow my creation to keep on going like this.

I'm going to have pity on my creation. I'm going to do something about it. And I'm going to go in, take their sin, place it upon myself and eradicate it from mankind. Now, obviously we're still in process with that.

But the work has been done and it's been done by Christ. So it says, uh, stand in awe of him. All you seed of Israel for he has not despised. He has not abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. He has not hidden his face from him, but when he cried to him for help, he heard.

So we go back to Hebrews. Actually, hold on. Cause this is really cool too. Um, we sing this song all the time at church. Uh, you come down to the end of it. Uh, verse 29, all the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship.

All those who go down to the dust will bow before him. Even though even he who could not keep his soul, their seed will serve him. And it will be recounted about the Lord to the coming generation. They will come and will declare his righteousness to a people who will, who will be born or who are yet to be born that he has done it.

And what is he done? And it's this thing here for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified Hebrews two 11 are all of one, one father. This reason is not ashamed to call us brothers saying, I will recount your name to my brothers.

I'm going to tell of God to my brothers and in the midst of the assembly, a senior praise. And why is that? Because God is going to bring a people to himself through the person of Jesus Christ as he dies on the cross, lays in the grave and then raises again with eternal life so that the sacrifice is paid and life is given to those who are.

Dying.

And that's just, that's just great.

Oh yeah.

And I was, I was looking at these other verses too, and, and how victorious this Psalm is from, from 25 to 28.

Oh yeah.

From, from you come my praise. So he's earlier, he's praising the father amongst the assembly amongst his brethren and he's doing this in the midst of suffering because he, he knows in whom he trusts and he knows the victory that's to come.

And then he begins, um, he begins to sing about that victory or write about the victory.

Oh, they're saying, yeah, exactly.

I shall pay my bowels before those who fear him. Um, the afflicted will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. And then some great post meal here. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.

All the families of the nations will worship before you. The, for the kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the nations.

Yeah.

Um, our, uh, our Psalter, uh, says this, that verse this way says all ends of earth will turn to him, the Lord. They will again recall the nation's families all will come to worship and before him fall because the Lord, the kingdom owns and rules above all earthly thrones.

That's a beautiful stuff there.

I'm glad that we have an eschatology where we can get excited about that passage.

Oh yeah.

Um, I mean, why, why do I want to get raptured out of here when I'm looking forward to all the nations, all the families of all the nations coming before him, seeking him, bowing before him and worship him.

All the nations.

Yep.

Don't have to wait for failure in between.

Right.

What a, what a beautiful journey we're on.

Yep.

It's good stuff.

Yeah.

And I, I saw that too, or I was thinking about that as well. You were, you were talking about the, the Trinitarian aspect in, in these passages. And I was, I was thinking about that as we were looking at Hebrews two and reading these quotes from some, um, how, how Trinitarian these passages are and how they help keep us in balance because we have some, um, sometimes some denominations, some peoples, they want to overemphasize in some areas, but the Bible doesn't allow us to do that.

Um, we, we want to, sometimes we want to solely focus on one person in the Trinity or another, but here, here, Jesus is looking back to the father, giving the father praise, right. Helping us keep in balance that they all are equally worthy of praise, the Holy Spirit, that, um, Christ, the son and the father, um, all equal, all worthy of praise.

And he is reminding us of that here, I believe.

Oh yeah.

Yep.

The Psalm 22 Background to Hebrews 2:11-13

Um, so it, it seamlessly goes into and quotes Isaiah right after that in verse 13, it says, and again, I will put my trust in him and again, uh, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. And that comes from Isaiah eight.

Um, one of the really cool things about Isaiah eight is it's right in between Isaiah seven and Isaiah nine. And that's not just a math problem. I mean, I know it sounds like it, but it also, it also, uh, check this out.

Uh, talking to Ahaz, uh, it says, Hey, um, ask for a sign for yourself from Yahweh, your God, make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. In other words, you've been given a promise to ask for a sign that it's going to happen.

He said, Oh, I'm not going to do that. And so he, the, uh, Isaiah says to him, he says, uh, listen now, house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of man that you will try the patience of my God as well?

It's like, Hey, God told you to pick one and you didn't find, sit there and shut up, I'm going to tell you what God's going to say to you. So, Oh, harsh. Uh, but then, but then you hear these words, these words are great.

Therefore the Lord God, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin will be with child and bear a son. She will call his name, Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey in order that he, uh, in order that he will know to refuse evil and choose good.

And it goes on and talks about, um, uh, how the, the people of Assyria are going to be, uh, dealt with, uh, by God. And then verse nine or not verse on chapter nine, which you may be a little bit more familiar with.

Um, it starts, uh, saying the people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light will shine upon them. Uh, it moves on and says, uh, for a child will be born to us.

A son will be given to us and the government will rest upon his shoulders and his name will be called. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, Prince of peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore, the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

So the zeal of the Lord of the God of Israel will do all of those things. And so you, you look in chapter eight, which is sandwiched in between there talking about how there's, there's a, there's a tension there, not in the text because God wrote exactly what he meant, but there's a tension there between the people of Israel, Assyria, who's going to come and blast them, what looks like off the face of the earth, but God is giving them a promise that his, his covenant to them is going to remain.

And as we know from Jeremiah, that it's going to be, um, Fuller, it's going to be better because the new covenant is, is, is taking place. Christ is coming. So it says these, these things, and we'll get them back to our, our quotation, uh, starting verse let's do, let's do verse 16 in the midst of him telling the people of this great hope, he says, bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

This is chapter eight, verse 16, number 17. And I will wait for Yahweh who is hiding his face. Am I reading the right thing? I think I am. And I will wait for Yahweh who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob.

I will hope for him. Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. So both of those quotations where it says, I will put my trust in him.

And again, behold, I, and the children, the Lord has given me, I will put my trust in him is where you see in verse 17 and I will wait for Yahweh. I will put my trust in him. I will hope in Christ. I will hope in God and not just me, but behold, there's a people that the father has given to the son, that the son is purchasing with his own blood, who is going, he's going to raise them from dead to at least spiritually now and physically later, he's going to take these people who were slaves.

As we see later on in the next few verses of our passage in Hebrews, who were slaves of death, who now no longer have to fear death, even if they die, it will not end in death, it will end in the resurrection.

So it was fitting that Christ would come and die in our place because his death is going to put death to death. So that our death means nothing said death a lot there.

Well, that comes up in a few verses, I think in Hebrews, right?

Like the next verse, let's, let's read the next verse. So that's a good place to, uh, it kind of sums up everything. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, since we have bodies of flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same.

So he became man. He took on flesh and blood that through death, through his death, he might render powerless him who had the power of death. That is the devil. So what is the devil's only power is that one day you may die and die in your sins.

And what did that's not even really a power that he has. We fell into sin. He deceived us into sin. And it's really not a power because Christ has come and defeated sin, death, and the devil. So he took away the power of death by dying and killing death by destroying death itself.

And he did that by taking on the flesh and blood of a man. Because he was going to be like us in order to save us. That's why he calls us brothers because he actually became man. He took on humanity in order to save humanity.

And that is, that is a, it's a mind blowing thing.

Yeah.

No, how does, how's the, how's the infinite fit inside the finite?

Wow.

That's a, I'll leave you to contemplate that one till next week.

Yeah.

Well, there's, there's no aspect of the gospel that is not mind blowing. Not just, not just the fact that how, how does that happen? Um, the, the divine become human, but why would he be so gracious? Mind-blowing.

Why would he show mercy? Mind-blowing can't understand to comprehend that.

Right.

It's just a mate. It's amazing. And we should be grateful.

Yeah.

Christ Destroys the Power of Death

And here's something to blow your mind even farther. I'm preparing to preach, to preach next week. Um, first Peter, you know, second Peter one verse four, uh, says, but he has granted, I'll let me back over to verse three, his divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises.

These same promises of salvation by, by taking sin to himself and doing away, doing away with it so that here's the purpose of him giving us these promises and taking away our sin and giving us everything that we need to that with life and godliness so that through them, through his precious and very great promises, we may become partakers of the divine nature.

Wow.

So it's, it's, it's, it's both.

And what does that mean? And how do you keep from being heretical with that one as well?

Oh, we, uh, we'll definitely have to get to that one next week or maybe the week after, um, cause we are out of time.

We're out of time. That's right.

And, and as real quick, yeah, it does not mean that one day you can become God.

Yeah.

That's what I was referring to.

Hard stop. You will not become God.

We are not Mormon.

No.

Oh, well, as Dan was, um, talking through the scripture here, he, he did nothing less than share with us the gospel that Jesus become man, he died for the sins of those who would believe in him. And the call is from scripture to repent of our sins and trust in that work, that accomplished work that Jesus did.

And so we would encourage you if you haven't done that to do that today, do it right now, repent of your sins, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Let me pray. As we wrap it up, father, we thank you for this time together.

Thank you for your word. Thank you for the discussion that we're allowed to have. And we pray that you would use this conversation for your glory in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right.

Thank you guys. Thank you, Dan, for all your work. Thank you guys for watching us. We hope that you will stick with us and join us next time. As we continue to walk through Hebrews. If you have any suggestions, comments, no, no, Dan.

We do what we want to improve. We want to do better. Uh, we want to, um, help where we can. So if you have any suggestions, let us know. We would like to, um, help you as much as we can, but remember that Jesus is King.

Go live in the victory of Christ. Speak with the authority of Christ.