Oh Brother! - [Hebrews 2:11-13]

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My parents both worked when I was growing up, and so on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, I'd go to Grandma and Grandpa Abendroth's, and then on Tuesdays, Thursdays, I would go to Grandma and Grandpa Up the
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Hill, Grandma and Grandpa Anderson. And several times, I would listen to my grandparents talk about Grandpa's brother, the black sheep of the family.
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Many folks have brothers who maybe give kind of a bad name to the family.
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You might be ashamed to call someone your brother. Maybe not every family has those, but several do.
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And several black sheep brothers are very famous. William Alton Carter III, born
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March 29, 1937. He was an American farmer, businessman, and politician, and he was famous for being a promoter of Billy Beer.
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He was Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter's brother. He was outlandish in his behavior publicly, and on August 4, 1980,
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President Jimmy Carter wrote, I am deeply concerned that Billy has received funds from Libya and that he may be under obligation to Libya.
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These facts will govern my relationship with Billy as long as I am president. Billy has had no influence on U .S.
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policy or actions concerning Libya in the past, and he will have no influence in the future.
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There are black sheep sometimes who are brothers who shame the family name. There is a man named
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Malik Obama. He is Kenyan, who is now a naturalized citizen. He is
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President Obama's half -brother. And he now, as a naturalized citizen, infamously or famously is a supporter of Donald Trump.
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And it wasn't always that way, though. Malik was the best man when Barack and Michelle got married, and Barack was the best man at one of Malik's weddings.
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After all, he has between 3 and 12 wives, but he won't say exactly how many.
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Not President Obama, but Malik. Let's make sure we get that straight. There was kind of an inverse black sheep of the family, a black sheep brother.
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His name was James Vincencio Capone, and Al was incensed with his brother
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Vince because this Vince fought heroically in World War I, became a policeman in Nebraska, and persecuted those who did prohibition runs.
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Even from his jail cell in Alcatraz, Al Capone was mortified about his brother.
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Pauline Bonaparte. Let's include some ladies in this black sheep introduction.
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She was the little sister of Napoleon, and she was opulently motivated.
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She loved opulence, and she would even use real people for footstools. She had so many affairs that Napoleon finally forced her to get married to try to not be publicly embarrassed any longer.
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The Kennedys were shamed when Teddy Kennedy, who had two famous brothers obviously, drove a car off the
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Chappaquiddick Bridge in Martha's Vineyard in 1969. And Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton, had a brother named, anybody remember?
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Roger Clinton. And one writer said, if you don't remember that Bill Clinton even had a brother, it's probably because the president wanted it that way.
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He was the president of the free world, Bill Clinton, and his brother was sent to prison in 1985 for cocaine trafficking.
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And even here more locally, as Makarowski reminded me yesterday, William Michael Billy Bulger, 18 -year tenure serving as the president of the
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Massachusetts Senate, and was also the president of the University of Massachusetts, was forced to resign in 2003 because he wouldn't testify in front of Congress regarding his black sheep brother,
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James Joseph Whitey Bulger, who had been indicted for 19 murders.
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Ashamed of your brother. Now here's the thing. Jesus, we'll learn today, is not ashamed to call us his brother.
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And frankly, knowing me, and knowing what the Bible says about you, he should be.
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But praise the Lord, he isn't. Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2. Can you imagine, the holy
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God of the universe, who knows everything we've said and done, sins of omission, commission, thought, word, and deed, he isn't ashamed to call us
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Christian. He's not ashamed to call you brother. Can you imagine?
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Matter of fact, this would lend us to think he's actually proud of us. He would be glad to introduce us.
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Jesus is not ashamed to call us black sheep his brother.
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We're in the book of Hebrews, and Hebrews is all about Jesus, the high priest. And specifically today, we're going to talk about Jesus as our brother.
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And this lends itself quite easily for us to think, Okay, the eternal
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Son of God had to be born of a virgin and add human flesh, so that he could be our brother.
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How could a spirit, a God who has no body, be our brother? How could he be our representative?
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How could he be our priest? So Jesus has to add humanity. I mean, think about it. Could God just in eternity say, how do
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I forgive someone? I'll forgive Abendroth. Forgiven! And snap his proverbial fingers. But God is righteous, and God is holy, and God is just.
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And when there's sin, there must be death. And so God, the Son, takes humanity, adds it to his nature, forever now, united with the nature of a human.
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And he becomes our representative. He is our substitute, certainly, but now he's our representative.
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And the text tries to drive that home today in Hebrews 2 by calling him our brother.
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Jesus, our brother. Anselm, a long time ago, wrote a book called
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Why Did God Become Man? It's a very famous book. The Son of God, the eternal
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Son of God, the Lord of Glory, assumes human flesh, adds human flesh permanently.
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And in the book, this is kind of funny for me, because there's a character in his book that is kind of a dunce cap kind of guy, a dim -witted guy.
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And he can't understand why God has to become man to be our representative and substitute and risen
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Savior. And this man who can't figure out has a wonderful name. And his name is
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Bozo. It only makes sense. Bozo can't figure it out.
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That the Son of Man, the Son of God, the eternal Son, could come to earth. And Anselm in his book tells this character
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Bozo, until you consider the weight and gravity of sin, you can't understand why it's so important for Jesus to add humanity so He might die as our substitute, as a sin bearer.
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Jesus, to be a high priest, has to be God so He can interface, as it were, with God.
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And He has to be man to be our priest and our representative. He has to be fully
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God and fully man. And that's what Hebrews is talking about. Chapter 1, He's fully God. All the worship of God.
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He purges sins. He's the Lord of glory. He sits at the right hand of the Father. He's inaugurated as King.
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He deserves worship as the eternal God. And Chapter 2 now moves to Jesus is also wonderful and great and to be worshiped because He's human.
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He's not only God, but He's also the God -man. Real human nature without sin.
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The word incarnation just means in flesh. The eternal God takes to Himself an additional nature through the virgin birth and becomes man.
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Sinless man. Forever deity. Forever man. Jesus, the high priest.
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Now, what the writer wants to do is he wants you to have the right view of the object of your faith.
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We are not Kierkegaardian leap of faith people. It's just good to believe. It's nice to have spirituality.
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Have faith in faith. No, he wants to crystallize who this person
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Jesus is. These Jews are scattered. These Jews are running. These Jews are persecuted.
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They haven't lost their life yet, but that will come soon enough. So how to have the right object of your faith, especially if you summarize all of Christianity by the just shall live by faith.
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Faith in what particular object? Who is the object of my faith? So everything early on in the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is worthy of your faith.
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He's superior to angels. He's superior to prophets. But He's also the object of your faith. And He can be the object of your faith not just as God, but also man.
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He lived on earth as an ordinary man. Dust, dirt, sweat, toil, heat, sleep.
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He was fully man. And that should not, the writer of Hebrews is going to tell us, subtract from His glory, but it adds to it because He can now be a high priest.
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We've been talking a lot about the Incarnation in Hebrews chapter 2 and how it was fitting and how it was planned and how it would have been kind of a shock to the system.
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How it was successful. But today let's focus in on verses 11, 12, and 13.
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That the Incarnation of Jesus means that Christians are His brothers.
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You have a brother. Christ Jesus, our elder brother. Let me read verse 11 please of chapter 2 in Hebrews.
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If you're a guest today, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church. We're working verse by verse or maybe word by word through the book of Hebrews.
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And we're going slower for lots of reasons. This one's not a big reason, but I'll tell you anyway.
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This might be the last time I ever get to preach through Hebrews. So I'm just taking my time. I don't want to die in the book of Hebrews, but if you have to die preaching through some book, this is it.
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But the other reason we're going slowly is because He's writing to Hebrews that know all about the
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Old Testament. That live and breathe the Old Testament. As easy as you can quote John 3, 16 and Philippians 2 and 4, 13, these people could quote the
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Old Testament. They were living and breathing in the Old Testament. And frankly, and I will put myself with you as well, we don't know the
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Old Testament like we should. We don't think and breathe Old Testament. Oh, maybe Psalm 23 and Genesis 1.
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But there's so much of the Old Testament that comes through Hebrews not by even direct quote only, but through allusions and references.
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For He, verse 11, who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.
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That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers.
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The focus here, as you can see, is the humanity of Jesus and His desire to rescue sinners.
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And that first word directs us back to the previous verse. For is the first word,
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F -O -R, in verse 11. And it drives us back to verse 10 showing that Jesus, to rescue humans, has to become human.
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Verse 10, For it was fitting that He, from whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should be made the founder, the captain, the hero of their salvation, perfect, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.
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Jesus has to be a man to redeem men. He had to assume human nature, add human nature in its entirety except be without sin.
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Why did Jesus suffer? Can Jesus save suffering people without Himself even suffering?
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And so now the writer goes into verse 11, For He who sanctifies... Who's that? Jesus. And those who are sanctified, that's us, all have one source.
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Now think about it. He's going to try to say that we're all brothers. Okay, and for some of you we'll say, and sisters.
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But I don't want to go to brothers and sisters language yet because brothers is a hint for us to think in an Old Testament fashion.
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We all have one source. What's the ESV say? One source. Maybe you have the
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NRSV, all have one father. Maybe you have NIV, all have one family. Literally it's, they are all of one.
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And the reference really is to have God the Father. The Son has God as His Father and we have
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God as our Father. And if we both have the same Father, we are what? Brothers.
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That's the idea. Stressing commonality. Stressing family.
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Shared humanity with Christ Jesus. He's the sanctifier. We are the ones being sanctified.
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Now the word sanctify is simple. We tend to think justification is when we're saved,
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God declares us not guilty. Glorification, when we get to heaven. And we think in the middle, it's called sanctification, where we progressively work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
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But the writer of Hebrews doesn't use sanctification here for we're progressively saying no to sin and yes to righteousness.
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He's using sanctification in a Hebrew way, in a priestly way, where you have certain things set apart for worship.
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Probably this Thanksgiving, you had special china. Probably this Christmas, you have special china.
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You have the foam, plastic, Tupperware, fake stuff. By the way, this one's just for free.
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Do you know what the word plastic means? Plastoy means fake. So you have the real china and you have the fake china.
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It's plastic. Sorry to anybody who sells pamper -chef or Tupperware. It just means something set apart, special.
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And it doesn't even have a religious connotation in general overall. But used with the
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Bible, it's very holy, very religious. There are special things set apart.
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Special things. And that's the idea. Jesus is the one who sets us apart and we are the ones set apart.
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Now it's fascinating to me, because if I just slow down a little bit, I read the Bible way too fast. If I just sit back and think, okay,
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He who sanctifies. I wonder if that's a reference to God of the
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Old Testament. As a matter of fact, it is. Over and over and over in the Old Testament, God is a God who says, I am the
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God who sanctifies you. I am the God who sanctifies you. That's basically a formula.
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Exodus 31. You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, above all, you shall keep My Sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the
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Lord, sanctify you. Leviticus. I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
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I am the Lord who sanctifies Him. I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
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For I am the Lord who sanctifies. And you shall not profane
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My holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel, for I am the
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Lord who sanctifies. See what's happening here? Jesus is the sanctifier. The Old Testament, God is the sanctifier.
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Huh? Jesus is what? Jesus is God Himself. The activity of Old Testament sanctification given to God alone, the activity of New Testament sanctification,
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Jesus is doing. It's the divine prerogative that only Jesus could have. We have the same
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Father. He's a sanctifier because He's our brother. Now see, sometimes people will say, you know what,
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Jesus is God, but He's not really human. There's all kinds of heresies in the early centuries of the church.
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Docetics believe that. It seemed like Jesus was man, but He really wasn't.
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I mean, how can God suffer? By the way, it's not really an old heresy only because new heresies teach the same thing.
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The modern version of docetism, which means Jesus is God, but He's not man, that error is found today in Christian science where suffering is just an illusion.
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It seems like it. You can't have Jesus who suffered because suffering is not really real. I was like my old pastor used to say,
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Christian science is like grape nuts. It's not grape and it's not science. I'll put those two together.
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Not grape, not nuts. Not science, not Christian. Hey, what do I know? I can't even keep track of Mary Baker, Eddie Glover, Patterson Frye is the last name for husbands, so I can't think of grape nuts too.
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The nature of God has to be such that He is able to redeem people.
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And He does. His name is the Son. He who sanctifies happens to be
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Jesus' atoning work. And those who are sanctified are us. We are the ones set apart for worship and service and glory just like you'd set apart certain things in the temple or in the tabernacle.
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And for Jesus to be our brother, He's going to need a body. I know you know this, but I'm just saying it over and over. For Jesus to suffer,
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He had to have a body. For Jesus to bleed, He had to have a body. For Jesus to die, He had to have a body. For Jesus to be raised from the dead,
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He had to have a body. Jesus' true followers are sanctified.
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He is the sanctifier. They are sanctified and set apart. And both Jesus, our sanctifier, and we, the sanctified, have one source, one
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Father. We're His brother. The brother who sticks closer than a brother.
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Now look at verse 11 again. This is why He's not ashamed to call them brothers. Now here's what
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I don't get. I don't understand honor -shame culture like I should.
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Some of you maybe grew up in the East and you would understand it. This is honor -shame culture language.
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Cultures like the Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans. Their entire lives revolving around you give honor to the family and you don't shame the family.
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No blights on the family. How do we live? We live with Western shame.
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What about me and my self -worth and my self -esteem? I want people to think highly of me.
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I want to feel good about myself. That's Western shame. Eastern shame is what does the public think?
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What does the community think? What do other people think about me? It's about my public reputation with Eastern shame.
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Public honor. The ultimate horrible thing you could do back in this honor -shame culture would be have your family shamed.
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Now think about it. These people are on the run getting persecuted.
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They're ostracized. They're getting shamed by the culture. These Christians are giving us a bad name.
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Especially the Jews who talk about the Christians as an offshoot of Christianity. We don't want you to be an offshoot or a hybrid of Judaism.
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This is a bad name on Judaism and it's shameful. And now you realize what happens even sometimes with Muslims today.
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It's such an honor -shame culture that if somebody becomes a Christian, they get what? Killed because of the public reputation that's happening and the dishonor.
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And how people now will be saved out of Muslim families. And it's like their families have a funeral for them.
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But here the writer is saying, do you know what? The culture rejects you. You're shaming the culture.
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It's a public denial of all these things that these people think.
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But as though these people hate you, the culture despises you.
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Jesus isn't ashamed of you. Now before I go any further, how far back in my skeleton closet of sin, how far back in yours do you have to go before you think, you know what?
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That action was just shameful. Put it up on the screen.
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Everybody gets to see it. And you go, shame. So many people videotaping things today.
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It's all over the internet and all these extortion with video. God knows everything we've ever done.
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And Jesus, our High Priest, because He's paid for our sins, He's suffered, He's been raised from the dead.
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I'm not ashamed of you. Frankly, let's just talk, as my dad would say, between us girls.
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I knew it was trouble when he ever said that. I'm ashamed of myself half the time.
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You ever do something so sinful, you go, I'm just ashamed of myself. Glad nobody else saw that.
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It's shameful. But see, the debt has been paid. I like to train dogs, and sometimes
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I train them well, and sometimes I train them in a politically incorrect way. But sometimes, you know, if the dogs do something they ought not to do,
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I bring those dogs back and they get a little whiff of their own problem there.
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You ever heard of rubbing their nose into it language? Here's the thrice holy
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God who could rub our noses in it. As a matter of fact, without repentance and faith, that's essentially what hell is.
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But for our sins, they've been paid. Paid in full. And we never are in God's eyes shameful again.
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How nice is that? I mean, think of the angels. Angels might say they might sing holy, holy, holy, but they can never sing redeemed, redeemed, redeemed.
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Because elect angels never sin, they don't need redemption. Angels that have sinned, forever damned, no chance of redemption.
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And we get to sing redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, a song that no angel could ever sing.
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And we're redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and when we have been in the slave pit of sin and we're bought out with the price of Christ's blood, forever now, not shamed.
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What's the opposite of shame? Pride. Welcoming. I have a brother, you know,
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Pat. He's nine years younger than I am. I'm proud of my brother. And if he came in, I'd want you to meet him.
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And I would be proud of him. I have a brother, and he's a Christian brother, and he's a pastor brother, and he's not an
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Armenian pastor brother. He has my theology pastor brother. The writer of Hebrews is saying to these suffering
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Christians, everybody else is shaming you with this culture of guilt, shame, honor, and you are to be despised.
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And while they spit on you, Jesus says, I'm not ashamed of you at all. There's no shame.
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I welcome you. But to be a brother, he has to be human.
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To be crucified, he had to be human. To suffer, he had to be human. And that, the writer wants you to know, doesn't take away from the exaltation of Jesus.
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It adds to it. What the world considers shameful,
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Jesus doesn't consider shameful. Now, if you're not a Christian, you ought to be ashamed.
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And Jesus says, when I come back, those who are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of them.
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But when the person turns and repents, and this should be you today if you're not a Christian, and believes on the high priest, what used to be shame is now dead and buried.
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Crucified with Christ Jesus. And now there's no longer shame. So everything in Hebrews 2 is pushing you to assurance, and love, and brotherhood.
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Oh, to have a brother that wouldn't be ashamed of me. The black sheep. Skip forward please to Hebrews 11.
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You'll see this kind of language about shame. Hebrews 11 .16
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It says, But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
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Therefore, He's talking about these Old Testament saints, God is not ashamed to be called their
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God, for He has prepared them a city. Now, of course, I love the old folks like Moses, and Abraham, and others.
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But sometimes when I read Abraham, it's kind of shameful. You know what,
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I don't really want to get killed, so why don't you take my wife here, or my sister, why don't you sleep with her, so I can save my neck.
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How many times has that happened to Abraham? If it wasn't shameful enough the first time, it was the second time.
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And here, because of the work of the Messiah, He's not ashamed to call Abraham His brother.
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And the language not ashamed, if you go back to Hebrews 2, is emphatic.
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Not ever, ever ashamed. The word ashamed means, it's got two words put together, upon shame.
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To put shame upon. To heap guilt upon. To cause people to blush. Embarrassed.
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You ever been embarrassed? Family member does something, and you're like, I'm sure I've embarrassed
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Kim thousands of times, and she's just like, yeah, that's my husband. Are your kids embarrass you?
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I mean, I remember even, we didn't do much soccer stuff, because soccer's pagan, but when we used to do,
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I just remember, even watching on TV, or some kind of funniest home videos, it's like the four year old kid who's in soccer, and they're just standing like, in the middle of the soccer field.
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And they're just like looking up and around, and they're picking their nose and everything, and you're like, that's my boy! I'm the dad.
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Now this should not make us want to sin, but since we are declared righteous, and we're brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, Jesus isn't embarrassed about His bride.
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Now, it says in chapter 2 verse 11, He's not ashamed to call them brothers.
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Some Bibles will say brothers and sisters, and ladies, it is true.
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Galatians chapter 3 verse 28, in Christ, there's no longer what? Male or female.
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Ladies, it is true that in Romans 16, I think out of the 25 people that Paul applauds and thanks, eight are ladies.
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And he did that in a society that ladies would never be thanked like that publicly. It is true that when all the men ran after the crucifixion of Jesus, the ladies were right there.
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Women and men are both image bearers. But what happens if we begin to become feminized in our reading of the
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Bible? We lose things like this. He's not ashamed to call them brothers. Well, if He who sanctifies trips my mind to think,
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Old Testament, that's of God. What does the word brothers trip in your mind when you think Old Testamently?
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Brothers and sisters will trip no wire, but brothers will. When you think of the word brother in the
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Old Testament, it means friends, family members, and the people of Israel.
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Came about in those days, Exodus 2, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brothers and looked at their labors, and he saw an
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Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers. Deuteronomy 18, the
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Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers and sisters.
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I mean, we get the point, but we're going to lose that if we default to it. It's used of friends.
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I went about it, so I grieve for my friend or my brother as one who laments his mourning his mother.
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I bowed down in mourning, Psalm 35. So when you think of brother, there's this connotation.
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God was a brother to Israel, and now Jesus is our brother. That's the point. And He's not ashamed to call us
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His brother. I mean, even when I think of the word brother, what comes to your mind when you think of brother?
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In the Bible, a giving, sacrificial spirit and generosity and somebody who says, you know,
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I'll help you. Listen, Proverbs 17, 17. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for what?
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Adversity. Now, I have a brother, Pat, that I talked about earlier, and I have a sister,
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Marcy, who's four years younger. And Marcy's married. She lives in Iowa and is an
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ER nurse and married and a daughter. And if Marcy called me today and she said,
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Mike, I need help, I would say, I'll check my calendar and 2017
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I might be able to visit. I would be on that plane.
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I wouldn't think to myself, oh, you know what? They say that Tuesday's the best day to book flights.
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It's cheaper that way. I don't have enough points yet. I've got to charge up a few more things and rack up the points.
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She's my sister. I will drop everything. When I get a call from my sister, Marcy, I'm gone.
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And you would expect nothing less. A brother's born for adversity. When you're in trouble, you need a family member.
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You need somebody who will understand. It's fine to have those who are outside the family, but I want blood relatives because I know they care.
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They've been there through thick and through the proverbial thin. And Jesus isn't afraid to call us
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His brother. What do brothers do? They're generous. Is Jesus generous? They're sacrificial.
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Is Jesus sacrificial? They offer help. Does Jesus offer help? See, that's why
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I don't want to go too fast through Hebrews because it's just so rich. It's the fire hose. You think,
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Jesus isn't ashamed to call me His brother. And He's proved it by helping generously and sacrificially at the cross.
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By the way, that word brother, it literally means one from the same womb.
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Same mom, same dad kind of thing. That's what the word is literally used. And regularly, Jesus is told by the authors that He has brothers like stepbrothers, half -brothers.
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But rarely is it found in Scripture where we're called His brother. For those whom
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God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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Romans 8. Jesus is kind of wild to think about.
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Chapter 1, the radiance of God's glory, effulgent nature of God, Creator, Sustainer of the universe,
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Sovereign over the universe, and now He identifies with humanity and He's our brother. He's not like a ghost.
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He's not like an angel. Not like some kind of phantom. Jesus, our brother. He gets hungry.
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He eats. He sleeps. He eats fish. He walks.
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He walks on the Sea of Galilee. And now in verses 12 -13 of Hebrews 2, there's some
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Old Testament... That's kind of a funny thing, isn't it? Some Old Testament citations that talks about Jesus' solidarity with us to confirm the fact that He's our brother.
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Jesus, He's so human, He can call us brother. We have the same Father. God the
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Father is our Father, His Father. But these three
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Old Testament passages, one found in verse 12 and two in verse 13, amplify as examples that Jesus is willing to associate with us.
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Let me read these verses, and here's what I'd like you to do, congregation. See if you can see any kind of personal affirmation, a personal touch, that is,
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I, what I will do. Now remember, we teach rightfully so at this church that God is sovereign over everything, over every molecule.
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What makes us anything but fatalists? The Islam view of God, fatalistic, decrees only.
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We believe in decrees and purposes and plans, but what makes God a personal God? The answer is the
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Incarnation. And you'll see it right here, the personal nature of God.
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I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, wait until you get a load of this,
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I will sing your praise. This is Jesus talking. And again,
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I will put my trust in Him. And again, behold,
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I and the children God has given me. Notice all that personal affirmation?
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I will declare. I will sing. I'll put my trust. Here I am, children that God has given me.
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The identification of Jesus Christ with the sufferings of His people. He is not ashamed to call them brothers.
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This is Jesus. The I here is Jesus personally speaking. The incarnate, crucified, risen, exalted
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Savior speaking. And if you ever met Jesus, what do you think He would say to you?
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What would He use to talk with you? My guess is, just like this passage, this incarnate, crucified, exalted
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Jesus addresses the people with the
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Bible, the Old Testament. Right from the Psalms and right from Isaiah.
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Let's look at all three of these and we're not going to get through them today, but that's alright. Found in verse 12, here's the first personal affirmation.
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Jesus, our brother, proclaiming God's name to us. I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation
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I will sing your praise. In other words, I will tell of your name, God, the Father, to my brothers, us, in the midst of the congregation
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I will sing God the Father's praise. What goes through your mind when you read that?
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Now, first of all, it's from Psalm 22, a Messianic Psalm. Remember how Psalm 22 starts?
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We'll look at this more next week. My God, my God, what? Why have you forsaken me? And he quotes
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Psalm 22, verse 22. I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.
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Do you notice how he's identifying with us in the midst of the congregation? The idea here for the writer of Hebrews is to show
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Jesus is a close ally and brother. Now, next week when we look at Psalm 22, you'll see kind of the background of what's going on.
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But here in verse 22, while earlier in chapter 22 of Psalms 1 through 21, there's a lot of persecution and pain and crucifixion, the story changes now.
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And it changes to praise. Because God has delivered David when he first wrote it, and now
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God has delivered Jesus as Jesus has been rescued from his enemies and prayer has been answered. And how do you respond to God when he answers prayer of rescue with a praise?
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And it's fascinating. Jesus, who had victory at his resurrection, praises
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God, Yahweh, in the congregation of the saints. Now, this is fascinating.
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Does your text say praise or sing? It says in verse 12,
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I will sing your praise. Wait a second. Jesus, a singing
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Savior. Does Jesus sing anywhere in the Bible? Now, remember after the
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Last Supper, Jesus would sing some of the Psalms. Scott talked about the Hillel and how
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Jesus would sing Psalm 113 to 118. Jesus sings. They'd sing hymns.
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Here, Jesus is a singing Savior. He's the high priest singing Savior leading congregational singing.
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How can Jesus be our brother? He's a leader of the congregation. Singing. That's pretty fascinating.
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Jesus singing to his Father among Christians. Listen to what
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Calvin said. And Christ encourages us by his example to sing them publicly so that they may be heard by still more.
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It would not be enough for each one individually to be grateful to God for the benefits he's received without giving public evidence of our gratitude.
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And thus, mutually encouraging each other to the same purpose. Listen. This teaching is very strong encouragement to us to bring yet a more fervent zeal to the praise of God.
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When we hear that Christ heeds our praise and is the chief conductor of our hymns.
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Clowney picks up on that and says every time you sing, you should be thinking Jesus is singing over your shoulder. Now, don't get me started.
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There's a worship war going on in evangelicalism and so some people who are the song leaders are called the worship leader.
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Charlie, no offense. Mark, no offense. Mike, no offense.
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But you guys aren't the worship leaders. Who's the worship leader according to this passage?
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I remember Sinclair Ferguson would say, you know what, men, he was talking to a bunch of pastors, sing like you're holding the hymnal with Jesus.
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Well, you know, I can't really sing very well. Jesus gave you the voice. Use what you've got. The essence of this text is
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Jesus is singing over your shoulder. You ever sing? I mean, I have a great opportunity because I sit up here in the front.
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The closer you are to the front, the more holy you are. And it just... I don't know what that says about the overflow room.
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Sorry. Somebody said in the overflow room the other day, why do you lift your leg up like that when you're preaching?
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We can see it from the camera. I said, I don't know. Sit in the middle where you're supposed to. When someone sits behind me who's a good singer, what does that make you want to do?
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Janae Hutchins, when she sits behind me with that Scottish brogue, I'm just thinking, sinfully I think, at least she's drowning out my bad keys.
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But it just makes me want to sing. You go to the Shepherd's Conference, they're singing 4 ,000 people. Together for the
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Gospel, 5 ,000 people singing. Jesus, of course, is
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God, but He's man. And here's the language of, it's like Jesus is in the congregation singing over your shoulder.
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And for Him to do that, He's got to be a brother. Spurgeon, behold then in your midst,
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O church of God, in the days of His flesh, there stood this glorious One whom angels worship, who is the brightness of the
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Father's glory in the very heaven of heavens. Yet when He stood here, it was to join the worship of His people, declaring the
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Father's name unto His brethren, and with them singing praises unto the Most High.
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Does not this bring Him very near to you? Does it not seem as if He might come at any moment and sit in that pew with you?
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I feel, Spurgeon said, as if already He stood on this platform side by side with me.
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Why should He not? Jesus sings with those
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He's not ashamed of. Father, I thank
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You for this truth. I thank You that Jesus, the sinless One, the Holy One of God, isn't ashamed of us.
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Oh, we have plenty to be ashamed of, but it's been paid in full. The guilt and the shame all nailed to the cross.
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Father, I know You were never ashamed of Jesus. This is my beloved
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Son in whom I'm well pleased. And today, Father, we stand, all the believers that are here today, we stand in Christ, in union with Him, and You see us as You see
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Your Son. So, Father, help us to live in light of this. We thank
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You for the Incarnation. And not just for singing loudly, but to have
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Jesus so identified with us that He would sing with us Your praises. I think of Jesus singing
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Psalm 118 with the disciples. What a moment that would have been.
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And then to think, in a wonderful way today, we sing unto