"Flesh and Blood" February 25, 2018 AM

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"Flesh and Blood" Hebrews 2:14-18 February 25, 2018 AM

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invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 2.
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Hebrews chapter 2 we'll be looking at verses 14 through 18 this morning.
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Let me pray for us as we begin. Father I thank you for this hymn that we've sung that confesses the supremacy of Jesus Christ of the absolute certainty that we have that Christ reigns from the right hand now and he will forever reign on earth in the new creation.
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There will not be a single part of your world and your creation over which
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Christ shall not reign in perfect right. Lord I thank you for the reminder this morning that your work is far larger than we think about far larger than we have the capacity to our brothers and sisters who confess this same
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Lord Jesus Christ in different languages and in different places. Lord thank you for giving your
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Son to us not just to us here but to men and women children all over this planet throughout the history of this humanity you've given
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Christ as our only Savior. I pray that our attention would be upon him this morning.
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We consider and pray these things for his sake for the sake of Jesus Christ with whom you are well pleased.
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We come to Hebrews this morning as my attempt to do what
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I can to of communion of taking the bread and the cup of share but also believe that the
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Spirit led me to Hebrews even preparing my heart for Palm Sunday and Good Friday and Easter.
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I've been religious here as we look at this a with our faith in Christ strengthened our confidence in Christ fully assured.
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If you will stand with me I'm going to read verses 14 through 18 of Hebrews chapter 2
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Hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 through 18 this is the word of the
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Lord. Since the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise also partook of the same that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
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For assuredly he does not give help to angels but he gives help to the descendant of Abraham therefore he had to be made like his brethren and all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people for since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
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Those who have ears to hear hear the word of the Lord you may be seated. As you read through the book of Hebrews it is my understanding that this is a sermon that is written down and sent to a chester is absent.
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He loves his flock he loves these church members with whom he is in covenant fellowship and he is apart from them and he cannot be with them to preach them this message and so he sends it and he calls it a brief message.
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If you read it aloud it's about 50 minutes so you know what you're in for today. Morning I think is to put our attention on the elements that not only have we sung the scriptural truths not only have we prayed in agreement with the scripture not only have we read going to go through this time of the scripture being preached but we also will see the truth of scripture here in the elements and Hebrews does a marvelous job of putting our attention upon Christ and not letting us be distracted by anything else.
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As you read through the first two chapters you are assaulted with this one theme the supremacy the superiority of Jesus Christ.
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He is superior to prophets and to priests and to kings and to angels. He is superior to everyone and everything.
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He is the Son of God. As you come through chapter 2 we find he is the
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Son of God for us and for our salvation he is the Son of God incarnate the second person of the
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Trinity in human flesh. A great mystery.
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But the point being made in the message of this pastor to the
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Hebrews is truly not just the superiority of Jesus Christ but the sufficiency of Jesus Christ for their salvation in every possible way that you can imagine.
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His point especially in this passage is that Jesus Christ is exactly who we need.
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I began to think about the children of Israel in the wilderness as they began their exit from slavery into following God through the wilderness they found themselves hungry.
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They found themselves hungry. How are they going to be fed? Will they begin to slaughter all their livestock and maybe eat for two days and then what?
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They don't have enough food and God said later that he let them be hungry and they're hungry in the wilderness and then he does something for them.
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What does he give them? He gives them bread from heaven.
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He gives them bread from heaven. They called it manna because they didn't know what it was and it actually means what is it.
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They named it something. They had to call it something but it's bread from heaven.
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It's bread from God and they went out to gather it. What happened?
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We read in Exodus in Exodus chapter 16 and verse 18 we read that each man went out to gather the manna and one gathered more and one gathered less but in the end they had exactly what they needed.
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They had exactly what they needed to be fed for that day. God gave them exactly what they needed bread from heaven and I think that's the point being made in our passage this morning that God gave us that God gives us exactly what we need.
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Turn in your Bibles very quickly to John chapter 6 in verses 48 through 51 we read this
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Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died.
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This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.
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Listen to what Jesus is saying. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.
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If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread also which I will give for the life flesh.
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Jesus says I'm the bread into this dire neediness of humanity God has given bread from heaven and he who we need so that we will not die in spiritual starvation.
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We are by nature chained to sin, enslaved to Satan.
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We are guilty, we are condemned, righteously condemned, thoroughly guilt need.
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God sends his son for us and for our salvation. He partakes of flesh and blood to be exactly who we need.
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Verses 14 through 16 of Hebrews 2 we learn that Christ frees us from Satan. Christ frees us from Satan.
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How does he do this? First of all he came in the flesh. Verse 14 beginning says therefore since the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise also partook of the same.
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You and I we're flesh and blood. We are mortal beings. The writer to the
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Hebrews uses this term flesh and blood not to deny that we have a spiritual aspect to our existence.
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Humanity that Christ took on. That it was not simply that he began to identify with us in and yes indeed even the flesh and blood is a full humanity.
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That because we are flesh and blood he himself likewise took upon the same and it's vitally important that he came in the flesh otherwise he could not.
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Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, second person of the Godhead takes upon humanity so that he is as much man as man is man while yet he is still as much
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God as God is God. And that his divinity and his humanity do not detract from one another but they are held in full in this one amazed.
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The immortal took on the mortal. The infinite took upon the finite. The immutable took upon the growing, aging, learning form of full humanity.
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He took on flesh and blood to become exactly who we needed him to be.
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Flesh and blood symbolized here by the elements bread and juice. Elements that were part of the
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Passover meal in Jesus's time and he took them and said this is my body.
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This is my blood. To emphasize to his disciples to proclaim to us that he is who we need.
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He is the one who satisfies God and satisfies us reconciling us together.
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Flesh and blood. He frees us from Satan. How does he do this? He comes in the flesh to be for us and in our place the one who defeats our great enemy.
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He came for a fight. The classic threat in first period.
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See at the pull. May cause some degree of trepidation over a few hours but has nothing on what
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God's... Some 6 ,000 years ago what did he say?
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You don't believe me? Is that what happens with Adam and Eve? And he says to the serpent in verse 14 because you have done this because you have tempted
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Adam and Eve. Led them into sin. Cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field.
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On your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. Now look at verse 15. And I will put enmity between you and the woman.
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Between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.
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God said that's not... This is not how it ends. I'm going to put enmity between you
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Satan and all that follow you. There'll be an all who are in him. There is a fight. There was a conflict and he's going to crush your head.
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You may do something to him but he's going to crush you. And Jesus Christ came for that fight.
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He came for that fight and he finished it. There's a lot that was finished of Satan.
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How does he do that? He himself likewise also partook of the same that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
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So you see that the devil has this power of death. Not that the devil holds our lives in his hands.
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God holds our lives in his hand. He's the one who gives us breath. It's in him that we move and live and have our being.
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But the power of death that Satan has is this power of fear of death.
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This power of leading and tempting and drawing all of humanity after sin.
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Jesus said he was a murderer from the beginning because Satan murdered Adam and Eve by leading them into sin.
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And so because he keeps murdering humanity. And he has this power.
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But what does Christ do? He takes on flesh and blood a full humanity so that through renders powerless
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Satan. He takes what
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Satan considers to be his great weapon and Jesus takes that weapon and defeats
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Satan with it. There are many in the history that we read in the scriptures.
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Many who who had this experience of being raised from the dead and yet they died again.
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We have a few a couple that seem to maybe have escaped death but they did not defeat it.
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They gave no answer for it. It was Christ alone who reached inside of death and unlocked it.
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He has the keys of death and the grave. He's the one who defeated it.
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Jesus Christ in a way far superior reminds me of Benaiah one of David's mighty men in 2nd
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Samuel. Benaiah went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion.
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It's a snowy day. The lions in a pit. Go home. Drink hot chocolate.
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Put your feet up. The lions in a pit. It's going to freeze to death.
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It's going to die. It's a snowy day. But Benaiah can't leave it there. There's a lion.
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I'm going to kill it. And he goes down into the pit. So it's either him or the lion. And Benaiah kills it.
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Again he went down to an Egyptian. A mighty man who had a great spear.
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And what does Benaiah do? Benaiah goes down to the Egyptian, takes the spear out of the
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Egyptian's hand and slays his enemy with that very same weapon. A mighty man.
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A warrior. A model warrior. But he is a model that points us to Christ who comes to our great enemy and with the enemy's own weapon he defeats him.
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He has disarmed the strong man and bound him and robbed him of his possessions.
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And so he frees those whom Satan considered his own possessions. He frees us.
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Those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Jesus Christ is exactly who we need.
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He took on flesh and blood to be the Savior that we need to defeat the one who had power over flesh and blood.
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So he comes in the flesh. He comes for a fight and he comes for the family. In verse 16, for assuredly he does not give help to angels.
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He doesn't save angels. There's no redemption for angels. But he gives help to the descendant of Abraham.
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He gives help. What does that mean? There's the kind of help where there's a child struggling with long division and you give them a few pointers.
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And there's the kind of help when that same child falls into a raging, flooding river and you snatch them up under their armpits and drag them out of death.
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This help is the second kind of help. He gives help to who?
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The descendant of Abraham. Better translated seed. Seed.
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Seed is an interesting word. It can be singular or a singular plural.
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In the scriptures and when you heard about it in Genesis 3 15, one was called the seed of the woman.
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Capital S. Singular, singular. Only one savior. The seed.
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But then those whom he saves, those whom he helps, are called the seed, singular plural, of Abraham.
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It's not seeds, but seed. You see in my greenhouse I have some seeds because there are different types of seed.
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Even I have a variety of different lettuce seeds, but they're all different kind.
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But if I have a packet all full of this, just this one type of lettuce,
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I can call it seed. I've got a hundred of them, but it's still seed because it's all of one kind.
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He gives help to the seed, all an innumerable multitude, but they're all of one kind because they are in Christ.
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We go over to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 29. We are reminded of this.
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Galatians chapter 3 and verse 29 says, if you belong to Christ, if literally it says seed, if you belong to Christ then you are
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Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise. No matter who you are or where you come from,
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Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, healthy or sick, man or woman, if you are in Christ by faith you are
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Abraham's seed. I think it's important for us to recognize it when you look in the context of Hebrews 2 and you read about sons, you read about brethren, you read about a congregation, you read about the children, those who are called the seed of Abraham, they are called the people, all of these are synonyms for the same group.
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And so the Son of God, in bringing many sons to glory, it's not a shame to call them his brethren.
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We find from verse 9 in chapter 2, from every family, children are given to Christ, it says, who is their flesh and blood
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Savior who helps them. What does it have to do with communion? We are a singular plural in Christ.
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We are not here seeds. Our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world singing hymns with us, they are not of a different type of seed.
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We are all one seed in Christ. This is called communion because we come together in unity and in community and in fellowship as one because of who
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Christ is as our flesh and blood Savior. So he came in the flesh for a fight and to save the family.
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So he frees us from saying he's exactly who we need. Perhaps besides our need for Christ, we look at verses 1 through 3 in chapter 2 of Hebrews, for this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it.
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For if the word spoken through angels, meaning the law, if this proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
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The law was given by angels and every single sin, every single iniquity, every single transgression received a just penalty.
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If you read through Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, do you see all the law that was given in my image and then read all the consequences for those who fail to do so?
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How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
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So great a salvation found in Christ. Christ not only frees us from Satan, he frees us from sin.
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Without him, we stand condemned, full of guilt, subject to return to wicked ways.
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No matter what moral improvements we make, we are subject to return to grumbling ways like wilderness wanderers.
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But look at Christ, verse 17, he saves us from sin because he serves as our high priest.
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Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things. He had to partake in flesh and blood so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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The preacher has quoted in verses 12 and 13, he's quoted from Psalm 22 in Isaiah 8 to assert that the
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Father has given to the Son children to save and thus the
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Son has this obligation. He had to be made like the children. He had so that he could serve as their high priest.
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The high priest is the one who stands between all of the people and all of God to do labor to reconcile the two.
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He has to be all of us and he has to be all of God if there's reconciliation to be had.
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He must be fully man and fully God. He had to be made like his brethren in all things. Only then does he represent us.
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Only then could he in a merciful and faithful way satisfy the justice of God concerning our sins.
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He propitiates, he satisfies through a sacrifice God's offended suffering.
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He did this flesh and blood. He is exactly who we need. He's exactly who we need.
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He serves as our high priest and he serves as our perfect leader. Verse 18, for since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
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Verse 18 harkens back to verse 10, something that the preacher has already said, something that captures my wonder.
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And I'm refraining from going into all the details so come back on Good Friday. But in verse 10, depending on your translation, it says he is the author or the leader.
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The Greek says he's the archegos of our salvation. He is the captain and he is the author and he is the founder and he is the pioneer of our salvation.
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And he is so in flesh and blood. He is made exactly who we need through his flesh and blood sufferings.
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It says in his sufferings he has been tempted in ways like we have been tempted so that he may be this merciful and faithful high priest so he may help those, he may save from temptation those who are his brethren.
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He is flesh and blood and he has suffered greatly. He knows what it means to be tempted.
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He knows how to save us from sin. He knows how to save us from being ensnared in sin, always losing to sin.
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He saves us from that. I've been asked before and I've asked before and how is it that, how is it that Jesus Christ who knew no sins, he never sinned, he never knew what it was like to give in to temptation.
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So really how can he help us who often give in to temptation? If he never knew what it was to personally commit sin, how can a different angle?
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When does temptation get stronger? When you resist it.
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You resist it the first time and it comes back stronger the second time. You resist it again it comes back stronger the third time and it increases on you and increases on you and it bears upon you until in this temptation it's almost all that you can think about and you wonder if you're going to persevere or not.
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Jesus Christ never ever once gave into temptation. He knows what it's like to be tempted to the uttermost and he has suffered greatly.
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The preacher combines these thoughts of suffering and temptation because God knows that when we suffer that is when we're tempted most greatly to sin.
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We believe we have an excuse. We believe we have right. Christ is our perfect leader who blazes the trail to glory through suffering and knows what it's like to be tempted and so he can deliver us from sin.
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He's exactly who we need. Again in John 6 verses 53 through 54 he asserts to those listening that he is exactly who we need.
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Jesus said to them, truly truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in yourselves.
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He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Jesus is saying this a few days before the Passover. He's saying to them this
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Passover meal that you're supposed to eat, that lamb that you're supposed to eat and not leave a bit of it left.
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He says that's me. I'm your lamb. I'm your Passover lamb with which you must be fully satisfied for with Christ alone
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God is fully satisfied. He's exactly who we need because he saves us in flesh and blood.
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He saves us from Satan and he saves us from our sin. When we partake of the
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Lord's Supper we are confessing that. We confess that. We eat the bread, we drink the cup.
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What we're saying, we're saying Jesus Christ is exactly who I need. I state this by faith.
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I confess before all brothers and sisters in Christ because we all agree about this. Jesus Christ is exactly who we need.
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He is our Savior and in him we have our fellowship. Pray for us and we will sing a hymn together and we'll share a meal together.
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Father I thank you for the time you've given us this morning. I thank you for the reminder from your word that Jesus Christ is exactly who we need.
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He's our flesh and blood Savior. Thank you for giving him to us. We ask that this morning as we as we eat the bread and drink this juice we would do so in remembrance of Christ, worshiping him and entrusting ourselves to him.