Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
chapter number two. And I want to draw your attention to verse five,
Hebrews chapter two, reading from verse five, page 1061 in the Bibles that we give away.
If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me out of respect for God's Word. In this moment,
God is speaking to us directly from His Word. So Hebrews chapter two, beginning in verse five through to verse 18.
Brothers and sisters, these are God's very words to us. But He has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about.
But someone somewhere has testified, what is man that you remember him? Or the son of man that you care for him?
You made him lower than the angels for a short time. You crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet.
But in subjecting everything to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.
Now as it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see
Jesus. Made lower than the angels for a short time, so that by God's grace he might taste death for everyone.
Crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.
For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one father.
That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
I will sing hymns to you in the congregation. Again, I will trust in him.
And again, here I am with the children God gave me.
Now, since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these.
So that through death he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil.
And free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
Which is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham's offspring.
Therefore he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way. So that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.
But since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will remain forever. Allow me to pray, ask for God's help, and we will get to work in God's word.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have yet another opportunity to hear you speak to us.
So Father, I simply ask that our hearts would be open and receptive to hear what your word has to say to us this morning.
As we consider the Lord Jesus, as we think about who he is and what he has done,
I pray that for those of us who know you, our hearts would grow in love for him. And on the off chance there's anybody here who does not know the
Lord, I pray that your spirit would use this word to draw them to Christ.
Father, as we pray for ourselves, pray for Anchor Church who'd be just down the street from us.
Pray for Pastor Dave and the team there. Pray that they would know your blessing.
Pray that they would know your help as they seek to preach your word and to see disciples made. Father, we pray that for them and we pray that for us even now as we open up your word.
And we ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Please be seated.
Well, this morning we come to week two of the sermon series that we began last week called Connected.
Connected, finding joy in our union with Christ.
For those of you who maybe weren't here or missed that message, I won't do a complete breakdown of all of it, but essentially we were asking the question of what is union with Christ and why does it matter?
And you remember that last week I began by saying that what we want to do in this series is to look at this biblical teaching and for this biblical teaching to help us in answering three really important questions.
The question of identity, just who am I? The question of purpose, just why am
I here? And the question of destiny, just where am I going? I think we can all agree those are questions that people have been asking since the dawn of time.
Well, the Bible does give us answers and what we're hoping to do with this sermon series is to consider just how one biblical teaching, there are many that answer this question, but how one biblical teaching called
Union with Christ, how that answers this question. You can see on the study guide there that I've put the definition that I gave last week, if you can allow me just to go over again real quickly, we said that union with Christ is the biblical truth that by faith
God has joined us to Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection so that all of the benefits of Jesus's work for us become ours through the
Holy Spirit. And so that's the definition that we're working with and what we're looking at in this series is how that truth answers the deepest questions that we have.
As I said last week was kind of an introduction and this week I want to actually start to get into the meat and potatoes of this series if you will.
And I want to consider with you for a few moments what it means for us to be connected to Jesus's life, to be connected to Jesus's life.
I think we can all agree that the life of Jesus without question is probably, and probably is really understating it, it's probably the most important life that has ever been lived.
Can we agree that? It wasn't a long life as lives go, he was only 33 when he died.
How much meaning, how much worth, just how much significance is wrapped up in the life of this man we call
Jesus the Christ? Like I said, that's the question I want to consider with you this morning.
Just how much significance is there in the life of Christ? This morning
I want you to just take a moment and think with me about the life of Christ and as we think about the life of Christ I want you to think with me about how the life of Christ ministers to us as God's people.
And I hope that, like I said as I prayed, that this would be a benefit to both Christian and non -Christian alike.
For those of you who are believers, I hope that this would encourage you, that you would come, you'd come away from this message with fresh appreciation for who
Jesus is and what he's done for us. And because I never take it for granted that everyone who hears me preach is necessarily a believer, if you're not a believer, you've chosen a great week to be here because we're actually going to be looking at some of the basics of the
Christian message. You know, consider this kind of going back to school a little bit as we think about the
Lord Jesus and who he is. Our base camp in the journey that is this sermon series this morning is
Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. I have to admit, Hebrews is my favorite book in the entire
New Testament. I know more than Romans, more than the four Gospels, I mean not that I don't love the other ones, of course, but if you could leave me on a desert island with only one book of the
Bible, I might make it the book of Hebrews. Thirteen chapters, 303 verses in our
English Bibles. In my opinion, it is a masterpiece of biblical teaching when it comes to the message of Jesus.
Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians. We don't quite know where they are. There's lots of speculation. There's lots about this book's background we don't entirely know.
What we do know is this from reading the book, that there seems to have been a temptation laid in their way.
A temptation to, as it were, leave Christianity that they have become a part of and to go back to the
Judaism that they've been raised in. And so, as time kind of progresses and there are trials and temptations from both the outside and the inside, their faith is starting to feel a little bit worn.
You can see the, you know, the wearing away on the tires so to speak.
And what the author of the Hebrews does, which is so masterful, is that he writes to encourage them.
In fact, he describes this book right at the end, chapter 13, he describes it as a word of encouragement.
And the encouragement, you can really boil it down to three words. The simple encouragement, such a powerful one.
The encouragement he gives them is this, Christians, Jesus is better.
Jesus is better than the Judaism you came from on just about every level you can think of.
It's interesting, I mentioned chapter 13 where he calls this a word of encouragement. That phrase is only used one other time in the
New Testament in the book of Acts. It's a reference to one of Paul's sermons in the synagogue.
And he calls it a word of encouragement, the exact same phrase. And that's led a number of people, myself included, to believe that this was more than likely a sermon that was then committed to paper.
And if you read the book of Hebrews, you don't have time to get into all of it, the structure kind of bears that out. That this is more for the ear than for the eye, if that makes sense.
That this is a sermon that was preached to encourage these Christians. And so in recent years
I've stopped calling, sometimes I'll still say it, but I try to discipline myself to not say the author to the Hebrews, but the preacher to the
Hebrews. Because this is a sermon that is chock -full of encouragement.
When we come to chapter 2, he's still very early in the sermon. The sermon is just kind of heating up at this stage.
But he's already made two major points and one application by the time you come to the text that we want to look at this morning.
So in chapter 1 verses 1 through 4, he starts with point number 1 in his sermon, which is keep believing in Jesus because he is better than the prophets.
The prophets were servants, but Jesus is a son. And so, yes, the prophets were good.
He's not saying the prophets were bad and Jesus is good. He's saying the prophets were good, but Jesus is better.
And then in verses 5 through 14, he says keep believing in Jesus, not just because he is better than the prophets, but because he is better than the angels.
And so verses 5 through 14, he pulls text after text from the Old Testament and says, here's what
God says about his son and here's what he says about the angels. The angels don't even come close. And since that is true, his first application comes in chapters 2 verses 1 through 4.
Since Jesus is better than the prophets and he's better than the angels, don't let go of the good news about him.
So chapter 2 verse 1, for this reason we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard so that we will not drift away.
He essentially calls his audience and says, keep a tight grip on the message that you heard, this message about Jesus.
But it's an application that's kind of, he starts it, but then he returns back to his point. And so he's still in that second point that we should keep believing in Jesus because he is better than the angels.
He's still on that message as we come to the text we're going to be looking at this morning.
Jesus is better than the angels because of who he is and because of what he has done.
Now, of course, if you're here and you're a Christian, you already believe that. But why should we believe it?
Why would we as Christians argue? Well, maybe argue is not the word I want to use.
Why would we as Christians believe with everything in us that this man called
Jesus truly makes the difference? Why would we stake life and eternity on this man's life?
That's what I want us to consider this morning. I think that is really the key question here. What exactly, what is it exactly about Jesus and his life?
What is it that makes his life so important? Well, that leads me to my big idea for this message this morning.
Very simply, why is it important for us to think about the life of Jesus?
It's important because Jesus is the perfect man who lived for us, died for us, and represents us before God.
So why is Jesus' life important? Because Jesus is the perfect man who lived for us, died for us, and represents us before God.
We believe in Jesus because he is the perfect man who lived for us, died for us, and represents us.
This morning as I draw our attention to this text,
I want to consider four ways in which Jesus is the perfect man.
Four ways in which Jesus is the perfect man and why that is good news for us who believe in Jesus.
And if you're here and you don't believe in Jesus, this is why this is good news even for you. This morning
I want to consider four ways in which Jesus is the perfect man and why that is good news for us and I want this text to help us do it.
How is Jesus the perfect man? Well, first off, can I invite you to think about the fact that point number one,
Jesus completes humanity's unfinished story. Jesus completes humanity's unfinished story.
As I said, this is a sermon and the preacher picks up his point that he started back in chapter one with a very simple observation.
So look at verse five, chapter two, verse five, text says, but he, this is
God, has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about.
So again, see how we see how it's connecting right back to this theme of Jesus being better than the angels. Jesus is
God's ruling and God's reigning king. That's not a privilege that angels will ever enjoy or even know about.
To kind of support his argument here, verses six through eight of our passage is a quotation from Psalm 8.
In fact, just knowing that is kind of important. Psalm 8 comes at the end of a section of Psalms from Psalm 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, which are songs of lament.
They are songs that are asking for the help of God in the midst of the pain of life. But you have this theme from 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, but then you get to chapter eight and the tone flips.
It goes from a tone of lament and sorrow and begging
God for his help to one of triumphant praise. And in the verses that the preacher
Hebrews quotes, the Psalmist is amazed.
He's amazed that God pays attention to, that he has regard for, that he has any kind of thoughts about man.
I mean, have you ever thought about that? God is wonderful and amazing and transcendent.
He is totally other from us. God is God and man is man.
It's a little mind blowing when you think about it that way, isn't it? And yet God has care for, regard for man.
In fact, the Psalmist acknowledges, and he takes a moment to affirm the dignity of man as created by God.
That man was created in the image of God. And that not only is he created in the image of God, that man is created in the image of God to do three things.
To make them easy, I like to use three R's. He's created to rule, to exercise authority.
He's created not just to rule, to exercise authority, but to reign, to exercise that authority over a particular people and a particular place.
So man was created to rule, to exercise authority, to reign, to exercise that authority over a particular people in a particular place.
And to reflect, to exercise that authority in ways that reflect how
God rules over his creation. See that all the way back in Genesis in chapter one, where God after he creates man says, let us make man in our image and in our likeness and let them rule, have dominion over creation.
This was the divine ideal. This is what God created man to be and what he created man to do.
And even here, I need to pull up for a moment because do you realize that when God made man, he made man with inherent dignity, that he made man with a inherent worth, with inherent value?
Maybe, okay, Kofi, why is that important? Well, very simple. All you need to do is look at the world around us as I often do.
I think we can all agree. If you look at the world around us, it's very clear that the problems that we see in this world, those three questions
I said, we're going to be thinking about in this series, identity, purpose, and destiny. If you think about those three questions, the reason why we have so much difficulty, in my opinion, and I would argue the
Bible's opinion, that the problems we have with that are the result of our rejecting the fact that we have been made in the very image of God.
After all, if we are just what happens when random things happen and we crawled out of the phrase
I remember hearing in school, the primordial goo, if that's the case,
I hope we think about this with me. As I was preparing this week, it just kept coming back to me. Should we really be surprised when people view themselves as inherently worthless?
After all, I came from nowhere. I have no purpose. And as far as I know, I'm not going anywhere. Should we be surprised that suicide rates climbed year on year?
But as a number of public health officials are saying, we are in the worst mental health decline in history.
And I'm sure some may want to argue about, well, what do we really mean by that? How much of that is exaggerated? Fine. But the fact that we're even using that kind of language,
I think there's some truth to that. After all, if identity and meaning and destiny, if these are mysteries that we can't answer, why should
I care? I put it to you that part of the problem that we have in our society is that the dignity that we were made with has been traded away, as it were, for fool's gold.
It looks valuable, but it's not. It's been traded away for fool's gold of just living and dying with not much else happening in between.
But can I put it to you that the Bible makes us to understand that man was created for so much more, that man created in the very image of God to rule and to reign and to reflect him.
But of course, that's not where the Bible story ends. Because man sinned and man rebelled against God.
And when man sinned and man rebelled against God, everything changed.
Human beings are still created in the image of God, but the way the classic Christian understanding of the Bible has put it, the image of God has been marred,
M -A -R -R -E -D. It's been ruined. We still have it, but it's a pale comparison of what it once was.
And in fact, the author of the Hebrews picks this up, because look at verse eight, chapter two, verse eight. It says, for in subjecting everything to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him.
That's what man was created to be, to have everything in creation subject to him. God's not subject to him because God is not part of creation, of course.
But man was created to rule, to reign, and to reflect. But look at how he ends it. He says, as it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him.
Man was created to rule over creation. And of course, you just simply need to look at creation to realize we're not quite doing that.
Adam sinned, and ever since, we have been so, so far short of our created design.
Man doesn't have the dignity and dominion that he was created to have because of sin.
But that's not where the story ends, because though man doesn't have the dignity and dominion that he was created to have, there is one man who does.
So look at verse nine, first five words there. But we do see
Jesus. Man doesn't have the full dignity he should have, but one man in particular does.
Jesus took on humanity, real humanity. That's why he says, verse nine, but we do see
Jesus made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God's grace, he might taste death for everyone.
Jesus took on humanity, real humanity. It wasn't as some people in the early church said, and they were wrong, that Jesus, he's a divine person, but he kind of puts on humanity like a suit.
It's not really who he is. The human body of Jesus, there were people who taught this in the early church, the human body of Jesus was just the suits that contained the real
Jesus, the divine person. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that Jesus was a very real man, that he had a real human body, a real human soul, a real human mind, will, and emotions.
Think about this, that the creator of the universe was made low, according to this passage in verse nine, he was made lower than the angels that he created.
And in fact, he was made so low in his humanity, his humanity was so real that he experienced the one thing that all human beings will experience, death.
He wasn't faking it, he wasn't like, I don't know if you know this, the religion of Islam teaches, well, some parts of it, anyway, teaches that Jesus didn't really die on the cross, you know, either he was swapped out with Judas, which that's kind of wild, or yeah, he was on the cross, but you know, he swooned, he was in so much pain, he passed out, he didn't really die.
No, the Bible doesn't actually say that. No, the Bible says that he actually died. Like all humanity does at some point.
It's interesting that when Jesus becomes a man, when he identifies with humanity, he fully identifies with humanity.
And so he died, but his story doesn't even end there.
Yes, the preacher says that he died, but his time on earth was only for a little while.
And how does he pick it up? He says, made lower than the angels, verse nine, for a short time, so that by God's grace, he might taste death for everyone.
He was everyone there, everyone is all the people that the father gave him. Go back to last week's message where I make that point.
But note what he says, we do see Jesus. In fact, if you've got the
CSB, you'll notice that it puts that whole section there in between two dashes, because his main point is not so much that Jesus was made lower.
His main point is what he says right at the end. In fact, if you read it without the dashes, it reads like this, but we do see
Jesus crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death.
Yes, Jesus experienced real humanity all the way to the point of death, but on the other side of that, he rose.
And when he rose, he received glory and honor. Man was created with glory and honor, but he lost that glory and honor when he sinned.
But the wonderful message of the gospel, and I have to say, this is a part I don't think we often emphasize like we should.
Man lost his glory and honor when he sinned, but Jesus regains it for his people through his life and through his death.
The mess, the story, excuse me, that was left unfinished in the fall of man created in the image of God to rule, to reign, and to reflect.
Humanity's unfinished story is completed in the person of Jesus.
He receives the glory and the honor that we lost in the fall. In fact, I would argue he receives greater glory than what was lost in the fall.
Okay, Kofi, great, wonderful. Why does that matter? Well, it matters because that work of completing humanity's glorious but unfinished story, that work is only true for those who are in him.
It is only in Jesus that humanity's story is brought to its wonderful and glorious conclusion.
In a society that yearns for value, for worth, for dignity, can't you see that believers are the only ones with the answers to those questions?
That believers find those answers in the person and in the work of Jesus, and then believers extend outwards to a world with those answers.
And so Jesus is the perfect man, and that is good news for us because he completes humanity's unfinished story.
But it's also good news because point number two, Jesus restores humanity's most fractured relationship.
Jesus restores humanity's most fractured relationship. So look at verses 10 through 13 with me,
Hebrews 2, 10 to 13. For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God, from whom and through whom all things exist, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
For the one who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified all have one father, that is why
Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
And again, here I am with the children that God gave me.
Jesus restores humanity's most fractured relationship. Can I take a moment and correct something that sometimes the world kind of gets wrong?
While God is the creator of all, can we understand that God, though he's the creator of all, he is not the father of all?
Those are two very different relationships. Yes, God created all things and all people, but he is not father to all things and not to all people.
A fatherly relationship speaks to closeness. It speaks to tenderness. It speaks to intimacy.
When man was created, he did have that. It's this wonderful little, it's almost a throwaway sentence if you don't pay attention to it in the
Genesis narrative when the fall happens, where it says that God came down in the cool of the day.
And the implication seems to be that Adam and Eve knew this to be a regular thing because they go hiding from him, knowing that he's coming at some point.
Why does the author of Genesis feel the need to mention that? It's simple. He's communicating to us that God enjoyed closeness with his relationship.
God was not the divine watchmaker. There was a theory that said this in history that God kind of created the world, kind of wound it up like a clock and then said, right, that's working, great.
See you when I see you and went off. That's not the picture of God that the
Bible presents to us. The picture of God that the Bible presents to us is that God desired to know his creation and to be known by his creation.
Those who were in our Sunday school hour, we talked about this, that though God doesn't need our worship, he did create us for it.
And God doesn't need a relationship with us, yet he desires one with us.
But that closeness that man had with God, well, sin interrupted all that, didn't it?
God had to remove man from, again, I've talked about this in our series in Genesis, you can go watch it online, that Edom, this garden was created as a space for worship.
It's laid out like a space for worship. Adam's task was a worshipful task. But when sin came in,
God had to remove man from the space that he had designed for his own worship, because that relationship had now changed.
And one could argue that outside of Christ, humanity has been out of Eden ever since.
But follow me here. If it's true that Jesus completes humanity's broken story, then that has to include, well, incomplete story.
He has to restore the relationship that was broken between God and man, doesn't he? Because that's part of man's story.
And that's why I've named the second point that Jesus restores humanity's most fractured relationship. And I get that if you're wondering how
I came up with that. Did you know family language that's scattered throughout these verses?
So in verse 10, for in bringing many sons and daughters to glory.
Verse 11, the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have one father.
Some of your translations may say source or origin. The reason why the CSB translates it as father is it's picking up on this word family here.
The word that's there actually can be translated as father. So sons, father, twice in verse 11 and 12, brothers and sisters.
Verse 13, children. This is familial theme to these verses.
And that's important because catch this, our union with Christ isn't just a legal union.
You know what I mean when I say that? Our union with Christ is not just, okay,
God, as it were, bangs the gavel, waves the wand and says, yep, united with me. You're saved, ticket stamped, record clean.
Go have a nice life. I'll see you on the other side. Our union with Christ is not just a legal act.
Can I put it to you that it's a relational act? That we are being invited into a family.
We are being told essentially that you belong here. Can I put it to you that the only place that this truly happens in the world, might be a bold statement, but I stand 10 toes down on it.
The only place in the world where people truly belong is in the church.
How does Paul describe it? If you're taking notes, Galatians 3 .18, he says, there's no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female.
Why? Since you are all one in Christ Jesus. Colossians 3 .11,
one of my favorite Pauline lines. He says, in Christ there is not Greek or Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian,
Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all.
The only place, and again, people might disagree with me, but I put it to you, the only place in all of history where people belong 100 % unconditionally is in the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ. If I can pause, doesn't that make it kind of sad when
Christians forget that? I can't speak for you, but I know it does for me.
If I can put it bluntly, doesn't it just rip the heart out of your chest when you see churches?
I've seen this happen. When you walk into a church and you can tell quickly, this church is, my microphone keeps dying on me.
Hold on. If I can put it bluntly, isn't it a sad thing when you walk into some churches as I do,
I travel a lot. I've been in a few places in my life. You walk into a church and you can immediately tell when you walk into that church, this church is clicked up to the nines.
I've seen it. After a worship service, everyone just immediately breaks to their groups of people. That group doesn't talk to that group.
Those people don't talk to those people. It pains me.
Like I said, I've seen it happen enough times. When you walk into a church and the church is one of the most segregated places you can ever imagine.
If I can put it bluntly, brothers and sisters, Jesus didn't come to earth, go through all of that and rise to act, for us, excuse me, to act like that didn't happen because it did happen.
Jesus restores our most fractured relationship, which is our relationship to God. And as a result of restoring our most fractured relationship, which is our relationship to God, he creates relationships with other people who are united to him.
Jesus restores our relationship with God. He is a father to us again, and we are his children with Jesus as the older brother who makes it all happen.
Maybe you're here and you've got at least one relationship that isn't quite what you wish it would be.
Maybe it's a family member, a coworker, a close friend who's betrayed you. That relationship lies in ruins.
And you may think, oh man, I just feel like I don't have anyone. Can I comfort you with the reality that in Christ, you have a father, you have an older brother, and you have a whole other side of the family that is yours forever.
In fact, look at verses 12 and 13. Verses 12 and 13. So verse 11 says that Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, verse 12,
I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will sing hymns to you in the congregation.
And again, I will trust in him. And again, here I am with the children God gave me.
That's a quotation from Isaiah chapter eight, by the way. And it's speaking of the Messiah and that the Messiah would stand in the presence of God.
It's interesting because it's kind of an interesting word picture. Isaiah receives a prophecy about his children, but the prophecy then switches to what
God is doing. And essentially he says that the Messiah stands in the presence of God and says, behold,
I am the children that God gave to me. Why does the author of the
Hebrews quote this here? Might I put it to you that he quotes this to show us that Jesus rejoices that we are in the family and not just rejoices, he happily represents us before the father.
One of my favorite Old Testament verses, Zephaniah 3 .17 says that he rejoices over his people with singing.
You ever thought about your relationship with God in that kind of way? One of my good friends,
Dr. Roger Skeppel pastors in Bible Baptist church in Atlanta. Skeppel in the sermon
I heard from him one time said, I wish I could get Christians to understand that Jesus doesn't just love them, love them, excuse me, he likes them.
Jesus restores humanity's most fractured relationship. And it's not just a, now we've mended fences, we'll see how it goes.
No, it's a, you are in, you are welcome, come on in. And that should make us an incredibly joyful people.
Maybe not always outwardly happy, but it should make us an incredibly joyful people.
This is the hope. This is the identity that we have, that we reach outward to others with.
And invite others to become part of, that those who were once enemies of God can become more than his friends.
They can become part of his family. So Jesus is the perfect man who restores humanity's most broken, most fractured relationship.
He completes humanity's unfinished story. He restores humanity's broken relationship to God, but also point number three,
Jesus defeats humanity's greatest enemy. Jesus defeats humanity's greatest enemies.
So look at verse 14. Now, since the children, those who have become part of the family of God.
Now, since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these so that through his death, he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil.
Jesus is the perfect man because he defeats our greatest enemies. So once again, let's think back to creation and the fall.
When Adam fell and we were forever tied down by the weight of sin, it didn't just destroy our relationship with God, it definitely did that.
But it also introduced two major problems into our world. And in fact, the author of the Hebrews tells us what those two problems are.
Did you notice that he says that through his death, he would destroy the one who has the power of death, that's problem number one, the power of death as used by the devil, and problem number two, verse 15, he would free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
Two problems, the power of death and the fear of death. Number one, the power of death, the power of death is not an absolute power of life and death.
Only God has the absolute power of life and death. God and the devil are not equals in this world.
But the Bible does teach us that Satan has authority over the realm where death happens.
What do you mean by that? Well, let the Bible answer that question. So Jesus could say in John 12, verse 31, that in his soon coming death, the ruler of this world would be cast out.
Oh, he's not speaking about his father when he says that, he's speaking about the evil one. In Ephesians 2,
Paul refers to the evil one as the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
1 John 5, 19 says that the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
In this domain where death is what happens, the devil is the one who wields the power, as it were.
So there's the power of death, but secondly, there's the fear of death. You know this as a human being.
There's something about death that we recognize is fundamentally unnatural.
There's something about death that when it happens, we know this is not how it's supposed to be.
Yes, we might grow accustomed to the fact that people die because we live in a world where people die. But I put it to you that part of being made in God's image is that we know we were not created to die and yet we do.
And since we're not created to die and we know it, we know that death is something that if we could, we try to avoid it, but like a deer in headlights, there's not much you can really do.
And so humanity cowers under the fear of death. The devil and the grave are the enemy.
And in and of ourselves, we are powerless to defeat them. We can't cure the problem, but the
Bible teaches us that, praise God, Jesus did. That in taking on a human nature and experiencing a very real death,
I remember there was a preacher I heard growing up, I wouldn't endorse all his theology, but I do think he was right on this much. He said,
Jesus beat the devil in his own domain. You ever think about it like that? That through his death, the thing that he should be most afraid of,
Jesus defeats both the one who wields the power of death like a weapon and he defeats the fear that death brings.
Because Jesus rose, we need not be afraid of death because we recognize death can and has been beaten.
Jesus succeeds where Adam fails. Where Adam disobeyed
God and listened to the voice of the serpent, where he plunged us into despair and into ruin, it's at that exact point that Jesus silenced the evil one and set us free from the fear of death.
One of my favorite songs by Sovereign Grace Music School, Jesus Lives, the first verse starts with these lines, I no longer fear the grave,
Christ has come, took the sting of death away by his saving blood, by finishing off the devil and the fear that surrounds death.
Jesus, and this is why he says verse 16, what he says about Jesus not helping angels, but Abraham's offspring.
Think about it. God made a promise to Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, through you, Abraham, all the nations will be blessed.
How are all the nations blessed? Bible missus understand that's in Jesus. Part of that blessing, we no longer need fear, death, and the grave.
We need no longer fear the devil. Why? Because Jesus has defeated our greatest enemies.
Okay, Kofi, what does this have to do with union with Christ? Simple. In union with Christ, Jesus's victory becomes our victory.
Jesus defeats death and the devil and in him, so do we. That's why
Jesus can say, John 11, 25, I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me will live even if he dies. I need not fear death because I know where I'm going on the other side of it.
Jesus takes on humanity. And when he does, he defeats our greatest enemies.
Jesus is the perfect man who completes humanity's broken story. He restores humanity's most fractured relationship.
He defeats humanity's greatest enemies. And finally, Jesus meets humanity's ultimate needs.
Jesus meets humanity's ultimate needs. So verses 17 and 18, therefore he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God to make atonement for the sins of the people.
But since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted because of who
Jesus is. And more importantly, because of what Jesus has done, he is perfectly positioned to meet two of humanity's ultimate needs.
First of all, he meets the need for an answer to sin. He meets the need for an answer to sin.
Verse 17, therefore he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God.
Jesus' humanity means that he can be the one to represent us before God. He can be, the
Bible's term is the mediator, the one who stands between God's people and God himself.
And he can do this because he offers the once for all sacrifice that deals with sin, the sacrifice of himself.
And as a result of that, preacher describes Jesus as a faithful and a merciful high priest.
Both of those descriptions are important. He's faithful because he fulfills the mission that the father gave him to save the ones that the father chose.
So he's faithful, but he's also merciful. He's merciful because he fulfills that mission, not because he sinned, but he does so for the sins of others in their place.
And so he meets humanity's ultimate need in his life by being the answer for sin.
Finally, not only does he meet the need, does he meet the need for an answer to sin? He meets the need for assurance of salvation.
So verse 18, for since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
Should be translated, who are being tempted. Jesus endured real temptation in his humanity.
You're unsure about that? Matthew chapter four and Luke chapter four. He endured real temptation.
Of course he couldn't sin and he didn't sin, but that doesn't mean it wasn't real temptation. And since, catch this, since Jesus endured temptation in his humanity,
Jesus knows exactly how to minister to us when we are tempted. Remember the context of this book,
Christians are being tempted to go back to Judaism, to abandon Jesus and go back to what they came from.
For Christians who are struggling in their faith, you could understand why they could think that being tempted to walk away, well, that's unforgivable.
But the preacher essentially says, Jesus understands what it is to be tempted.
And so Jesus will help you. And as I wrap up, can
I say this, that's good news for you, Christian. It's good news because no matter how badly you have messed up, no matter how far gone you might feel, the good news of the gospel is that you never have any reason to fear that your standing with God is in jeopardy.
Why? Because your standing with God is not rooted in you. The reason you can have no fear about your standing with God is because you are connected, you are united to a merciful and a faithful high priest.
And because he is a faithful and a merciful high priest, we can go to God anytime we are tempted and we can go knowing full well what he's going to say before we get there.
That should comfort us as we fight with sin. That's why verse 18, it says that he is able to help.
Some of the translations may say comfort, not quite the word here. This is the word that means to come alongside somebody and to aid them.
Actually the English word comfort, if you didn't know this, that's where it comes from. Comes from two Latin words, cum and forte, with strength, to come alongside someone and strengthen them.
That's what Jesus does for us. He gives us assurance of salvation because he knows what it is to be tempted and tried.
And so he can sympathize with us. Later on in Hebrews chapter four, we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weaknesses.
And that's why Jesus's life and our connection to that life should be a source of never ending comfort.
And if you're here and you don't know the Lord Jesus, and I invite you to think on what we've heard today.
The fact that he died for us, that he lived for us, that he's representing a people before the father.
And the Bible says that for those who place their faith in him, he receives them.
They become part of his people. And so if you're here today and you don't know him, can
I encourage you to get to know him? Come talk to me, come talk to any one of us who are here.
We'd love to share more about that with you. Let's pray together. Our father, we acknowledge that, we acknowledge that we are such a needy people.
We acknowledge that we needed help.
More than help, we needed a savior. We needed a rescuer. And father, we thank you that you sent that savior.
You sent that rescuer in the person of your son and our savior, Jesus. That he rescues us.
That he does for us what we could not do for ourselves. That he completes humanity's unfinished story.
That he restores our most fractured relationship, the relationship we had with you. That he defeats our greatest enemies and that he meets our ultimate needs.
May we never take for granted what he's done for us. May it be the joy and rejoicing of our hearts all our days.
I pray for anybody here who doesn't know you, anybody who's listening, who doesn't know you. May they come to find life in the life of God.
Pray that you would do a work, opening hearts and opening eyes so that the worth of Jesus may be fully seen.