Well, please have a seat.
Please grab your Bibles or turn them on and scroll to Hebrews chapter 2.
Just before we dig in, why don't I pray for us and then we'll get to work.
Let's pray.
Father God, thank you that so much of our service has been on the truth that you came.
And Father, our prayer now is that you would come and meet us in your word.
Father, you would come and speak to us.
Father, that we would leave here loving your son more, cherishing him deeper.
And Father, being more conformed to his likeness as we've already been praying.
So Father, help us concentrate.
Fathers, help us discern your voice in the midst of the great cacophony of noises that crowded on our lives.
Father, do your work to your glory, we pray.
In the name of your son.
Amen.
Well, this is the second installment in our series in Hebrews, Out of the Shadows.
This morning we're in Hebrews 2, looking at Jesus, our unashamed brother.
And the book of Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians.
And the writer writes the book because these believers are tempted to turn away from Jesus and to crawl back to the safety and security and familiarity of Judaism.
And the book is a letter-ish, but it's more of a sermon.
And in the sermon he is telling them, stick in with Jesus.
He's saying, stick in with Jesus and don't turn back to the shadowlands of the now defunct Old Testament Jewish faith.
And in chapter 1 last week, Graham was telling us that Jesus was fully God.
He is 100% God.
He is the one as superior to the angels as the name that he's been given is superior to theirs.
He's written explicitly that Jesus the Son is God's full and final word to humanity.
He's written that Jesus is God's final fulfilled and finished work for us.
That Jesus is God's glory revealed and his character disclosed.
He is God's agent of creation and the sustainer of creation.
He is the one infinitely superior to angels and given the name superior to every name.
In chapter 1 he is laying out unequivocally his case that Jesus is 100% God.
In the rest of chapter 1 he gives us seven Old Testament quotes to highlight all that God has said to, through, in and about his Son.
Which brings us to Hebrews chapter 2.
If Hebrews chapter 1 is all about Jesus being 100% God, then Hebrews chapter 2 is all about Jesus being 100% man.
100% man.
I don't know about you, but as I get older, I'm amazed how small things are becoming other than myself.
I seem to be swelling as time goes by.
But if you think of the first mobile phone and how enormous that was, and now you get a phone that's just one and a half inches big.
Or you think of the computer.
I don't know how many of you were at school when computers came in, but they took up almost whole wings of the school.
There was a room.
Computers, tough.
Huge things.
And now you can get this little thing that plugs into your HD television and turns it into a fully functioning PC.
Way more, infinitely more powerful than the one that used to take up a room.
Or the television.
Used to be huge.
There used to be three of you to carry it, and you still wanted more.
And now you get something that's so wafer thin and small that's curved and in 4K.
If Santa was good to you.
Or the car.
That now is shrunk down to that kind of size.
Or the library that now fits on that.
It's amazing how you can shrink massive things to become tiny things.
And that's true.
The miraculous miniaturization that took place 2,000 years ago is unbelievable.
That when a young peasant girl a long way from home amidst the squalor and stench of a stable,
grasping the hand of her betrothed gives birth to God.
That is miraculous miniaturization.
The big message of Hebrews concerns this mind-bending doctrine that God would shrink himself and take on human flesh.
That is the video at the beginning said that the God of all would come as a baby.
Just look at our passage.
Look at verse 9 in Hebrews chapter 2.
But we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while.
Lower than the angels he became man.
Look at verse 11.
Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.
That is, they are human.
That Jesus became human.
Look at verse 14.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too, that is, Jesus, shared in their humanity.
Verse 17.
For this reason, he, Jesus, had to be made like them, fully human in every way.
The unfathomable truth that Hebrews 2 is looking at is the incarnation,
where the infinite becomes finite, creator becomes creature,
the sustainer of all things is sustained by others.
The all-powerful becomes weak.
The sovereign God becomes dependent on others.
The one without being is born.
Spirit becomes matter.
Boundlessness takes on flesh.
The indescribable becomes 65% oxygen, 19% carbon, 9% nitrogen, 9% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 2% calcium, 1% phosphorus,
with a sprinkling of potassium, 2% sodium, 2% sodium, 2% sodium, 2% magnesium, thrown in for seasoning.
Hebrews 2, the big thing, Jesus becomes man.
Jesus becomes man.
It's a potentially embarrassing truth, isn't it?
That when you take your friends to the nativity service and you say,
well, that inanimate object, that doll in the manger, that's God.
That's what I believed to be God when God came.
To focus on Jesus and his teaching and his humanitarian work,
rather than the fact that he's God is a little bit more comfortable.
To say that Jesus is a good man, a great teacher, a revolutionary leader, a proper prophet,
is all very fine in our world, but to say he's God,
that God entered human history, that's potentially embarrassing.
And it seemed to be potentially embarrassing for the first readers of Hebrews.
They've given up all the pomp and circumstance of the temple
and now they worship God who became man,
who died on a blood-spluttered cross.
It's potentially embarrassing, isn't it, to say that God came,
that all of God was contained in this person, Jesus Christ.
So easy to think this is a pipe dream, a fairy tale you want to file alongside the tooth fairy,
the Easter bunny and the Scottish qualification for a major football championships.
Yet the writer to the Hebrews lovingly, pastorally and compellingly shows the readers and us
that the incarnation is beautiful,
that it is necessary, it is miraculous,
and it is unescapably central to everything we believe.
Far from ridiculous, it is glorious.
The writer to the Hebrews, as we read Hebrews 2,
it sounds complicated, but I want to give you four simple things,
hopefully, that it means.
You can tell me at the door afterwards if I've managed.
Why did Jesus became man?
Here's the first thing.
Jesus became man to announce salvation.
Read with me, one to four.
We must pay the most careful attention,
therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away.
For since the message spoken through angels was binding,
and every violation and disobedience received is just punishment,
how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?
This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord,
was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles,
and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Did you read it?
First announced by the Lord.
This message of salvation first announced by the Lord.
After 400 years of salvation,
Jesus says salvation has come.
The King has come.
The kingdom is here.
And the message that Jesus announces,
the message of salvation,
is being contrasted with the message communicated by angels,
which is almost certainly to say the Old Covenant,
the Old Testament law.
The message that came through angels to Moses,
Old Testament covenants,
is being compared with all that now comes in and through,
spoken and delivered by Jesus.
So in Deuteronomy 33 verse 2,
the Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seah upon us.
He shone forth from Mount Parah.
He came from the 10,000s of holy ones,
angels with flaming fire at his right hand.
Or in Acts 7,
This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,
God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
This is the one who was,
this is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness
with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai.
And with our fathers,
he received living oracles to give us.
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
And they killed those who announced beforehand
the coming of the righteous one,
whom you have now betrayed and murdered.
You who received the law as delivered by angels
and did not keep it.
Paul writes something very similar in Galatians 3.
Do you see that he's saying,
you got this message from angels,
this Old Testament law.
This Old Testament delivered to you,
announced to you by God through angels.
And he's saying,
if you didn't obey that message,
you were in real trouble.
There was punishment for every violation and disobedience.
If you disobeyed that,
how will you escape if you turn away from this message?
This message that Jesus comes as a fulfillment of all of that message.
This message announced by Jesus,
confirmed by eyewitnesses,
testified by God through signs and wonders,
affirmed by gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Why would you go back to that message,
which was just the national anthem before the kickoff
that's now been announced by Jesus?
If you leave this message,
you leave everything.
Because that was simply pointing forward to Jesus Christ.
If you were punished for ignoring the old message,
then it's not going to go well
if you ignore this new message given by Jesus.
And so there's this explicit warning.
How shall we escape
if we neglect such a great salvation?
And the answer is we won't.
We absolutely won't.
And so what does he say to them in verse 1?
Don't drift away.
We must pay the most careful attention,
therefore, to what we have heard
so that we do not drift away.
So we don't get lost.
If we start ignoring this,
if we start minimizing what Jesus has said to us,
we drift away into nothingness and lostness.
The writer is worried that his readers
are not tied up tightly to Jesus Christ
and they're going to drift away.
They're going to drift back to Judaism
and they're going to lose everything.
He's saying don't drift away.
Tie up tightly to the message of salvation.
Pay the most careful attention
to what God has told you
in his son, Jesus Christ,
or you'll suffer eternal loss.
The most careful attention.
Unless you keep the main thing,
the main thing,
you'll just drift away
into nonsense and nothingness.
The writer to the Hebrews
is worried that some of his readers
are in the haven of the church
but they're not more to Jesus Christ.
So when the storm comes
and it's coming,
they'll just float away.
Maybe that's true of some people
here this morning.
We love church.
We've got some friends here.
The coffee's reasonable.
The tray bakes are awesome.
We quite enjoy the singing.
But the Jesus stuff,
we could take or leave.
And the writer to the Hebrews says,
if you leave the message of Jesus,
you leave it all.
That is the very center of everything
that this place is here for.
Saying this message is of eternal worth.
And paying close attention to that
is the only way
not to drift away into lostness
and nothingness.
Jesus became a man
to announce salvation
and it's implicit
that we listen to him.
It's the most important thing
that we hear and respond to
and keep responding to
unless we drift away.
No, Jesus.
Only punishment, he's saying.
Second thing he says,
and the rest of the chapter
is really just fleshing out
that truth
that Jesus became man
to bring us to glory.
Verse 5.
It is not to angels
that he has subjected the world to come
about which we are speaking.
But there is a place
where someone has testified,
what is mankind
that you are mindful of them,
a son of man
that you came for him.
You made them
a little lower than the angels.
You crowned them
with glory and honor
and put everything
under their feet.
In putting everything under them,
God left nothing
that is not subject to them.
Yet at present,
we do not see everything
subject to them,
but we do see Jesus.
He was made lower
than the angels
for a little while,
who now crowned
with glory and honor
because he suffered death
so that by the grace of God
he might taste death
for everyone.
In bringing many sons
and daughters to glory,
it was fitting that God,
for whom and through whom
everything exists,
should make the pioneer
of their salvation perfect
through what he suffered.
He now quotes Psalm 8
and in Psalm 8,
God looks at the magnificence
of creation.
He's humbled by it
and he says,
well, why do you care
about human beings?
If you've done all this stuff,
why am I significant?
Why am I important?
Why would God be so gracious
and promise humanity
glory and honor
when he's obviously
so powerful
and so magnificent?
And so in Psalm 8,
there's this promise
that mankind will be crowned
with glory and honor
and everything
will be under mankind's authority.
That's a great promise,
but it seems that something
has gone severely wrong.
That it doesn't feel like
we have authority
over really anything
in our world.
We have natural disasters,
we have wars,
we have terrorism,
corruption,
domestic abuse,
child poverty.
Despite all the efforts,
it doesn't seem we can
find a total cure to cancer
across the board.
That this glory and honor
and this authority
that we're promised
doesn't seem to play out
in real life.
So what's happened?
Well, we've happened.
Our sinfulness
has spoiled the plan.
That we are all created
for God's glory,
to enjoy God's glory.
That is the trajectory
we're on.
But we turned away
and we prefer to
worship ourselves.
We wanted glory
for ourselves.
We turned inward
on ourselves.
We forsook
God's glory
and sinned against him.
So now we don't see
everything subject
to mankind.
We see a world
that's in real trouble
and seemingly spiraling
out of control.
But the beautiful thing
it says here,
yet at present
we do not see
everything subject
to them,
but we do see Jesus.
Jesus came
to bring us
to glory.
We now can't
get there ourselves,
so Jesus comes
to bring us
and restore us
to the glory
for which we were
created for.
we lost
paradise,
but Jesus
regained it
for us.
That he
was made
a little lower
than the angels
for a little while.
That he
maintained the
trajectory
towards God's
glory.
And therefore
hope is restored.
Hope is restored.
He suffered
our death
for forsaking
God's glory.
glory.
So we can
have the life
that he won
for us.
Hope is restored.
Glory once again
can be ours
in Jesus.
He brings us
to glory,
verse 10.
In bringing
many sons and
daughters to glory,
people who will
trust him,
that he's
accomplished
what we
have failed
to do.
It was fitting
that God,
for whom
and through whom
everything existed,
should make
the pioneer
of their salvation,
the one who
wins for us
perfect through
what he suffered.
He becomes
perfectly
qualified
to be our
saviour because
he suffered
for us.
He took
what we
deserved.
One who
has absolute
authority over
everything,
even now.
And in the
future it will
be utterly
revealed,
as so to
everyone.
And so the
writer to the
Hebrews is saying,
give up on
Jesus,
you give up
on any
hope of
glory.
Jesus is
the one who
brings you
to glory,
and if you
turn your
back from
him,
no,
you won't
be bought
because you
can't get
there yourselves.
Jesus became
man to bring
you,
to bring me
to glory
through faith
in him.
The one who
got there
when we
couldn't.
So hope
is restored.
Jesus became
man to
bring us
to glory.
Number three,
verses 11 to
16.
both the
one who
makes people
holy and
those who
are made
holy are
of the
same family.
So Jesus
is not ashamed
to call them
brothers and
sisters.
He says,
I will declare
your name to
my brothers
and sisters.
In the
assembly I
will sing
your praises.
And again,
I will put
my trust in
him.
And again,
he says,
here am I
and the
children God
has given
me.
Since the
children have
flesh and
blood,
he too
shed in
their humanity
so that
by his
death he
might break
the power
of him
who holds
the power
of death,
that is the
devil,
and free
those who
all their
lives was
held in
slavery by
their fear
of death.
For surely
it is not
angels he
helps,
but Abraham's
descendants.
Point three,
Jesus became
man to
free us
from the
power of
the devil
and our
fear of
death.
Death is the
great taboo
in our
world.
We'll talk
about anything
but no one
wants to
talk about
death.
80% of
all American
health insurance
is paid out
to people in
the last year
of their
lives.
That it
seems that
when death
comes we'll
pull out all
the stops
and throw
all the
money we
can at it
because we
don't want
to die.
As Woody Allen
famously said,
I'm not afraid
to die, I
just don't want
to be there
when it
happens.
That's true
for all of
us, I
dare say.
Death is the
great taboo
of our
world.
Death is
one each
and yet
the fear
of death,
the fear
of our
day coming
terrifies us.
The world
is terrified
of death.
And then
these verses
give us the
perfect antidote
to the
power of
death and
the fear
of death.
Jesus,
who's not
ashamed to
call us
his brothers
because he
loves us.
Then
quotes Psalm
22 in
Isaiah 8
to make
the point
that he
became like
us.
Before
verse 14
applying the
significance,
he became
human so
that by his
death he
might destroy
death and
the power of
the devil who
holds the
power of
death.
He breaks
us out.
He frees
us.
Jesus died
our death
for us,
meaning that
we through
faith in
him need
not fear
death and
need not
eternally
die.
No one
else has
got an
antidote to
death except
Jesus.
Jesus
shared our
flesh and
blood so
that by his
death, death
might forever
be defeated
and death's
puppet master
the devil might
be ultimately
disarmed.
death.
He declares
by his
death that
death is
dead and
the power of
the devil is
destroyed.
Picture it
like this.
You're in the
school playground
and every day
of your life
two bullies
make your life
an absolute
nightmare.
One's called
the devil and
the other's
called death.
Every day you
go and they
ruin your life
and they leave
you cowering in
fear.
You go home
in tears
every day but
the bullying
never stops.
And one
day the
terror campaign
ends and how
does the terror
campaign end?
Because our
big brother
Jesus comes
into the
playground for
us and
gives death
and the devil
such a beating
that they
cannot touch
us anymore
because now
our death
has been
died for
us and
the one who
holds the
power of the
fear of death
has been
destroyed
forever.
We sold
ourselves
we subjected
ourselves to
this bullying
through our
sin and yet
Jesus comes
and he
destroys the
power of
death
the fear
of death
and the devil
who stands
orchestrating it
all.
Jesus became
man to die
so that by
his death
death might be
destroyed.
No one else
has got that.
death.
So the
writer to
the Hebrews
is saying
you forsake
Jesus you
subject yourselves
again to
death and
you return to
the fear that
you need and
have through
Jesus.
Only hope of
escaping death
is trusting that
Jesus died for
us.
No Jesus
only death.
Lastly
Jesus became
man to atone
for sin and
help us to be
holy.
Look at
verse 17.
For this
reason he
had to be
made like
them fully
human in
every way in
order that he
might become a
merciful and
faithful high
priest in the
service of
God and that
he might make
atonement for
the sins of
the people.
Because he
himself suffered
when he was
tempted he is
able to help
those who
are tempted.
Jesus became
man to atone
for sin and
help us be
holy.
The significance
of the high
priest is that
he is the one
who stands for
the people
before God.
He is the
intermediary.
He is the
go-between.
There's going
to be way
more detail
about this in
this letter.
But in the
Old Testament
it's always
unsatisfactory
because the
place of the
high priest is
a human.
And a human
standing before
God on behalf
of humans will
always be
unsatisfactory to
bring the two
together because
he's so biased
and fallen on
the side of
humanity.
But then we
get Jesus who
is a better
go-between.
Why?
Because he is
fully God and
fully human.
So he is the
perfect bridge in
that gap.
And therefore
he's able to
make atonement.
That word
atonement is
literally at
onement.
He is able to
bring two things
separated by sin
back together as
one.
By removing sin,
by paying the
ultimate sacrifice
for sin,
by crawling onto
the altar
himself.
Therefore,
he's able to
be merciful to
sinners whilst
also being
faithful to
God.
He is the
perfect high
priest.
So in Jesus
and only in
Jesus,
God and you
can be brought
back together.
You can be at
one where your
sin has utterly
formed a
barrier.
He deals
with our
sin,
but see that
it's not just
something that
he's done for
us.
It's something
that he
continually does
for us.
Verse 18,
because he
himself suffered
when he was
tempted,
he is able to
help those who
were being
tempted.
Because Jesus
became human,
he knows all
about temptation.
He knows more
about it than
any of us
because he was
the one who
never gave
into it.
And therefore
he's able to
help us,
he's able to
strengthen us,
he's able to
give grace to
us,
he's able to
teach us how
to resist when
we're so readily
and often
tempted.
And so I
don't know what
your New Year's
resolutions were,
dare say they're
in the bin
already.
But there are
some sins,
aren't there,
that we just
commit habitually.
We're going to
stop gossiping,
we're going to
stop using our
internet badly,
we're going to
stop being so
aggressive when we
drive.
we're going to
stop worshipping
money,
we're going to
stop twisting
and being
economical with
the truth.
I don't know
what it was.
But the truth
here is,
Jesus is able
to help us.
We're conscious
of these sins
year after year
after year and
we're never able
to break them.
But this says
Jesus is ready
and willing
and able to
help us.
So next time
you're going into
a situation where
you're tempted
to speak badly
of others in
order to make
yourself feel
better.
When you're
tempted to
gossip and
just relay
truth from the
grapevine
to diminish
others.
What about
praying?
Jesus, thank
you that you
always use your
words well.
Thank you that
you only told
the truth to
people, about
people, for
people, that you
only ever built
people up.
thank you that
now you're
using your
words really
well to pray
for me before
the Father.
And I'm going
into this
situation today
where I'm
tempted.
Where I'm
going to be
tempted to
speak badly
and just
join in
with everyone
else in the
banter.
Jesus, would
you give me
grace and
help so that
when I'm
tempted to do
that I might
be able to
withstand it as
you were able
to withstand it?
What if we
actually believe
that Jesus was
there to help
us?
As one who
knows what it
is to be
tempted,
withstood it
all, and
now stands
there ready to
help us when
we're tempted
to turn away.
You know, it's
a great truth
that Jesus
became man for
us.
No other
religion, no
other God has
got something
like this going
on.
A God who
is so
magnificent and
majestic.
He made
himself small,
crumpled
himself,
into human
history so
that we
might have
hope.
Jesus
becomes man
to give us
the absolute
essential and
only message of
salvation that
we must hear
and not drift
away from.
Jesus became
man to bring us
to glory because
we've fallen
short and are
utterly lost,
and yet he
brings us
through faith
in him.
Jesus became
man to free us
from death
and the power
of the devil.
No one else
is promising
that.
Jesus became
man to atone
for our sins
and be our
constant helper
in our pursuit
of holiness.
holiness.
And so he
writes,
love Jesus,
tie up tightly
to Jesus,
or else you'll
suffer loss
for everything.
Give up Jesus,
you give up
every hope,
every joy,
and every
comfort.
It's a wonderful
chapter,
one that exalts
Jesus to us,
one that's been a
joy to study this
week and highlighting
my absolute need
to stick in
and keep on
with Jesus
Christ.
Let me pray
and then we're
done.
Father God,
thank you that
Jesus became
man.
Thank you that
he gave up the
boundless glory of
heaven for us.
That he won
where we failed.
That he succeeded
where we gave up.
That he
persevered when
we tapped out.
Father,
thank you that
he is so
gracious to us.
He's so
understanding of
us.
He is the one
able to save
completely those
who come to
him in faith.
So Lord,
I pray for those
that do not
know Jesus.
Father,
may they trust
him as one
who knows
everything about
them and wants
to help and
to love forever.
Father,
I pray for those
who are tempted
to drift away.
Father,
I pray that
we might tie
up tightly
to Jesus
Christ and
know his
help and
comfort forever.
And Father,
I want to pray
for those that
are sticking in
with Jesus.
Father,
may we love
him more,
serve him
better and be
conformed to
his likeness.
More and more
we pray.
Father,
thank you so
much for Jesus
in whose name
we pray.
Amen.
that
and
we savior
so
as
we
do
have