WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.519 What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be human? What a piece of work is man. 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:14.820 You may recognize these words, but I don't mind. How noble in reason. How infinite in faculties. 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:22.019 In form and moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:29.719 how like a god. The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. Shakespeare, Hamlet, scene 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:37.700 2. The subscription of mankind. This amazing creature. The paragon of animals. The high 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:44.180 point of God's creation. And yet, as human beings, we're capable of such terrible things, 00:00:44.180 --> 00:00:50.960 aren't we? There's a castle near where I grew up where if you look at it as the sun rises, 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:58.300 you'd see this glorious castle. You'd think, what a fantastic building. And yet, in the daylight 00:00:58.300 --> 00:01:03.480 you went there, you'd see it actually as a ruin. It was crumbled. The tantalum castle no 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:08.560 longer has the glorious instead. It is a ruin. And that is us, isn't it? We are glorious 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:14.500 ruins. There's something beautiful about human beings. We are capable of such things. Infinite 00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:22.859 in faculties. How shapes to put it politically. And yet, minds that can devise medicines to 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:30.959 cure terrible diseases. Can also devise chemical weapons to destroy. The internet brings us such 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:37.719 good. It can also cause human trafficking and pornography and terrible things. What does 00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:43.920 it mean to be human? How do we account for these things? In some ways, we have a bit of an answer 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:52.260 to that question. Here we look at Hebrews chapter 2. And as we look at this, we need to remember 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:57.840 the context here. The writing of the Hebrews is writing to real people. Real people struggling 00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:02.240 with real life. Struggling with issues. They were a bunch of Christian believers who were 00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:08.719 ready to pack in their faith. They were ready to go back into Judaism that their neighbours and 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:13.199 friends embraced. They thought that that was an equally valid way to go on. So why not 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:18.979 give up on this Christianity thing and just go along with it? Perhaps they thought Judaism 00:02:18.979 --> 00:02:25.340 offered a more authentic experience. A more tangible experience. After all, there was still 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:30.520 a temple they could see. There were still sacrifices happening that they could smell and know. 00:02:31.659 --> 00:02:36.460 And perhaps for them, Judaism was certainly an easier option. Why could our Lord have 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:41.740 clapped the difficulty of following Jesus Christ? In the Roman world at the time, Judaism 00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:46.780 is a licensed religion. And Jews were allowed to practice what they believed. Christianity? 00:02:46.780 --> 00:02:51.980 That was just a weird new cult. And so if you read on through the book of Hebrews, you 00:02:51.980 --> 00:02:57.020 find these believers had faced imprisonment, faced the confiscation of their goods, all for 00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:01.439 following Jesus. So they were prepared to pack it all in. They'd go for an easier life. 00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:07.780 I wonder if some of us can relate to that here. Perhaps some of us think, well, surely other 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:12.780 religions are equally valid. Or, actually wouldn't it be easier to just go along with the flow, 00:03:12.919 --> 00:03:17.639 just to believe that all things are true and all things are nice and fine? Or shouldn't 00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:24.939 I go and look for some other experience that is more authentic? Well, the wife of the Hebrews 00:03:24.939 --> 00:03:30.780 wants his readers and us to know that that is not a good option. He wants them and us to 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:37.520 stay holding on to Jesus Christ. And as he gets to chapter 2, he wants us to see this great 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:42.620 rescue that only comes through Jesus Christ. Actually, back in verse 3, he didn't read it, 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.280 but he talked about this great salvation, this great rescue passage that we should not ignore. 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:54.939 And here in this chapter, he gives three different camera angles, as it were, to look at the work 00:03:54.939 --> 00:04:01.099 of Jesus Christ, to look at why God became human in the person of Jesus. And this week, 00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:06.180 we're going to look at how Jesus was the true human who came to rescue us. Next week, we'll 00:04:06.180 --> 00:04:10.180 see he's the true champion to liberate us. And in a few weeks' time, or two weeks' time, 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.000 I should say, we'll look at how Jesus is the true priest we all need. But here, we're looking 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:21.279 at how he's the true he. And in order to understand that, we need to see three things. We need 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:27.240 to see the way the world is supposed to be, the way the world is, and the way the world 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:32.720 will be restored forever. So first of all, the way the world is supposed to be. And the 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:38.300 writer shows us the way the world is supposed to be in verses 6 to 8. And he's quoting here 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:43.220 from Psalm 8 in the Old Testament. Now, Psalm 8 is a song of praise in the Hebrew 00:04:43.220 --> 00:04:48.540 Hindu, from the Jewish Hindu, praising God for his creation. And particularly praising 00:04:48.540 --> 00:04:55.960 God for two aspects of his creation. Firstly, for God's caring care and concern for creatures 00:04:55.960 --> 00:05:01.380 like us. So Psalm 8 verse 3, which isn't quoted here, which says this, when I look at 00:05:01.380 --> 00:05:05.920 your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, 00:05:06.600 --> 00:05:12.180 what is man that you are mindful of? Which the writer picks up here in verse 6. Praise in 00:05:12.180 --> 00:05:18.259 God for the fact that he cares for little insignificance creatures like us. Little dots in the landscape, 00:05:18.780 --> 00:05:24.100 on the third rock from the sun, in the midst of a vast galaxy, in the midst of a vast universe. 00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:29.139 The psalm praises God for his care and concern for people like you and me. 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:37.139 But secondly, the psalm praises God for the privilege he is for so long. And that's what the writer 00:05:37.139 --> 00:05:42.459 picks up here. What is man that you are mindful of him, a solid man that you care for him. 00:05:42.819 --> 00:05:48.680 You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honour, 00:05:49.060 --> 00:05:55.659 putting everything in subjection under his feet. But that is a story of creation. When God made 00:05:55.660 --> 00:06:01.340 the heavens and the earth, Genesis chapter 1, we read that God made human beings in his own image, 00:06:02.140 --> 00:06:07.180 to be his representatives. In those days, emperors and kings erect statues of themselves, 00:06:07.340 --> 00:06:12.180 images of themselves, throughout their territory. It's a way of saying that I'm the one who's in 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:18.220 charge here, I'm the one who lives here. And in the same way, God didn't just make a statue of 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:24.140 himself. He made human beings as his image bearers, as his representatives, to show that he rules 00:06:24.140 --> 00:06:31.420 over this world. And we were there as his vice-regents, if you like, to rule the world for him. 00:06:32.140 --> 00:06:38.520 That's why the psalm says, verse 8, quoted here, that God put everything in subjection under his feet, 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:46.160 under human rule. That's the way the world was meant to be. Everything was supposed to work 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:53.560 under human rule, as we rule the world as God's representatives, ruling it, caring for it, 00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:59.960 in the way God rules and cares for us. That's the way the world was meant to be. That's what 00:06:59.960 --> 00:07:05.020 human beings are meant to be. But sadly, that's not the way the world is. You know, 00:07:05.020 --> 00:07:10.440 I should acknowledge that, isn't it? You look at the end of verse 8. At present, we do not see 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:17.339 everything in subjection to him. This is the way the world is. We see that everything isn't 00:07:17.339 --> 00:07:22.180 in subjection to human beings. We see that so vividly on our television screens every night. 00:07:22.259 --> 00:07:26.319 We've got the floods, don't we? As I drove up to Scotland for Christmas, we passed through 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:30.740 a town near our parents' lives, a sandbag is up against the door. Shortly after we left, 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:35.800 another town up with ours was flooded. And on the news every night, we see flood defences failing. 00:07:35.800 --> 00:07:42.439 Everything is not in subjection to human beings. The world seems to be in rebellion against 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:49.379 us. We live in a world fit for rebels. The world is out of control. It's like an out of 00:07:49.379 --> 00:07:54.939 control train that we cannot derail or certainly cannot stop or control. Now, why is that? 00:07:55.019 --> 00:08:01.280 What went wrong? Well, writer doesn't tell us here because history was new. And he goes back 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:05.799 again at the beginning of the story of the Bible. In Genesis chapter 3, we were in that 00:08:05.799 --> 00:08:14.899 human beings rejected God. God had made everything for human beings to enjoy. And he made this 00:08:14.899 --> 00:08:20.099 beautiful garden, planted this beautiful garden so that you can eat any fruit from any tree in 00:08:20.099 --> 00:08:24.979 this garden. I want you to fill this earth and rule over it. I want you to develop culture, 00:08:25.500 --> 00:08:30.139 to develop art. I want you to develop science, to investigate this world I've made and to enjoy 00:08:30.139 --> 00:08:34.779 it and understand it. You can do everything you want. But here's a beautiful garden for 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:41.799 you to enjoy. So any of the fruit in this garden except for this one tree. The tree of the knowledge 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:47.740 of good and evil. Don't eat from that. Because that is there to remind you that I, God, am 00:08:47.740 --> 00:08:55.080 God and you are creatures. You depend on me. If you eat from that tree, if you think you 00:08:55.080 --> 00:09:01.740 can live without me, if you think you can define good and evil without me, then that will result 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:07.720 in death. That will result in death. And that makes sense, doesn't it? You cut the branch off 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:12.600 a tree, the branch dies, doesn't it? As human beings, if we cut ourselves off from the God who 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:17.879 made us, then God is the source of life. And death is the right consequence and the right 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:24.420 punishment for us to live in that. But sadly, that is exactly what happened. Adam and Eve 00:09:24.420 --> 00:09:29.840 ate the fruit from the tree. Every human being since has tried to live without God. Has tried 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:34.960 to live as if we could define right and wrong and meaning and purpose. And the result is not 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:40.600 only we cut off from God, but the world is now the way it is rather the way it should be. 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:46.580 We now live in a world with floods and damage and disease destroying and famine and plaguing 00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:52.420 us. We live in a world where people fight one another instead of being united together. We 00:09:52.420 --> 00:10:00.379 live in a world where we do not naturally know God but are cut off from him. And yet, our 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:08.379 dignity as human beings is not completely gone, is it? We still are capable of beautiful acts 00:10:08.379 --> 00:10:14.360 of love. Beautiful, creating beautiful works of love. Making astounding discoveries in science. 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:20.340 And yet, we can use those things to damage as well. 00:10:20.340 --> 00:10:27.320 J.R.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, also wrote a poem in which he described 00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:33.960 human beings as, laws now bethroned, who wear the rags of lordship that once we earned. 00:10:35.019 --> 00:10:40.320 There's something about us that, like that castle where I grew up, shows something of the 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:46.940 dignity we once had. And yet now, we are glorious ruins, cut off from one another, cut off from 00:10:46.940 --> 00:10:52.900 God, and in a world which is no longer subject to our rule, but subjects us to its fury. 00:10:54.200 --> 00:11:00.780 Well, that's the way the world should be, is under our rule. The way the world is, is out 00:11:00.780 --> 00:11:05.400 of control. But thirdly, the writer talks about the way the world will be restored forever. 00:11:05.399 --> 00:11:12.079 We get that in verse 9. We don't see, at the end of verse 8 actually, we do not, at present, 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:17.240 we do not see everything in subjection to him, that is to human beings generally, but we see 00:11:17.240 --> 00:11:24.659 him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels. Who is that? Jesus. We see him 00:11:24.659 --> 00:11:29.799 crowned with glory and honour, because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:36.699 God, he might taste death for everyone. So there are three stages to this wrestling plan 00:11:36.700 --> 00:11:43.160 that the writer unfolds for us. First of all, there's humiliation, God stepping down. 00:11:43.660 --> 00:11:49.340 Then there's coronation, Jesus getting the crown. And thirdly, the final victory. Let's 00:11:49.340 --> 00:11:53.820 just go through those three quickly. So first of all, the humiliation, the stepping down. 00:11:54.560 --> 00:11:58.720 Some things can only stick from the inside, can't they? There was a film of years ago, 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:02.940 came out about five years ago, called Unstoppable, starring Denzel Washington and Chris 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:09.940 Clime. That train in Pennsylvania, I think, on the east coast, who got out of control. 00:12:10.820 --> 00:12:14.940 It was just charging off, there was no one on board. And so they had to try and stop this 00:12:14.940 --> 00:12:19.600 train and try and rescue it. And so they had various plans to try and derail it, or to do 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:23.760 things to it. And none of those plans were there. And towards the end of the film, Denzel Washington 00:12:23.760 --> 00:12:27.940 tries to climb on the top of the train to get into the cabin, but he can't, his way is flopped. 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:32.340 And so Chris Clime, the hero of the story, is driven up in a vehicle alongside it and 00:12:32.340 --> 00:12:37.060 to jump off the train and get it back under control before it crashes and causes a catastrophe. 00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:43.840 The only way to stop the disaster was from the inside, to get inside and do it. 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:49.800 The writer said that is what Jesus Christ has done, that's what God, the eternal Son of 00:12:49.800 --> 00:12:57.060 God has done. He has stepped inside. In chapter 1 he described the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son 00:12:57.059 --> 00:13:02.739 of God, as the heir of all things, the one through whom all things were created. Yet 00:13:02.739 --> 00:13:09.439 here in verse 9 he reminds us that for a little while he was made a little lower than the angels. 00:13:10.379 --> 00:13:17.379 He stepped down, he was humiliated. He came to the inside. There's a bigger humiliation than 00:13:17.379 --> 00:13:22.939 the chief executive going to clean the toilets. What chief financial officer wrote he is in 00:13:22.940 --> 00:13:26.900 night security behind. And it wasn't just like Prince William a few years ago. You know, 00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:30.920 Prince William, I can fair play say he did this. He went and spent the night on the streets 00:13:30.920 --> 00:13:35.500 before Christmas one year. As a way of identifying and understanding what the homeless people 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:39.500 were suffering. Well it's a great thing he did that, but Jesus went further than that. 00:13:40.020 --> 00:13:46.240 It wasn't just for a night. The eternal Son of God took on human flesh. Not just for a day, 00:13:46.760 --> 00:13:51.660 not even just for 30 years. Not just for his birth and death and death and death and the cross. 00:13:51.659 --> 00:13:59.019 But in fact forever. And verse 9 shows what he endured in that stepping down. At the end 00:13:59.019 --> 00:14:05.600 of the verse. He was crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:13.419 that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Death. Remember that was a punishment 00:14:13.419 --> 00:14:19.659 for us rejecting God's rule. For human beings trying to live as if we were God, instead of 00:14:19.659 --> 00:14:30.079 dependent on God. Yet Jesus sat down. He tasted death for us. Not just a sip of course, he drank 00:14:30.079 --> 00:14:37.699 the whole cup of death down to the dregs. Remember death is not natural in this world. Death happens 00:14:37.699 --> 00:14:44.959 because we reject God. Yet here is God come to earth, come inside to taste death for us. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:52.320 to be. And he can do that as the true human. As the one who always lived in fellowship with 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:58.320 God. As the one who always submitted to God's authority. The authority of God the Father. 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:06.379 And you notice Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who becomes the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't 00:15:06.379 --> 00:15:12.740 do this to try and argue with God the Father. But it's the Father's will. See that at the 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:19.740 end of the verse? That by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. As long as 00:15:19.740 --> 00:15:25.740 if the Son dies to persuade the Father to be merciful. Rather it's all part of a rusty package 00:15:25.740 --> 00:15:31.740 designed by the tri-ego of the Father, Son and Spirit to remake what we work. To restore 00:15:31.740 --> 00:15:38.340 us to true humanity from the glorious ruins we are currently. So that's the first stage, 00:15:38.340 --> 00:15:43.899 the second stage, the second stage, the humiliation. The second stage then is the coronation. Look 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:49.659 at verse 9 again. You see him who for little while has made love in the angels, namely Jesus, 00:15:50.220 --> 00:15:59.980 now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death. Death was what we all 00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:06.580 do for our rebellion against God. Even though we are created with glory and honour to be rulers 00:16:06.580 --> 00:16:14.580 of God's world, made in his image. That is broken and lost and now we deserve death. Yet while 00:16:14.580 --> 00:16:21.460 Adam and Eve lost, Jesus has restored. Jesus has gotten back. He is now crowned with glory 00:16:21.460 --> 00:16:27.420 and honour. He is now the true human who has come to the inside, lived the life we could never 00:16:27.419 --> 00:16:34.019 live, died the death we deserve to die and is now crowned with glory and honour. But you 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:38.819 may say, how do we know he is crowned with glory and honour? We can't see him. Well, the 00:16:38.819 --> 00:16:42.019 New Testament writers are clear that we know he is crowned with glory and honour now because 00:16:42.019 --> 00:16:50.019 his tomb is empty. The resurrection is proof that he is crowned with glory and honour. Because 00:16:50.019 --> 00:16:56.620 he is risen from the dead, he is now the man, the God-man at God's right hand, ruling over 00:16:56.620 --> 00:17:01.819 all things. All things are subjected to him, as the writer said back in chapter 1 verse 13. 00:17:01.820 --> 00:17:10.220 So here is the rescue package. First of all, humiliation. God steps down, fixing the problem for 00:17:10.220 --> 00:17:19.220 the inside, chasing death for us. And then coronation. The crown is regained. The true man is back 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:28.820 in charge, ruling the universe. But we don't see that yet, do we? We don't see that yet. Look at that verse 8 again. 00:17:28.819 --> 00:17:41.819 At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. In other words, the final trial has not yet come. The final trial, though the writer talks about it back in verse 13. 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:57.819 When God has said, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies at foot, stood to your feet. That final victory is still in the future. The humiliation is past, the coronation is present, Jesus is crowned with glory. But the final victory still awaits. When will that happen? 00:17:57.819 --> 00:18:10.819 When Jesus comes back. When Jesus comes back. It's then that we get this world to come. That the writer talks about in verse 5. It's then that Jesus will restore everything perfectly. Under his will. 00:18:10.819 --> 00:18:17.819 And the world will function, not just as it should have done, but even better than it should have done. In his glorious restoration. 00:18:17.819 --> 00:18:34.819 But so what? How is that of any help? To people struggling with chronic pain? Struggling with grieving? Struggling with ill health? Struggling with depression? Struggling with loss? 00:18:35.819 --> 00:18:42.819 Well let me give briefly. Four implications of this. Why there is any good means. First of all there is one thing we can never say. 00:18:42.819 --> 00:18:50.819 Let me tell you. The one thing we can never say. One thing we can never expect. One thing we can always have. And one choice we need to make. 00:18:50.819 --> 00:18:58.819 Suppose there is one thing we can never say. As we look at a world that is out of control. As we look at the floods. As we look at famines. As we look at disease. As we look at death and bleeding. 00:18:58.819 --> 00:19:05.399 we look at death and we're even. We can never say God doesn't care. We can never say God 00:19:05.399 --> 00:19:10.480 doesn't care. We can never say that precisely because he has stepped in in the person of 00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:16.679 Jesus to fix this problem. Isn't that Dorothy L. Sayers, the choir writer from the first 00:19:16.679 --> 00:19:23.279 half of the 20th century? Here are her notes. The incarnation, God becoming human, means 00:19:23.279 --> 00:19:28.419 that for whatever reason God chose to let us fall into suffering and to be subject to 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:33.860 sorrows and death, he nonetheless had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. 00:19:35.019 --> 00:19:39.740 He himself has gone through the whole human experience, from the trivial irritations of 00:19:39.740 --> 00:19:45.580 family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money, to the worst horrors 00:19:45.580 --> 00:19:54.460 of pain, humiliation, defeat, despair and death. He was born in poverty and suffered infinite 00:19:54.460 --> 00:20:03.120 pain all for us and thought it well worth his while. We can never say God doesn't care. 00:20:04.980 --> 00:20:10.559 But also, there's one thing we can never expect. We can never expect life to work perfectly now. 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:15.900 We are not yet at that stage in time. Verse 8 puts it. At present, we do not see everything 00:20:15.900 --> 00:20:22.380 in subjection to. We still live in a world starved by disease and death and mourning and crying 00:20:22.380 --> 00:20:27.360 and pain. Yet so often we expect things to be better, don't we? We expect that a nice 00:20:27.360 --> 00:20:31.480 holiday will make us feel a whole lot better. We expect that if we get a promotion, then 00:20:31.480 --> 00:20:35.860 work will suddenly feel easier. We expect that if the government gets the right policies, 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:41.820 then the market will be fairer, the flood defences will be better. We can never expect perfection 00:20:41.820 --> 00:20:45.820 in this world. And actually so much of our own purpose, so much of our discontentment, 00:20:46.320 --> 00:20:51.040 comes from expecting too much, doesn't it? So we can never say God doesn't care. 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:57.779 And we can never expect perfection now. However, there is one thing we can always have. 00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:04.359 And that is hope. We can always have hope because Jesus is crowned with glory and honour. 00:21:04.879 --> 00:21:10.159 One day everything will be subjected to. He's sitting on the throne of the universe. 00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:15.279 Because he's tasted death for us, we can have life. We can have hope. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:23.240 And that hope is not merely wishful thinking. That hope is based on historic acts and what 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:30.200 God has done in history. Neither is this hope just a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's not Buddhist 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:36.519 nirvana of just blending into the one and having nothingness. It's a solid, physical hope. 00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:41.960 It is a new world. A recreated world. Restored in all its glory. 00:21:43.859 --> 00:21:47.379 A world that will be no more death because Jesus has tasted death for us. 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:52.900 There's one thing we cannot say that God doesn't care. There's one thing we can never expect. 00:21:53.160 --> 00:21:57.759 Perfection now. There's one thing we can have. And that is real and solid hope. 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:05.480 But finally, fourth education. There's one choice we need to make. We need to choose whether to embrace 00:22:05.480 --> 00:22:13.359 this rescue or to turn away from it. The original readers of this letter were in danger of turning 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:19.240 away from it. It seemed so hard to follow it. It seemed so unnecessary when your other religious 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:26.379 beliefs surround it. It seemed so real because there was lots of stuff to see and feel and touch 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:35.080 with it. But the writer said, no. This is the one hope. This is the one hope. This is the one chance 00:22:35.080 --> 00:22:42.140 of restoration for our world. And the restoration for us, for our true humanity. No other religion or 00:22:42.140 --> 00:22:49.200 philosophy deals with a fundamental problem of our value against God. No other worldview shows us that God cares. 00:22:50.040 --> 00:22:56.120 The writer said, hold on to this great salvation. Hold on to this Jesus. Because no one else 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:03.219 can do for you what he has done. So here's the choice. Embrace this rescue or walk away from it. 00:23:04.059 --> 00:23:05.979 And what I want you to do in 2016. 00:23:05.979 --> 00:23:06.959 Thank you.