Kootenai Church - New Facility Grand Opening

I would be surprised, though, if you hadn't seen the stuff.

You thought it was kind of sexy.

Yeah. Yeah. No. No.

That was handy. It works incredibly well.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

You between him? Thank you. You don't have to tear down today after the service.

New Facility, Seating, and Communion Setup

So there's something about this that feels right but doesn't feel right. It feels like we're at Oxford Church but still the same people. So it is a joy to be here, of course. Some of you don't even know where to sit.

You can figure it out.

You're used to that.

It is all the way over to the right.

Crackers are all the way over to the left. Back row. Baptists are still in the back row. One thing. I have actually one announcement. We're going to have to have a meeting with all of you who have helped serve communion in the past.

All the elders who have served communion with us. If you could meet up front here after the service is over. We need to figure out how we're going to serve communion in this new configuration. How we're going to have a meeting up front here after the service.

Please don't forget to do that.

And then one other thing I would like to try before we do our prayer and scripture reading is I would like to see what it is like to fill this place with our voices and our instruments. So we're going to sing Holy, Holy, Holy.

Just one phrase or one stanza on that.

Is that there? Yeah.

So Cornel is going to introduce us.

And then I'm going to go silent.

You stand here and sing the first verse of Holy, Holy, Holy. Sing robustly and see what it sounds like.

Prayer of Dedication and Psalm 8 Reading

Just like this. Gracious God, we thank you for your many rich blessings. You are a holy and benevolent and kind and awesome and infinite God.

Infinite in your righteousness. Infinite in your perfections.

In your wisdom.

In your provision.

In your grace.

And you have blessed us beyond what we deserve. Beyond what we are even capable of enjoying to the fullest. And you are to be praised and honored for all of your goodness. We thank you for all of these years that you have provided for us to place in me.

And for the good relationship that we have with the school district and with the school. We thank you for those who have set up and tore down so diligently and worked so tirelessly. Not just in creating an environment where we can worship every week.

But also in helping to work and to serve and to give so generously to this project. And that we thank you that we are able to meet here today to praise you in great name. It is our desire to be in this place that you would be honored and worshipped and glorified.

Both today and forever. Until Christ returns. Through the worship of your saints. Through the preaching of your word. And that you would be present with us both now and forever.

We thank you.

We love you. And we praise you in the name of Christ our Lord.

And you can be seated.

Because it's a little bit confusing.

I will read three scriptures for the choir director.

A psalm of David.

Psalm 8, beginning in verse 1. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Who has displayed your splendor above the heavens. From the mouth of infants in nursing bays you have established strength. Because of your adversaries.

The enemy and the revenge will cease.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers. The moon and the stars which you have ordained. What is man that you take thought of him. And the son of man that you care for him.

Yet you have made him a little lower than God.

And you crowned him with glory and majesty. You make him to rule over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet.

All sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field. The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea.

Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. The Lord's love and kindnesses indeed never cease. For his compassion has never failed. They are new every morning. Great is your favor.

You put all things in subjection under his feet.

For in subjecting all things to him you have 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 face death for everyone.

Let's pray.

Christ Greater Than the Angels in Hebrews 2

Father it is with joy that we are able even this morning after worshiping you with full hearts. With joy filled hearts to be able to open your word. And to hear the voice of our God through the pages of scripture.

We thank you for an old testament that bears witness to the coming Messiah. And a new testament that has recorded for us all that he said and did. So that it is necessary for us to know him.

And to be saved.

We thank you for this son of man who was made for a little while lower than the angels.

And crowned with glory.

We pray that today as a result of our study in your word. That we may see Christ with our eyes and our spirit. And that we may with hearts filled with joy. Be longing and willing and able to obey him in everything that he has demanded of us.

We pray that you would encourage us and edify us today in your word. By your grace and power of your Holy Spirit.

Yes, in Christ's name.

This is our first Sunday in our new building. We're just going to do what we have been doing all along.

Which is going through the book of Hebrews.

For some of you that might be something of a surprise.

If you expect something new or unique.

Others of you know me well enough to know that Jim's going to preach about death on Mother's Day. He's just going to continue preaching that. Whatever it is that he happens to be preaching through. Even though we're in a new facility.

There are a large number of people that are here today. And we're grateful that you're here. Some of you have come a long ways to be with us. Because you've been part of our church in years past. And we're grateful to have you here.

Others of you are here because you were part of the graduation service on Friday night. And your family was not able to get rid of you. So you're here in worship service with them. Whatever it is, we're grateful that you're here.

We've been studying through the book of Hebrews.

And we're in the second chapter.

And I know that for many of you this may seem like we're just jumping into the middle of everybody else at the speed. And I'll do this in a quick, I think, and timely fashion. One of the main themes that runs all the way through the book of Hebrews is the theme that Jesus is greater than.

And throughout the book of Hebrews, the author makes the case that Jesus is greater than the angels. And they drink Jesus's bread. And Moses is greater than Aaron. He is greater than David. He is greater than the Old Covenant.

The blood that he shed is greater than the blood of Moses' goats. The sacrifice that he offered is greater and better than all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. The covenant that he has initiated and secured by his own blood is a better covenant than the Old Covenant.

The priesthood that he fulfills is a better priesthood than the Old Testament Aaronic priesthood. And so that is how the argument of the book of Hebrews goes as the author brings up one comparison after another.

The comparison that we're looking at that occupies chapter 1 and chapter 2 is the comparison between Jesus and the angels. At the beginning of the book, the author says in chapter 1, verse 4, that Jesus has inherited a more excellent name than they.

And that's the conclusion of a series of seven statements that the author makes regarding Jesus Christ. He is the creator of all things. He is the heir of all things.

He is the sustainer of all things.

He is the exact representation of nature of God. He is the radiance of God's glory. He has made purification of sins. And he has sat down at the right hand of the Messiah. Those seven statements. And then the author in verses 5 through 14 and the rest of chapter 1 cites seven different passages from the Old Testament.

All of them except for one of them come from the book of Psalms. In order to show that all of these magnificent statements that he has made about Jesus Christ are not doctrines that were invented in the minds of a few fanatical followers out in the middle of the desert around the campfire.

But these doctrines are, in fact, the very things that were revealed in the Old Testament that we should expect in the coming Messiah. We ought to expect one who was the divine son. We ought to expect one with divine character.

We should expect one who would come and take the throne of Israel. So all the way through chapter 1, verses 5 through 14, he makes the case from the Old Testament back into the scripture. Then in chapter 2, the comparison is still the same thing.

Jesus with the angels.

But in chapter 2, he compares the punishment that would come under the old covenant mediated by angels for those who would disobey the word clearly revealed. It was a severe punishment. And it was a certain punishment.

How much greater than is the punishment deserved by one who would ignore the revelation given to us in the Son? If the Son is greater than angels and you were punished for denying or rejecting or neglecting the salvation that was announced for angels in the old covenant, how much greater will be your punishment?

How will you escape if you neglect or deny the revelation of the truth that is communicated in the Son? That's the comparison. Jesus is greater than the angels. His covenant, his offer of salvation is greater and more clear and more certain even than what was revealed through angels.

And then beginning in chapter 5, that brings us to the passage that we're looking at today. Beginning in chapter 5 through the rest of chapter 2, there are two objections that the author answers. And here's what we're going to do today.

You will notice when we read verses 6 through 8 that that is a quotation from the Old Testament passage. That Old Testament passage is Psalm 8, which we read at the beginning of the service today. So here's what we're going to do today.

I want to kind of give you an overview of the rest of chapter 2 and show you that there are two objections to all of this that the author is dealing with. He's answering these two objections. And then we're going to turn back to Psalm 8.

And we're going to look at Psalm 8 and we're going to set the context so that next week when we come in and jump back into verse 5, we'll understand what the passage is teaching here that the author is quoting from.

So you're either going to get half the message or you can come back next week and get the rest of it.

So that's what we're going to do.

I'm going to show you, first of all, the two objections that the author is answering. Now, every good preacher or author or teacher should desire, should try his best to answer objections that might come up in the mind of his hero or his student.

I'm aware that as I stand up here on any given Sunday or I present or am writing an article or a book or something of that nature, that people who read what I write or people who listen to what is preached will not always agree with everything that I've said.

And so in my mind and in my heart as I'm preparing to preach here on a Sunday morning, I'm trying to anticipate what objections might come up. Somebody might say, well, what about, or if that's true, then how is it that?

And I try to anticipate what those are and then answer them in the course of presenting the material. The author of Hebrews is doing the exact same thing. There are some objections that would come up in the mind of the hearer, the mind of the listener, that the author is now going to, in the rest of chapter 2, answer these two pertinent objections.

Now, here are the two objections that he's going to deal with. The first one is this. Doesn't the incarnation demonstrate that Jesus was not greater than the angels?

See, that's a good question.

Doesn't the incarnation, doesn't the fact that he became a man demonstrate that he is lower than or lesser than the angels? Because man, as the text in verses 6 and 8 recognizes, man is created lower than the angels.

We are a lower class of being than the angels are. Angels are greater in power. They're greater in glory. They're greater in intellect. They're greater in strength. They're greater in holiness. They're greater in all kinds of capacities than mankind is.

We are a lower creation than the angelic hosts. So if man is lower than the angels and Jesus became a man, doesn't that demonstrate that Jesus is lesser than the angels?

You see the objection?

It's a valid question and it's a good question. And it's one that the author is going to deal with. In chapter 1, he has said, he has affirmed to us, that this one, named Jesus of Nazareth, is the exact radiance of God's glory.

He is the exact representation of God's nature. He is the one who has created everything and he, even now, while you sit here, he holds it all together, keeps the world spinning, the universe in existence, simply by the word of his power.

And he sits at the right hand of the Father, even today, in that position of glory of God. If that is true, don't we also say that Jesus was made a man? That he is the man Christ Jesus? Wasn't he born of a virgin?

Didn't he have to learn to walk? Didn't he have to learn to talk?

Learn to read? Learn the Old Testament scriptures?

Wasn't he tempted at all points of how we are? Didn't he have to experience the things that humanity experiences? And the limitations of being a man? And getting his feet dirty, and getting his feet washed, and cleaning under his fingernails, and cutting his fingernails?

And all the things that we experience and learn? Didn't he have to learn all of those? And if he did, and he was made a man, and he was genuinely a man, and man is lower than the angels, how can we say that he is the exalted son?

That he is glorious, that he is God himself? It's a good objection. And so that is what is dealt with, actually, in verses 5 through verse 9. And we'll see, I just want you to see it, verse 9. 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.

He was made for a little while lower than the angels. It was a temporary station that he took. Without forfeiting the nature of his deity, without forfeiting the reality of his divinity, he was for a period of time made in station, and made an appearance as a man, and took upon himself humanity for a little while lower than the angels.

But, he has been crowned with glory and honor. So the author is dealing with that objection. No, the incarnation does not demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth was lesser than the angels for a period of time.

The second objection is similar. Doesn't the death of Jesus demonstrate that he was lesser than the angels? And that's a good objection.

Angels don't die.

Angels are not subject to mortality. Angels don't suffer affliction, and pain, and anguish, and go through all that, and then die and be buried.

Angels don't suffer that.

Angels are higher than men. Men are moral and subject to death. And if Jesus died, doesn't that demonstrate, does death demonstrate that he is lesser than the angels? Of course, the answer to that is no.

And that's what the author deals with, beginning in verse 10, and all the way through the rest of chapter 2. Look at verse 10. 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 honor of their salvation through sufferings.

Verse 14. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also puts up with the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and he might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

There is a purpose in the incarnation, and there is a purpose in the sufferings of Christ, that make him demonstrate that he is greater than the angels. In other words, he was made to look a little while lower than the angels, but that doesn't demonstrate that he is lesser than them.

And his suffering does not demonstrate that he is lesser than the angels, because through his incarnation, and through his suffering, he accomplished something that was necessary, and he accomplished something that demonstrates, again, that he is greater than the angels.

In other words, the nature of the incarnation, and the nature of his sufferings, accomplish something that can only be accomplished by one who is greater than the angels. So, those are the two objections that are handled.

And then the second thing we want to do is deal with the book of Psalms, chapter 8. So, I want you to turn back to Psalm 8, because this is the passage that is dealt with in verses 6 -8. We're going to set a little bit of context in the background here from Psalm 8, and then next week we'll jump into verse 5 and see how it is that the author deals with that objection.

Doesn't the incarnation of Jesus demonstrate that he was lesser than the angels? The rest of our time here is going to be spent with sort of an overview of Psalm 8, Hebrews chapter 2, was how the author introduced us to Psalm 8.

He says in Hebrews chapter 2, hasn't someone set somewhere? Did you catch that? In verse 6, before he cites the psalm, he says that someone has set somewhere, and he kind of wondered, did he forget who he was quoting, and where he was turning?

What was going on there with that citation?

It's a very common way in ancient times for people to make citations, and it's in fact the way that the author of Hebrews typically cites Scripture all the way through the book of Hebrews. If you've been with us and are familiar with the book of Hebrews, you know that this book is loaded with all sorts of Old Testament citations and references, right?

It even alludes to the Old Testament. It is an exposition of the book of Leviticus and Psalm 110, all kind of wrapped in the woods. It's very Old Testament Pasachetic, and yet the Psalms, as far as I can find, there's not once in all the book of Hebrews where he cites the human author.

Instead he says things like, as God has said, or as the Holy Spirit has said, it is as if he ignores the human author entirely. Not that he didn't believe there was a human author, but it is as if he is intending to demonstrate to us and to remind us, this is the testimony of God himself concerning himself.

So there's an emphasis there, even in how he cites the Old Testament passage. All right, so we're in Psalm 8, and though the author of Hebrews says, as someone has said somewhere, we know it's Psalm 8, and we know who said it, from the prelude to the psalm, we find out that this is the psalm of David.

Psalm 8, and let's just read it. I want you to look at verse 1 and verse 9, and they are very similar. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who have displayed your splendor above the heavens.

Look at verse 9. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Notice that the psalm begins and ends with the same declaration, of the majesty of God. It's kind of like a majesty sandwich, right?

On the top is this declaration, the majesty of God. At the bottom, at the end of the psalm, is this declaration of the majesty of God that is displayed throughout the whole earth. And then in the middle is a demonstration or a display of the majesty of God.

So he begins with this declaration. God's majestic, and his name is majestic in all the earth. And then he gives us all the reasons, both big and small, why God is to be praised, why he is majestic. And then the psalm ends with another declaration as to the majesty of God.

So we have in verses 1 and 9 the majesty of God declared, and then we have in verses 2 through 8 the majesty of God displayed. What is it that displays God's majesty? The word majesty suggests the splendor or magnificent.

And notice that it is the name of God that is called or titled majestic here. How majestic is your name, how magnificent and splendorous is the name of God. The name of God is sort of a way of referring to God's majesty.

He is to be praised, and he is to be applauded, because he is full of splendor and glory. And his name is majestic throughout all of the earth. Everywhere we turn, everything we see, we see in it the handiwork of God.

All of creation displays the glory and the majesty of God. Now, atheists will look at creation and say, well, I really don't see the majesty or the glory of God. That's because you're blind. You're an atheist.

Because you do not have eyes to see.

As a Christian, I look out at creation and see the splendor of God in everything.

Constantly.

But if you're an atheist, all you see is the random collision of molecules. But I don't expect an atheist to see the handiwork of God in all of creation any more than I expect someone who is physically blind to be able to describe to me the majesty of a waterfall or sunset or what the pattern of the clouds looks like.

They don't have eyes to see it. And if they were an atheist with all that is in the earth,.

They don't have eyes to see it, so they don't see it.

And they can't see it because their spirits are blind. Because their eyes don't open up and they see the handiwork of God.

Everywhere and in everything.

Spurgeon said this, regarding this passage. Unable to express the glory of God, the psalmist utters a note of explanation. O God, our Lord, and we need not wonder at this, for no heart can measure, no tongue can utter the half of the greatness of God.

The whole creation is full of His glory and radiant with the excellency of His power. His goodness and His wisdom are manifested on every hand. The countless myriads of terrestrial beings, from man, the head, to the creeping worm at the foot, all are supported and nourished by the divine bounty.

The solid fabric of the universe leans upon His eternal arm. Universally, He is present and everywhere is His name excellent. God is at work ever and everywhere, the Lord spoke. This applies not just to the name of God, but to His very person, His power, His glory, His majesty.

He is to be praised throughout all the earth because of who He is. And the reasons now are given in verses 2 through 8. And I want you to notice that there are two things that are contrasted here. One thing is something rather small and weak and helpless, and the other thing is something that is quite large and quite majestic.

First is the small, weak, and helpless thing in verse 2. From the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength because of your adversaries to make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

What does he talk about here?

He gives a very simple, small, weak, and helpless type of an example to demonstrate just how majestic God's name is. Even in the mouth of a nursing babe, God is praised. And how has God praised in the mouth of a nursing babe?

God is praised in the mouth of a nursing babe. And if you're a parent, if you've ever seen childbirth, you understand what this is like. If you've ever seen childbirth, you never want to see it again.

But if you've ever seen childbirth and watched this happen, you know what this is like. That baby is born right at the perfect time when it is hungry.

And it is able to supple somehow.

A miracle of evolution. It is able to supple. And its mother is able to provide exactly what that baby needs in exactly that case. So God has provided in that baby an instinct to feed and a hunger to feed at that moment.

Of course, if you had to eat for nine months, you would be hungry too. But the baby is able to eat right at that moment and it needs a certain nourishment.

And the nourishment that God has provided through its mother.

Is perfect for that baby right at that moment. It's thunderous, isn't it? If you look at that, you see the wisdom and the power and the magnificence and the grace of God in displaying in a little baby a weak and helpless thing.

So much so that the display of that majesty and that glory and that power of God is enough to shut up his enemies. To silence the adversary. To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. That display of power is enough that all the enemies of God should shut their mouths and still themselves and bow down before him.

Because that display of God's wisdom and magnificence and his majesty, that should terrify an enemy.

Of course, it doesn't.

Because they're blind to the truth. Then he gives an example of something for this baby. Verse 3. When I consider your hands and the works of your hands, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars, I choose for David.

That David goes from gazing upon a newborn infant and the majesty and the wisdom and the glory of God is displayed in them. Then he lifts his eyes to the heavens and he sees the majesty of the heavens above him.

Now, David did not have the benefit that we have of our larger telescopes and infrared imaging and all the other stuff that we know of. We send probes off into space and get to the outer reaches of our own solar system and look out beyond where we've never been able to look before.

We take high-resolution photographs and all kinds of different light spectrums and see what's going on in the far reaches of our own universe. How vast is it? And David was able to appreciate that just to look up.

Out of the desert, from the land of Israel at night, and to see the splendor of those stars, and he knew, this is enormous, this is massive, this is beyond anything I could even comprehend. And we know even far more than David.

I think the Earth is a big spot.

I think our planet is big.

It's home to 7 million people. And you can climb up on top of a mountaintop.

In any one of the regions around here.

And you can look 360 degrees all the way around you.

And see the mountains in the distance.

You look on for what feels like forever. There's great vistas and great views that we have. And yet, if you zoom out, you realize that everything you can see from the top of that mountaintop is just a tiny little dot on a map of this country.

And it's even smaller on a map of our world.

A tiny little bit.

And our Earth isn't that big. You know it's not even the biggest planet in our solar system. Our Earth is dwarfed by our sun, which is 1 ,300 ,000 times larger than our Earth.

That's incomprehensible. It's incomprehensible.

And our sun is not all that great a change.

Our sun is really not that big compared to other stars.

Even in our own Milky Way galaxy. There are suns and stars out there that dwarf our own sun by comparison. There are stars and suns out there that are millions of times larger.

Than our sun.

The enormity of that is incomprehensible. Our little ball of dirt rotates around or revolves around the sun at 93 million miles an hour. That's a distance that is unfathomable. We throw these numbers out as if they mean something and we can kind of grasp them, but we really don't even understand what that is like, 93 million miles.

And our Earth is pretty close to our sun because Pluto, which I still think is a planet, you all know that, Pluto is 3 .6 billion, with a B, billion miles away from our sun. The ray of light that travel 286 ,000 miles per second that leaves our sun takes 9 minutes to get to Earth.

It takes 13 hours to reach Pluto.

And that's just our own solar system.

Our own solar system is just a little tiny speck in the Milky Way galaxy. And there are a billion other stars like our sun in this Milky Way galaxy. And this galaxy, the Milky Way, it's 100 ,000 light years across.

The beam of light that leaves our sun would travel 100 ,000 years before it would reach the other side of the Milky Way galaxy. And our Milky Way galaxy is only one of at least a billion other galaxies just like it.

And the nearest galaxy to ours is 2 .5 million light years away.

And that's just the universe we know.

From our vantage point in the Milky Way, we can only see a small portion of the known universe. We can't even see all that there is. Does that not bother you, Brian? Do you feel small? You should. Look at verse 4.

In the morning man will say, God is worthy. Or the summer man will be purified.

This is magnificent, says it.

We look at that and we think, we are just a speck of dirt.

On a speck of dirt.

Rotating around in a ball of gas. And we're only a speck in a rather mediocre-sized galaxy. And our galaxy is only a speck in the known universe. What does it mean? That God's plan for redemption. That's true, and yet, on this terrestrial ball, God is working out his plan for redemption.

This is the center stage of all of creation. What does man think that God cares about him? Who are we that he would be concerned to provide for our needs, to sanctify us, to send his son to save us, to love us, to make a covenant with us, to make us and this planet the stage upon which he works out his redemptive plan so that he can be glorified amongst his people and by the angels for all of eternity.

What are we? And how is it that God is mindful of us? Do you see how overwhelmed David is by this? How small we are? And then you consider that God, in verse 5, has made men a little lower than the angels, and you crown him with glory and majesty, and you say, hold on a second.

I read God has made him a little lower than God.

Not the angels.

But back in Hebrews it said God has made him a little lower than the angels.

But Psalm 8 says you've made him a little lower than God. What's going on there?

Well, that's a different translation.

That's what we'll do next week. We're just going to skip over it for today.

But it is somewhat significant.

You've made him a little lower than God, and you crown him with glory and majesty. Now David wants to recount all of the ways in which God has demonstrated his goodness to men. And it has to do with God giving to man dominion over all of his creation.

We talk about the scope of this known universe. The fact that on this earth, God is working out his plan of redemption so that he can be glorified. This is the stage upon which he is working in all of human history.