Jesus Recovered Our Lost Unity Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: June 11, 2008

Date Preached: June 15, 2008

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: A Journey Thru Hebrews

Sermon Title: Jesus Recovered Our Lost Unity!

Sermon Text: Hebrews 2:10-13

10 For it was fitting, in bringing many sons to glory, that He, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing hymns to You in the congregation. 13 Again, I will trust in Him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me.

(HCSB)

Introduction:

What is man? Who are we? Why were we created? What is our destiny as created beings of God?

Philosophers have argued for centuries over the question…“What is our destiny?” Now as a Christian who reads and believes God’s Word, I know what our destiny is… I know why we were created… I know who we are… and I can answer those questions!

But in our world today, we have people attempting to redefine humanity and purpose of the human being, and the main thrust behind these people is that they want to leave God out of the picture!

A human secularist would tell you that humanity is nothing more than an evolved species of lifeform that was fortunate enough to survive the evolutionary process…in fact here is a quote from the latest Humanist Manifesto about humanity.

Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change…Life’s fulfillment [or our purpose or destiny] emerges from individual participation in the service of humane [human founded and human conceived] ideals.

We aim for our fullest possible development and animate our lives with a deep sense of purpose, finding wonder and awe in the joys and beauties of human existence, its challenges and tragedies, and even in the inevitability and finality of death.

Humanists rely on the rich heritage of human culture and the life stance of Humanism to provide comfort in times of want and encouragement in times of plenty

There are those on the fringe that believe humanity is the scourge of our planet and because of humanity, we have all the problems we have… problems like disease, famine, pestilence, global warming… every malady known is tied to humanity and how we are the problem!

For the Christian, we believe it is our destiny is to follow the will of God. For the pagan it is humanity’s destiny is to seek as much pleasure as one can find. And still there are others who reject the entire idea of humanity having any real purpose or destiny! The believe that we are merely random animals who have evolved at a higher rate than the other animals!

The believer has to ask himself or herself the question, “Does God’s Word say about anything about this question?” Yes it does, in fact the Bible is filled with statements and writings about humanity and our destiny. When we go back to the very beginning in Genesis 1 we can see that God sets forth a purpose for humanity when He creates them!

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

From that beginning we can see that God created humanity to first commune with Him and rule over the earth. But let’s also look at what the writer of Hebrews tells us in Heb 2:6-8…

6 For in one place the Scriptures say, “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him? 7 Yet you made them only a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. 8 You gave them authority over all things.” Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority.

Here the writer of Hebrews confirming his understanding of the Creation story and what God was saying! The writer of Hebrews understood that humanity was the apex of God’s creation and that we had been created by God for great and mighty things! However, the writer acknowledges that we have not achieved these things as of yet! So what he is trying to say in this passage is that WE [humanity] have not become what God created us to become! Well, we see that we were created with a destiny, let’s clarify what it is!