Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Wed. Night March 18th 2009

Hebrews 2:8-18

Introduction

Things are not always what they seem to be. You watch the previews on your TV set of a new movie showing at the theatre and you think to yourself that’s got to be one that you have to go see. You go see it and it turns out to be a real dud. In this case, the previews were deceiving; the previews didn’t give you a real picture of what the movie was going to be like.

You go to the bookstore and as you walking through the store there’s a book that catches your eye. It may be the title of the book that gets your attention; or may it is the subtitle that gets your attention. (You know the short description that is suppose to describe what the book is all about.) Well, anyway you pick it up thinking it will be a good read and when you get it home and start reading you quickly discover it is nothing like you thought it would be. It turns out that you can not judge the book by its cover.

I give you those two examples because life has many of those types of situations where appearances can be deceiving. And tonight, in our passage of Scripture, the writer of Hebrews is going to tell us that in our Christian life things are not always the way they appear on the surface- that appearances can be deceiving.

Read Scripture: Hebrews 2:8-18

I. I should be filled with such hope as a Christian because although this world sometimes beats me up, one day I am going to rule with Jesus over this world.

Hebrews 2:8-9 “In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

Appearances can be deceiving. It doesn’t seem like I rule over anything. It seems that this world controls me. It seems like I am always in a position of reacting to what this world has thrown at me this time to deal with. If it is not sickness, then it is finances; if is not finances then it is broken relationships. It is always seems that there is something thrown at me to have to deal with.

And you know what my attitude should be as a Christian as I deal with what this life has thrown at me? One of great hope because one day the tide is going to turn. Everything that has held me as hostage will now be under my feet because I will be reining with the Lord.

Why the hope as a Christian? Because appearances today are deceiving. It seems like the world has the upper hand over me and you but the Scripture tells us in eternity that God put everything under our feet. We are going to have the upper hand.

Learn to deal with what life has thrown at you because in the end you are the winner!

II. Although Christians seem to be so divided today, there will be a time when we will be just all part of God’s family but until that day we got to work hard at building unity in our own church family.

Hebrews 2:10-11 “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.”

You look at Christians today and you say to yourself that there is no way that we will be united. But one day we will all stand together as brother and sisters in God’s family. The way things look today are deceiving because when we are gathered together with God we are just going to be one big family.

According to Christianity Today there are over 38,000 Christian denominations in the world right now. In other words, there are 38,000 different viewpoints about some aspect of the Bible. We have found someway to divide ourselves. It won’t be that way in eternity.

Not only does denominations separate us but so does race. Sunday’s, at 11:00 a.m. is the most segregated time in America. Blacks go to black churches and whites go to white churches with very few exceptions. But one day, the color of your skin is not going to make a difference. We will all be part of God’s family.