Suffering, Dignified

Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, you are a great

God, you are an awesome God, and you give us peace, a wonderful, wonderful peace.

Peace with you, peace with fellow man as we're united together in your Son. We thank you for that, and we ask that you would make that peace ever -growing in our midst as we interact with one another, as we love one another, that you would develop that love within us as we look to our brother, that we would see

Christ in them, and we would be filled with a great love. God, I pray that today, and that the world may see our love for one another, and so by that know that we are your disciples.

I ask that these things would be true of us, and that we would be able to fulfill the commandments to you have been given, which are all summed up in this one word, to love neighbor as self.

God, we come to you today also recognizing that we are a sinful people who do not love as we ought, and we ask for your forgiveness on us for this, but Lord, we know that you give great strength through your

Spirit, and so today as we worship you, we pray for a greater measure of your Spirit, that we would hear your word, that we would respond to its callings, it would be filled with the, with the desires and sentiments that your word would call us to, so that we would be full of every virtue that you would have for us, full of all holiness, so that we might see you as the scripture says.

God, we ask these things today as we come to you in worship, in Jesus' name. Amen. Please turn in your

Bible to Exodus 22, where our scripture reading will begin in verse 16, Exodus 22.

If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride price for her and make her his wife.

If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride price for virgins.

You shall not permit a sorceress to live. Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death.

Whoever sacrifices to any God other than the Lord alone shall be devoted to destruction. You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you are sojourners in the land of Egypt.

You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them and they cry out to me,

I will surely hear their cry and my wrath will burn and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him and you shall not exact interest from him.

If ever you take your neighbor's cloak and pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

For that is his only covering and it is cloak is cloak for his body. And what else shall he sleep?

And if he cries to me, I will hear for I am compassionate. You shall not revile

God nor curse a ruler of your people. You shall not delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses.

The firstborn of your sons, you shall give to me. You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep.

Seven days it shall be with his mother. On the eighth day, you shall give it to me. You shall be consecrated to me.

Therefore, you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs.

You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked man to be a malicious witness.

You shall not fall and with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit siding with the many.

So as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.

If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it.

You shall rescue it with him. You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his lawsuit.

Keep far from a false charge and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear -sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

So God continues on in his law, giving people rules for how they are to live with each other, how they are to live in the land that serves

God. And as I've pointed out before, there's some bearing for how we ought to live in our own land. But even more importantly, this shows how short we fall from God's law.

Perfect impartiality is described here, that we would not take bribes and be deceived, that we would not favor one over another because of reasons unrelated to justice.

And yet, every one of us has engaged in such partiality in our own dealings, and the way we treat our friends, and the way we treat our siblings, and the way we treat each other.

So we should recognize that we need a great forgiveness from a God who has required so much from us.

A God who is perfect, who therefore demands perfection, because he is just. There must be a great forgiveness for those of us who have sinned against him.

And that forgiveness is given to us in Jesus Christ and in him alone. The New Testament speaks of him. Let us turn to Mark 3, beginning in verse 7.

Mark 3, 7. Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed from Galilee and Judea, and Jerusalem and Edomaea, and from beyond the

Jordan, and from around Tyre and Sidon, when the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.

And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him. For he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, You are the

Son of God. And he strictly ordered them not to make him known. And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired.

And they came to him. And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, so that they might be with him, and he might send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out demons.

He appointed the twelve, Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name

Boanagas, that is, sons of thunder, Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus and Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying,

He is out of his mind. And so, Jesus collects for himself disciples who are to go out and continue doing what he has done, preaching and healing people from demons, healing people from diseases.

And what does this represent? This represents a loosing, not just from physical maladies, but from spiritual maladies.

The people can be free from the plague of sin. They can have great forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

And what were they to preach? They'd preach the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is here in Jesus Christ.

It is through him that we can have salvation from those enemies that assail us. It's through him that we can have forgiveness from all our sins that were described previously in Exodus.

All the laws that people find it so hard to obey. All the law where demands impartiality, and we have engaged partially with our neighbors.

Forgiveness from that is available in this gospel as proclaimed by his disciples.

And we are called to be the disciples along with them, proclaiming that good news to others and dwelling in that good news and enjoying it.

And that good news is what we gather here today to listen to as well. And so, I hope that as we go through this service, as we look at the

Word of God and we consider the gospel, that is something that fills you with a great joy that it provides a freedom from all the spiritual maladies that assail you.

It provides freedom from sin and the power of the accuser. Provides a freedom and a peace that surpasses understanding.

Please turn to hymn number 224. We're going to sing hail to the Lord's anointed.

You may remain seated for this, but keep in mind there are many people traveling for this weekend, so our numbers are a little thinner than they usually are.

Sing loudly so that we can make up for for the absences here.

To break oppression, to set the captive free.

To take away transgression and rule in it.

He comes with suckle speedy to those who suffer wrong.

To help the poor and needy and bid the weak be strong.

To give them songs for sighing, the darkness turned to light.

Whose soul's condemned and ashes in his sight.

He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth.

And love, joy, hope like flowers spring in his path to birth.

Before him on the mountains shall peace the herald go.

Righteousness in fountains from hill to valley.

For every foe his throne shall rest.

From age to age more glorious.

All blessing and noblest. The tide of time shall never his covenant remove.

His name shall stand forever.

Amen. Well, please turn your

Bible to Hebrews 2. We're going to look at Hebrews 2 beginning in verse 10 today.

When you have Hebrews 2, please stand for the reading of God's Word. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist.

And bringing many sons to glory. Should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

Saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.

And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children

God has given me. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing upon this

Word. Upon the preaching of the Word. I ask that you would use me to proclaim your

Word faithfully and clearly. That it might benefit your people. And God, I pray that you would draw others into your kingdom through the glorious Word that you have here.

And I pray that for those who are suffering, that they would find an answer for their suffering in these words as well.

In Jesus' name, amen. So this is a passage that is about suffering.

Suffering is something that plagues mankind. It has ever since the fall.

And suffering, in a way, is shameful. It is shameful. Why do we suffer? We suffer because sin has entered the world.

It is a mark of sin. Therefore, it is a mark of shame. Now, you might not think of suffering as shameful.

But if you consider, every person who suffers, it emblemizes their own weakness.

Their own weakness. And so it is something that is a mark of shame.

Now, we have a reaction of sympathy. But in a way, that is a learned response.

In addition to that, it is a recognizing of the fact that we are in a similar condition.

But if you imagine that we were not in a similar condition, if we were beings that had never sinned and went on without suffering because there would be no reason for us to suffer, if we looked at a suffering people, we would see that as a mark of shame on them, that they suffer.

It is a mark of the fact that sin plagues their race. Now, there are all kinds of versions of Christianity that offer to people an existence without suffering.

All kinds of versions of Christianity that tell you all your problems will go away if you listen to their teachings, if you use positive sayings and think positive thoughts, and all your maladies can go away.

Now, the Bible does promise us great joys when Christ returns, but what it promises us is not happiness without suffering in this life.

It promises us a happiness, a contentedness, an understanding and meaning and blessedness in suffering in this life, through suffering in this life.

That is what, in a way, this book of Hebrews is about. It is about the supremacy of the

Son, but in a way, it is about the nature of suffering. You look through it repeatedly, and it is just concerned about the people and their suffering, and as they suffer, they are tempted to go away from Christ, to rather seek other means of comforting themselves in their suffering.

But here, in this passage, we see that even Christ suffered, and in suffering,

He dignified suffering and gave it meaning, so that if we engage in suffering the way that He did, bearing our cross along with Him, that it then has meaning and binds us together with Him and each other so that it has purpose, it has value, and it is something that we can count as all joy, as it says in James.

We can count it all joy. Just looking at this first verse here, verse 10.

For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things existed, and bring many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

So first of all, who are these that it speaks of? It is fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist.

Now, there are several times in the Bible where it speaks of Jesus in this way, that He is the one for whom and by whom all things exist, and we are used to thinking of by whom all things exist, through whom all things exist.

It's being a sign of the agency of Jesus, of the Son of God, in the creation of the universe.

However, the Bible, on occasion, including Romans 11 .36, speaks of God the

Father in this way, as Him being the one for whom all things exist and by whom all things exist.

And given that, in a moment, it says that He made the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering, that founder being

Jesus Christ, this necessarily must speak of the Father, that the Father is making the Son perfect through suffering.

Now, Jesus is called the founder of our salvation later in Hebrews 12 .2, because He is indeed the one who has established salvation through the cross.

Now, what does it mean that the Father has brought many sons to glory? So, He is bring many sons to glory, and that we are in this lowliest state, the state involving suffering, the state involving an existence where we go through trial after trial after trial.

We have our minds clouded by our own physical weaknesses and sin.

There's so much that keeps us from having a glorious existence, the glorious existence that not even

Adam enjoyed. Adam lived in a perfect world, but even he had a glory that was held out to him as he was still unstable.

He was still able to sin. 1 Corinthians 15 says that if there is a natural body, so also is there a spiritual body, meaning a glorious one.

The very fact that Adam had a natural existence meant that there was a glorious existence being held out for him.

And so this is what this is describing, that He will take our lowly bodies and turn them into glorious ones, as it says in Philippians 3 .21.

This existence that we have now, there is something greater than that. That existence that Adam had, there is something even greater than that.

Our bodies will be glorified, our spirits will be glorified, so that we will no longer sin, so that we will be able to enjoy the sight of God forever, enjoy presence with God.

And so He has done this by making the founder of their salvation, by making

Jesus Christ perfect through suffering. Now, how is it that Jesus is made perfect through suffering?

Is He not already perfect? Is not the Son of God perfect from all eternity? Well, the word perfect, as you read your

Bible, you will soon realize, especially if you examine multiple translations, the word perfect and complete mean the same thing.

And as He is the founder of salvation, in becoming man, in establishing salvation, that work was not finished until on the cross, where Jesus says, it is finished.

And when He has said it is finished, His role as the founder of salvation is finished. It is complete.

It is perfected. And so while He is perfect in a moral sense, never having sinned, never having done anything wrong,

His role as Savior is perfected as He finishes that work on the cross.

That He is a perfect Savior. He has completed His job of being a

Savior. And so the Father has made the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

He has had His purposes in this. There are many people that reject that glory is established in this way through Jesus Christ forgiving our sins on the cross.

You know, the way that this is accomplished is because we owe our lives to God because we have sinned.

The wages of sin is death. We owe our lives to God as payment for the fact that we have sinned.

And Christ has died in our place, thereby saving us, thereby granting us forgiveness.

And in addition to that, having lived a perfect life, earning a glorious existence for us. Now, Him suffering in our behalf is something that many people reject.

They don't like the idea of Jesus suffering because of the

Father's wrath against sin. They call it divine child abuse. They don't think that you can attribute this to the

Father at all. But what does this passage clearly say? That the Father is making Him perfect through suffering.

The Son and the Father were not at odds. There was no malice toward each other.

Yet, all the same, the Father poured out His wrath on the Son rather than on us, that we might be forgiven, that He might be our substitute.

And so that is how we are made glorious through that Son's suffering. And so any who trust in the

Son may have this promise of a glorious existence in the next life and may have joy of salvation in this life.

If you do not know this Savior, if you do not know this salvation, you may have it by trusting in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

He has done this work. He has accomplished it. There is no more that needs to be done. It is not a matter of you performing well enough to satisfy

God. You cannot perform well enough to satisfy God. It is a matter of the Son having performed well enough to satisfy

Him. And given that He has done it, if you recognize that you can do nothing, that your hands are empty, and only

He has the key, only He is able to satisfy the perfect law of God, He saves all those.

That sacrifice is for you if you have trusted in Him. And so if you have not, then

I pray that today you trust in Him for that salvation. There is something more stated here, particularly that it is fitting that the

Father make the founder of our salvation perfect through suffering. It is a matter that is fitting.

So consider this, first of all. It speaks of Jesus being the founder of our salvation. You know, many translations will translate this word differently.

The word is archegos. This word may be translated author or pioneer or,

I'm blanking on some of the others that translations use, but that He should make the author of salvation perfect through suffering, the pioneer of their salvation, etc.

There are different ways that Jesus is indeed the leader of our salvation, but what is intended here is that He is the one who is, as it says in Hebrews 6, our forerunner, that He has gone on before us, that He has not only established this, but there is a sense in which

He goes on before us in this experience of that glorification.

He has suffered before us. He has been glorified before us. So if this is the path that we are to take, if there is no way for us to avoid the suffering in this life since this world is plagued by sin, that in pursuing that glory, it is fitting that Christ also undergoes suffering if He is to be the firstborn of many brothers.

It is fitting that He go through this as well. Now that is a wild thought because a lot of times we only think of that suffering as being necessary to pay that penalty that is necessary.

We only think of the matter of the cross, Him bearing the wrath of God, but what about that suffering throughout the rest of His life?

What about Him suffering in the way that we are called to? You see, there are multiple reasons why that suffering was so fitting.

It was not just to be a perfect substitute. It was also that in being the forerunner for us,

He go through the same experience that we are called to go through of self -denial, of serving the

Lord, of being persecuted for the sake of righteousness. All these things

He has done before us. It is fitting. And additionally, when it speaks of the

Father as the one for whom and by whom all things exist, why does it speak of the

Father in this way? I would say, first of all, it is doing so because it is the natural question that comes up.

Why God, who is the creator of all things, who has determined all things that come to pass, why would

He have it happen this way? Is not He all -wise? Consider the flow of Hebrews.

We talk about in Hebrews 1 how the Son is high, exalted above all angels. He is above all things.

He is greater than all things. And then when we get to Hebrews 2 and we start talking about His suffering, why on earth would

He suffer? Why would the one for whom all things exist and who created all things, why would

He decide to make the founder of our salvation perfect through suffering? And yet, that title also serves as an answer.

He is the one for whom all things exist, from whom all things exist, through whom all things exist.

He is all -wise and He knows what is fitting. And so we should trust

God, being all -wise, knows what He is doing in this matter. Now there's the word for this attribute of God.

You might be familiar with God's omniscience, that He is all -knowing. There's another word that occasionally gets used.

He is omnisapient. Omnisapient meaning all -wise. He does not just know what things exist, but He knows what is right and what is good and what is fitting.

And He knows that it was perfectly fitting for the Son to undergo suffering to be the forerunner, to be the founder of our salvation.

There are so many aspects of what was accomplished through the Son's suffering in His earthly ministry and on the cross that were accomplished.

It is not just one thing, it is many things coming together. If you ever read a book where there are many disparate details and then at the last chapter they're all brought together so that you can see that they all had a purpose and each facet didn't just serve one purpose but actually served many purposes.

If you've ever read a story like that, seen something like that, that is what the Father has done.

He is the great author. He is the author of authors. Any man who has written a book, where did they get that creativity from?

It's from the power of God who created them. And so God's mind is far more wise.

He has built a far more glorious story. And I can tell you right now that the suffering of Jesus serves so much more than even we understand right now.

But one of those things is it is appropriate for Him to go before those that would have to suffer in this life, you and me as we serve

Jesus Christ, is appropriate for Him to be made perfect through suffering because we would follow after Him in that suffering.

Verse 11. Verse 11 says, For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.

Now who is he who sanctifies? He who sanctifies those who are sanctified. Let's start with those who are sanctified.

This is clearly believers. Later on it says, That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

These are believers that are the brothers. These are believers that are the ones who are sanctified. And who is the one who is sanctifying them?

It is Jesus Christ who is making them holy. Who is the one who is saving them? He is sanctifying them, setting them apart for His holy purposes, dedicating them to the purposes that He has for them and for this glorious existence in the future.

Now it is worth considering what is meant by they all have one source.

And if you look at many translations, mostly modern translations, they always fill this out here.

They pick something. They say one source, one father, one something. If you look at your ESV there, you'll see there's a footnote that says in Greek it says they are all of one.

In an older translation, like for example the King James, it will just say that. It will just say they are all of one.

And you'll be left to figure out for yourself one what? One what? I do not think the answer is father.

I do not think source is a very good answer either. Because if you think about those answers,

I think it's the Nazby for example that says father. Okay, yes, they are all of one father.

Yes, it has a relationship to brotherhood. But is that the focus of this passage? Is that how they are made brothers is by having one father in this passage?

That's not the focus here. All having one source, what does one source mean exactly?

I think a better answer here is either one substance or even better, one suffering.

They are all of one suffering. This suffering that believers have to endure in this life is the same suffering that the son went through in his earthly existence.

It is the exact same suffering. And this is how he has sanctified them. He has brought them in together as brothers.

Romans 6, 6 talks about us being crucified with Christ. Have you ever wondered about that?

Why does it say we are crucified with Christ? Our suffering does not pay the debt of sin.

It's not something that's laid on an altar to satisfy God in that way that Christ was laid on the altar of the cross.

How can it be rightly said that we are crucified with him?

But what this is saying and what those other passages are saying that talk about us being crucified with him is that there is a unity that is found in our shared suffering with him that would not be established otherwise.

It is important for him to have suffered in order that our suffering be sanctified for this purpose of bringing it all together.

It is something that is necessary for believers. In this life, this world is plagued by sin. We are going to have to go through it with suffering.

If that's the case, but the salvation were not provided by suffering, that suffering would just be something that has to be dealt with.

It would just be a fact of the matter, a reality of life. We'd all be suffering in our own little ways and it wouldn't have much meaning.

What the Son has done in suffering through his earthly ministry and on the cross, he has sanctified suffering itself, suffering for the sake of righteousness.

He has set it apart as a uniform so that now that he has said that this is the uniform of disciples, we all who are wearing this uniform realize that we have a unity in it.

If we're all wearing similar clothing, it doesn't really mean anything until someone says that this is the mark of disciple.

This is the uniform of discipleship and it has been set apart and sanctified by Jesus Christ, the forerunner of that salvation who has set apart suffering as that uniform that we all wear together, bringing us together in unity.

It is a wonderful and beautiful thing that we have been brought together in that way. And so we should accept suffering not merely as something that must be dealt with in this life, not merely, well, it is what it is.

We just have to deal with it. We should rather accept it as the way that we join with Christ in unity, that it has far more purpose than just being something we have to endure, that it has the purpose of bringing us together in unity with Christ and with each other, it being something that he has sanctified us in it by dignifying suffering himself and undergoing it as the one who is the forerunner of our salvation.

It continues on here. It says, that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

He is not ashamed to call them brothers. So the natural response to suffering, like I said, if you were one who lived in a world where there was no suffering and you saw people who were suffering because sin had entered their world, that suffering would be a mark of shame.

You would be ashamed to have any association with that. And so it is surprising, it is wonderfully surprising that Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers.

But he is not ashamed to call us brothers because he has joined together in our suffering and he has dignified that suffering.

You know, it is very similar to, there are several times when someone who either has a disability or is part of a small margin of people sees someone of their rank achieving great things.

Perhaps a blind person would be very excited to see Stevie Wonder, well, let's see, to hear of Stevie Wonder's music and say, yes, even a blind person can achieve that.

Or, you know, Filipinos get really excited about Manny Pacquiao. You know, there is a way that dignity is brought to a people by one of those ranks who otherwise would be very small.

There is dignity brought by someone accomplishing great things from those ranks. Right? And the same has happened with Jesus Christ.

He has entered into the race of us sufferers and he has dignified our status as sufferers for the sake of righteousness by suffering himself for the sake of righteousness.

Romans 8, 16 -17 says, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, then heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be dignified with him.

Provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. So we are to be glorified together with Jesus by suffering together with him.

Now he has gone on before us and done this but our suffering is together with him as our glorification is together with him.

You know, Matthew 5, 10 says that those who suffer for the sake of righteousness, those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

James 1, 2 says that we should count it all joy when we encounter trials and suffering of various kind.

We should count it all joy. Do you understand why it should be counted joy? It's not just counted joy because there's something better on the other side.

It's counted joy because this is the means through which we join with Jesus Christ. We join together with him and with each other in this one shared experience of achieving glorification, him having achieved it for us through his suffering, us joining with him in our suffering.

Now, we are made brothers in that way. Yes, of the father is the father of the son and of us and we and him are counted as sons of God.

That is a wonderful, glorious truth but what this passage is talking about is the fact that we are made brothers together with him through suffering, through the fact that he and the incarnation and becoming man and the likeness of sinful flesh, not himself being sinful but in the likeness of sinful flesh, engaging in the same suffering we engage in, dignifying it so that we are counted as brothers with him.

You know, those who reject suffering, don't want any part of it, only want to comfort themselves in this life, they have no part in that brotherhood but those who suffer for the sake of righteousness, they have a part in that brotherhood and so this is proved by the author of Hebrews from two different passages so I'd like for us to look at these two different passages.

This first one is Psalm 22. It says, saying,

I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise. Please turn to Psalm 22.

The Psalm begins with a fairly familiar phrase, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? You likely remember this from the words of Matthew 27, 46 where Jesus Christ himself quotes this

Psalm essentially telling us that it is a prophecy of his own experience on the cross and that's what it is.

As you read further, you know, if you've not read this before, please read this later, Psalm 22 and you'll see it speaks of the very same things that he encountered.

People casting lots for his clothing, suffering. It is about his experience of suffering.

And as it continues on, it says in verse 21, Save me from the mouth of the lion.

You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. So it's talking about the son being saved from death.

Now yes, he died on the cross, but he is saved from death and being resurrected.

And then in verse 22, what is his response to his glorification? I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation

I will praise you. So his response is to tell others of this salvation, to have them join in that salvation as well.

And this is indeed the son's response to us as he has been resurrected from the dead. Not to make him too passive in that, the

Bible says in John 2 that he himself even was resurrecting himself from the dead.

But being one who has been saved in this way, who has been glorified in this way through the resurrection, he comes and he speaks to us, those who are sufferers like him.

And he tells us of the glories of salvation. It says in verse 23,

You who fear the Lord, praise him and all you offspring of Jacob glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted.

He has not hidden his face from him, but he has heard when he cried to him.

God did not leave us alone when we were afflicted, when we cried, but rather he sent

Jesus Christ to us. He sent him to save us, to endure with us such sufferings.

Verse 25 says, From you comes my praise in the great congregation, my vows

I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied.

May those who seek him, those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever.

And then verse 27, All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord and the families of the nations shall worship before you.

For kingship belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship.

Before him shall bow all who go down to the dust. Even the one who could not keep himself alive, posterity shall serve him.

It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generations. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it.

So, interestingly, what does Psalm 22 tell us? Who is its ultimate audience? Is its ultimate audience the people of the time of David?

Is its ultimate audience even the people of the time of Jesus Christ? It is to a generation yet unborn.

This psalm is written to us. It is a psalm written to us who come far after the events that this was talking about.

That we might know of a God who saves from suffering and through suffering.

This is a psalm that Christ sings to us that we may praise

God along with him. Him being not just a savior above and over us as God, but likewise being our brother, sharing with us in it.

He is the one we sing to, but he is also the one we sing with. He has joined us in this experience.

And consider how it speaks of them proclaiming his righteousness to a people yet unborn that he has done it.

Each generation is to pass this off to the next. If you know someone dealing with suffering and you don't know how to counsel them, this is what you can counsel them with.

You can counsel them with the meaning of suffering, that Christ has dignified it, and that if you are suffering for his sake, enduring your sin, or excuse me, enduring your suffering without complaint, resisting temptation.

If these are the ways that you are undergoing the trials of this life, and you are doing so with Jesus Christ, and you are doing so in a way that brings you together with him and with his people, all as one brotherhood, you are putting on the uniform of a disciple.

Now, the next passage that Hebrews 2 quotes is

Isaiah 8. So please turn to Isaiah 8. It says in Hebrews 2 .13,

And again I will put my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children God has given me. Now, it might be odd to think of Jesus as having children, especially in this passage that talks about brotherhood, but you realize this is not far from the way the

Bible speaks of him several times. For example, in Isaiah 9 .6, not far from the passage that was just quoted, it says,

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulder, and his name shall be called.

Now, hopefully, you've heard this before around Christmastime. This is prophesying Jesus. He shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. It calls

Jesus the Everlasting Father. Okay, this is not modalism. This is not saying that the

Father is the Son. The Father and Son are distinct persons of the Trinity. However, there is a sense in which the

Son, being that firstborn of any brother and being the forerunner for us, has a fatherly role with us.

And so, in speaking of brotherhood, this author of Hebrews also speaks of his fatherhood in this way.

In this being one with us in that the way you think of a father as being of the same substance as his children, you know, him coming from his genetic product.

In the same way, he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He is not ashamed to call us kin, right?

That's one way of thinking of this. We are all kin with him. Now, just looking at what's quoted in Isaiah 8, he said,

Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

Now, in context, this is Isaiah speaking of his literal children. He had two children that the past few passages had spoken of,

Meher Shalal Hashbaz and Shir Jaseb.

I'm forgetting the name of the other son in Isaiah 7. But, yeah,

Shir Jaseb. So, he has these two sons. They're saying that he will wait for the Lord with him. Now, the author of Hebrews is saying that not only is

Psalm 22 not primarily about David, but speaking of the Messiah to come that has come from the point of view of the author of Hebrews.

But, likewise, Isaiah 8 is not primarily about Isaiah, but rather points forward to Jesus Christ being one who waits along with his brothers.

And what is that act of waiting on God? It is enduring suffering without complaint and contentedness before the

Lord. In verse 11 here in this passage it says, For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand upon me and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,

Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear nor be in dread.

Now, the people were afraid of enemies that the Lord had told them they don't need to be afraid of because he would protect them.

But, yet, they were. But the Lord of hosts, him shall you honor as holy.

Let him be your fear and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken. They shall be snared and taken.

Now, this passage continues on and says that God is a stumbling block. God is a stumbling block in that he has said that he should be trusted and the people don't want to trust him because he's not, obviously, in a very visible way, trustworthy.

Right? They see the power of horses and that's much more visibly convincing to them of power, of real defense.

And yet, they should trust in the Lord. Now, the New Testament quotes this passage as well.

So this passage, Isaiah 8, is quoted a number of times in the New Testament. But in 1 Peter 2, 8, this idea of a stumbling block is applied to none other than Jesus Christ.

And how is he a stumbling block for his own people? What were they expecting of the Messiah? Were they expecting one who would come and join with them in their suffering?

That was the exact opposite of what they were expecting. They were expecting one to come in strength to take them away from their suffering without himself engaging in suffering.

Right? Him to come with the strength of the king and to defeat all the nations of the earth. And let me tell you, that is not wrong.

Jesus Christ will do all of that in his timing. However, the way he has accomplished salvation is not just by being a conquering king in that way, but through engaging with us, through experiencing with us that suffering as a forerunner before us.

And this is a stumbling block to many. A weak savior, a savior who had weaknesses and suffered on the cross?

No, this can't be the one. That is a stumbling block. But yes, this is appropriate. The one for whom all things exist and by whom all things exist has determined that it was fitting that the

Son go through this, that we might be one with him in this way, that we might all share the same uniform, that we might have our own suffering as disciples dignified through his suffering.

And it continues on. It says, Bind up the testimony. Seal the teaching among disciples. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob and I will hope in him.

Behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me. In other words, the teaching that is sealed up, that is the word of God.

I will, I will hold on to this word of God. I will continue waiting for the Lord. And so Jesus Christ waiting on the

Lord, receiving that answer from the Lord, calls us to do the same in his footsteps. Calls us to follow him, to be crucified with him, to suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.

It's interesting that these all are called with him when temporally they are separate. He has done this before but we, in doing it after him, are doing it with him.

And so he calls us to wait for the Lord with him, to suffer in this world, to do so contentedly without complaint, to resist the temptation that would call us to comfort ourselves by indulging in our own pleasures.

We are called to follow him, the one who has accomplished all salvation. Now we do not make ourselves sanctified before the

Lord by enduring persecution but Christ is the one who sanctifies us through our persecution.

He has come to this earth, taken this thing that otherwise is simply a mark of shame, sanctified it himself through his own participation in it and then applies it to his people that we might be part of it.

Now if you are one who lived for your own self, you have not turned from your sin, you have not trusted in Jesus Christ, once again the answer is very simple.

It is not you out of your own works, out of your own following these things that are said here in engaging in suffering without complaint, et cetera.

None of those things can satisfy the Lord. You have already sinned against him. There is no amount of good works that can undo that history.

However, if you are found in Jesus Christ, you can have your sins forgiven. If you are found in Jesus Christ, he washes it all away.

And how is one found in him? It is through the work of Christ. As we trust in him, us trusting in God along with him, he brings us into that experience of suffering which has so much meaning in this life as it identifies us as not only one of his disciples but as his brother so that we are brothers with Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great wisdom and accomplishing your purposes.

We thank you that you have dignified our suffering in this way through the work of Jesus Christ.

And we ask that we would be faithful in this regard to continue suffering with him in order that we might also be glorified with him and to be crucified with him in order to enjoy salvation from death as he has enjoyed in the words of Psalm 22.

Lord, we pray that we would see Christ accurately in these scriptures that have been presented and that as our eyes are focused on him we would have a great joy of salvation that as we undergo suffering and trials it would not be something that discourages us but that we would be able to count it all joy knowing that it's another mark on our uniform that identifies with him and with each other.