Good Friday "Our Perfect Leader" March 30, 2018 PM

Christ in Hebrews and the Call to Pay Closer Attention

Let's pray together. Father, it is difficult to imagine even with all of the help that we have been given in this day and age, all of the scholarship, all of the talent of the ages, to imagine what it would be like to be amongst those who were witnesses of Christ's crucifixion.

Lord, we call this Good Friday. This is certainly a title that bears the truth of retrospect, that it is only good that we live on this side of the resurrection. It's good because of what you have revealed about your son's sacrifice to us in the scriptures, that we may know that it was good.

I pray, Father, that as we think about the sufferings of our Savior Christ, as we consider who he is as our perfect leader, what he has done for our salvation, that you would build up our faith in him, that you would strengthen us, that you would teach us anew your glory and pour out in us anew your love.

Father, we ask for what we cannot possibly do for ourselves, that you would give us the grace this night to worship you, that you would illumine this text that you have inspired, that you would bring it to our hearts in which you dwell, that you would do your work in us through it.

We pray for these mercies, looking to your Son, Jesus Christ, with whom you are well pleased.

Amen.

Turn in your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 2. We'll be looking at verse 10 tonight. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10. The title for the sermon tonight is Our Perfect Leader. Our Perfect Leader. It seems to me that every time we go to the Scriptures, we should have it in our mind to see Christ, to learn something new of our Savior, to see some new aspect of who Christ is, that this is an anticipation that I think is very heavenly.

It's certainly what we will be gazing at in absolute wonderment for all of eternity. The manifest glories of Christ, God revealed to us. And every time we go to the Scriptures, sometimes it seems that we have difficulty seeing Christ.

And there are passages that seem like they have very little to do with us, and so we're still learning. But this is an eternal Word. It's an everlasting Word. It will never perish. It will never go away.

And we will have a very long time to marvel at the intricacies and the beauties of the revelation of God in the Scripture, especially when we will see Christ as He truly is. Other places of Scripture are not so hard at all to find Christ.

When you read the book of Hebrews, it seems you can't go half a verse without some praise to Christ. And as we look at chapter 2, there is an important instruction that I think that we are here tonight to heed.

In verse 1. And I think that it's important for us to take up that instruction, take up that admonition, and apply it to what we find in verse 10. This essentially is our goal tonight. I want you to know that I come tonight as a vagrant who has found a source of living water.

Clear, bright, pure, forever satisfying. I come tonight as a beggar who has found living bread from heaven, full of the sweetness of God, forever provided. We should come tonight as a broken people coming to a great physician, knowing that he is the one who heals us and gives us life.

We come tonight to consider our perfect leader, how he leads us through suffering into glory. We come tonight to consider Christ, who is shown to be the Son of God, the appointed heir of all things, the radiance of His Father's glory, the exact representation of His nature, the one who upholds by the word of His power all things.

He is very God of very God, very man of very man. He is higher than all the angels, and yet also a little bit below them. He is fully God and fully man. He is enthroned at the right hand of the Father.

And we're here tonight to consider our perfect leader. If you please stand with me, I'm going to read Hebrews 2. I'm going to begin in verse 1, and then I'll read down to verse 10. This is the word of the Lord.

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.

For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere, saying, What is man that you remember him? Or the son of man that you are concerned about him?

You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have appointed him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.

For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see him, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. This is the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

The Need to Pay Much Closer Attention to Christ

We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. As we follow Christ, this is not something in which we get it down pat. We've got it squared away. We know what we need to know. We've got the answers to some of the questions that some people might ask.

This is not something where we achieve a degree and have the credentials and move on. That when we follow Christ, when we live in Christ, that there is not a moment in time where we can say, I've had enough.

I know enough. I've seen enough. As we follow Christ, it should be very much like a downhill slope, that at the beginning our pace is so far, so fast, but the more we come to know Christ, the steeper that hill goes, and the farther and the faster we fall into Christ.

We may know who he is. And what we knew at the beginning, as delightful as it was, as thrilling as it was, can't even be compared to the things that we know now. And certainly all of this will not be worthy to be compared with that which we will know in the hereafter.

We must pay much closer attention, like a thirsty man fixated on the draught of water, like a famished child grasping the bread, like a broken woman applying her cure. We must pay much closer attention to our perfect leader.

Hebrews 2 .10, I think, helps us here. It's a verse that certainly has captured my attention. Here we find about our proper salvation, that the way in which God saves us is proper, it is suitable, it is fitting, it is appropriate.

Let's read verse 10 again. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

The preacher to the Hebrews feels it essential to tell them it was appropriate this way, it was fitting, it was proper that God should seek to save us in this way. Why does he feel the need to say that?

Because he's just explained in chapter 1 and the first part of chapter 2, he's just talked about who it is that saves us and how it is that God saves us. And he's spoken about things that to people who lived in that day and to people who still live today, they would laugh at.

They would count it sheer madness to talk of the incarnation that God the Son, the second person of the God, had took upon human flesh, and he was fully God and fully man, two natures in one person. Sheer madness, yet essential for our salvation.

He has spoken of Christ, that he has all authority and all power, that he reigns from the right hand of the Father, and yet not all is under subjection to him just yet. There is a now and a not yet, that he is reigning as the invisible Christ, and yet soon he will reign over all.

For many, that's a fantasy. It's worthy of ridicule. But especially the preacher has been talking about the crucifixion. He spoke of the suffering of death, that he ate death. You have in your translations perhaps taste death, but the taste is not the taste that you would think of in terms of a sample that would barely graze your tongue, meaning he tasted it as he tasted the full flavor of what death is.

He choked on death and bled to death for us. And the crucifixion, then and now, is a picture of shame, something to be mocked, something to be rejected. And so the preacher says, for it was fitting for him.

This was proper. This was appropriate. This was suitable for our salvation. That all that God did in this, this was proper. And he gives us three reasons why. Notice he says, it was fitting for him. Now let's notice who this one is, who God is.

It was fitting for him to save us in this way. It was fitting for him, but who is this him? He is God for whom are all things, and through whom are all things. It is fitting for God to save us in this way because it is his own sovereign orchestration.

It's the way he designed it, and he brought it about. And he is the one, he is the one that made everything, and everything exists for him. He is the final and the efficient cause of all things. This is the language of doxology.

This is the language of highest praise to God. For whom are all things, through whom are all things. So how could it not be right and proper? The way in which God, by his own sovereign plan, according to his foreordained power, orchestrated everything to come to pass in just this way.

Of course it is right, of course it is suitable, of course it is proper, for the sovereign God is the one who orchestrated it all. But notice also, it is fitting, it is proper, it is suitable, because he brought many sons to glory.

It was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Not only is there a sovereign orchestration, there is a gracious extrication, a gracious rescue, a gracious deliverance.

Who is it that are being saved? Who is it that are being saved? Children are being saved. Sons and daughters are being saved. Human beings are being saved. How? By being brought to glory. Why is he bringing us to glory?

And why is that salvation? The preacher just quoted Psalm 8. He just quoted Psalm 8. What is man that you are mindful of him? What is man? Psalm 8 begins and ends with great praise to the Lord, praising the name of the Lord Most High.

And it puts the attention on this question, what is man? What is God's purpose with man? God is so great. God is so glorious.

He is eternal. He is sovereign. He is powerful.

Look at all that God has done. Why is He even concerned with man? And the answer is that God made man in His own image. God graciously in creation made man in His own image, so that as God's goodness is mediated through us, God's glory is manifest in us.

And so that as man was fruitful and multiplied and filled the earth, the glory of God would fill the earth. And this is who man is supposed to be in God's image, manifesting the glory of God everywhere we go.

And, of course, this is not the way it goes because of Adam, because of Eve. We do not fill the earth with glory. We fill the earth with shame. We are not bringing blessing to the earth. We bring a curse.

Yet God graciously, mercifully, suitably delivers us, rescues us. God transfers us, forcibly relocates us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of His beloved Son, Colossians says. He delivers us.

This is the second exodus. Those who are enslaved to sin, living in darkness, are delivered and rescued and brought into the life of Christ, brought into the light of Christ. When we look at Psalm 8, when we read Psalm 8 in the original, we learn something about who man is, who God designed us to be.

And then the preacher to the Hebrews takes up Psalm 8, and he reads it, and he sees Christ. For he's quoting Psalm 8 in verses 6, 7, and 8, and then ends up talking about, this is Jesus, this is Christ.

Why does he do that? Because Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, this is the second Adam, He's the fulfillment of who we ought to be as humanity, the very image of the invisible God, the one who always, never fails to glorify His Father.

And so, it's proper and appropriate, it's suitable that God, in the way that He saves us, that His intention in His salvation matches His intention in creation. That the way in which He saves us is to bring us to glory.

So it is suitable, it is proper, it's fitting for Him to do this in this way. And there's this needful qualification about the one through whom God saves us. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the offer of their salvation through sufferings.

Jesus Christ was perfect, perfect in His divinity, perfect in His humanity. From the moment He was in the womb, to the moment He died on the cross, and was raised from the dead and returned to heaven.

There was no sin in Him, no imperfection in Him, nothing in that sense lacking in Him, and yet, He was not our savior in the womb. He could not save us by being in the womb. He could not save us by being placed in a manger as a homeless child.

He could not save us as a young man in the temple, answering and asking questions to the Pharisees. He could not save us as a wandering teacher. He could not save us as a miracle worker. He could only save us by dying on the cross.

And so He was perfected, fully qualified, made a complete savior by His sufferings. And He suffered. He suffered abandonment by His friends. He suffered ridicule and scorn by all His neighbors. He suffered brutal physical abuse, with the scourging and the crown of thorns, and the crucifixion.

He suffered in this way too, that God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf. What kind of suffering is this? To live your whole life, even living from all of eternity, never knowing sin, than to be made sin.

To be made sin. The one who knew no sin. What a wretched suffering that is. Followed by the Father turning His back on the Son. And an exile occurs that had never occurred. Yes, He suffered. For He could not be our Savior without suffering.

How suitable is this? How fitting it is, that the obedience, that the obedience of the Son, led to the very thing, that our disobedience leads us to.

And that is death.

That by His obedience to the Father, He took upon Himself, what we deserve for our disobedience to the Father.

How fitting,.

How suitable,.

That God qualified this one, to be our Savior.

Christ as the Archegos: Captain, Pioneer, Founder, and Author

And who is this?

Who is the focus of this proper salvation? It is our perfect Savior. We've looked at one verse, but here is one word of the verse to look at. Do you see the term author? Some translations may read leader.

One might read pilgrim or pioneer. It is the Greek word archegos. I don't like using a bunch of Greek words, but it's one we could stand to learn. It's a combination of two words, one meaning beginning rule, and the other meaning chief leader.

If there's any word, a title of Christ, that stresses the preeminence of Christ, it's this one. The archegos of our salvation. This is a rich word. It has the idea of a captain, of a band of men, who is a bold and courageous captain, and one who leads them to victory, but he leads them from the front.

And he blazes a trail,.

Through the wilderness,.

Through severe terrain. He blazes the trail and says,.

Follow me.

I find the way through. He is the pioneer of our salvation. He blazed a trail, through suffering to glory for us, so that we follow him, through suffering to glory. He blazed a trail. He cut the way through,.

Even the veil,.

So that we may enter, because of him. He is the pioneer, of our salvation. The captain of our salvation. He is also the founder, of our salvation. This term archegos, was not only used of, that bold kind of captain, who blazed a trail as a pioneer, it was also used of a hero, who founded a city.

Named that city after himself. And he became, the perennial defender of that city. That's how this word is used. And is that not Christ? Who founded our city. Yes he blazed the trail, and then he founds the city.

The new Jerusalem.

The heavenly Jerusalem. He names it, the city of peace. He names us after him. We are citizens of this city. And he is our, ever vigilant defender. Zechariah calls him, the wall of fire about us. And the glory, in our midst.

He is the archegos,.

Of our salvation. He is also the author, of our salvation. The term is also used, of someone, who begins a whole new way of thinking. The head of a philosophical order. We find that Christ, changes everything, about the way in which we see the world.

As we read the gospels, how often does he correct, his disciples thinking. And corrects ours in the process. He wrote the script in his own life, of what glory really is. Of what leadership is.

Of what love is.

What life is all about. He is the author of our salvation. He has, written it in his own life.

To be,.

The one who lives in our place, and for our sake. And dies in our place, and for our sake. And he is risen again.

To be the author,.

And the finisher of our faith.

The beginning and end,.

Of everything that we are, in terms of our salvation. In terms of true life. He is our, perfect savior. The archegos, of our salvation. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention, to what we have heard.

So that we do not, drift away, from him. You see who he is. You see who he is. You see how through him, God has brought about, this fitting, appropriate, exact kind of salvation. Exactly what we needed.

God made him, exactly who we needed him to be. To be our savior. And what a savior he is. As our captain. As our pioneer. As our founder. As our defender. As our author. Tonight we, have the bread and the cup to share.

As we, partake. We are saying,.

Yes,.

He is our savior. Yes, he is our perfect savior. The story that he has written, I'm a part of it. We're a part of it.

Because he is,.

Our archegos. Our perfect leader.

To whom,.

We resolve to pay all the more attention to.

Prayer for Worship and Communion

Let's take a moment to pray. And we'll sing a hymn and then,.

Share this meal.

Father,.

We come before you tonight, and just acknowledge,.

How grateful we are, for giving us your son. And for perfecting,.

Him, making him,.

A full and complete savior. One to whom we may always look, and see, a richer and fuller,.

Savior.

That he is living water, that never ceases, to flow. Living bread, that never ceases to be given. A great physician, who never stops healing us. I pray that you would, give us the grace, to continue in worship this night.

Please arrest our, attention,.

Upon Christ.

Pray these things in his name.