Shiloh Bible Church
Hebrews 2:10-15
The Suffering Savior
Introduction
You’re driving down Route 11 from Berwick to Bloomsburg. You’re zipping right along, doing 55 miles an hour. As you approach Bloomsburg, you come to a posted speed limit sign of 45 miles an hour. Your lovely wife—who is sitting next to you—softly reminds you to slow down. You conveniently ignore her gentle warning. A few seconds later she reminds you that you’re traveling faster than the speed limit allows. You grit your teeth and bark out, “Who’s driving this car?!” And you continue to drive 55. Just then you look into your rearview mirror and see a Scott Township policeman with his flashing lights. You pull off the side of the road. The policeman asks for your license and registration. And then he asks you if you knew you were doing 55. You politely say, “Yes, officer I did. And I was wrong. I’m sorry. It will never happen again.” He lets you off with a warning. And you continue driving down Route 11—only this time you don’t go over 45. Now, how is it that you’ll listen to a policeman when he tells you to go 45, but you won’t listen to your wife when she tells you to go 45? Could it be because he is a greater authority who can deliver more severe consequences? And so you listen carefully to what he tells you to do.
And so it is with Jesus Christ. As great as the Old Testament prophets are with a “Thus says the Lord” message; as great as the angels are with delivering the Old Testament Law to Moses, there is someone who is an even greater authority than they are. And that Someone is Jesus Christ. So the writer of Hebrews tells us that we need to pay close attention to Jesus.
In Hebrews chapter 1, we are told who Jesus is. The writer tells us that Jesus Christ is God. In Hebrews chapter 2 we learn that God became man. Jesus Christ left heaven and came to earth, being born of the Virgin Mary. We call this the Incarnation—God humbled Himself and became a human being. Jesus grew as a man and was put to death on a cross, suffering for you and for me.
The writer of Hebrews describes it in these words in 2:9: “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.”
Jesus Christ died for you. While He was suffering on the cross, your sins were placed on Him. So He died bearing the sins of the world. The writer of Hebrews says, “he tasted death for everyone.” He died for your sins. He paid the penalty of God’s wrath for all of your wrongdoing. And He offers you a free gift of eternal life. All you must do to gain entrance into heaven when you die and to gain entrance into His future earthly kingdom is to place your trust in His death on the cross for your sins. And that’s what we mean by receiving Jesus as your Savior—trusting in Him and in Him alone to give you eternal life.
And once you do that, you become a child of God. But God doesn’t want you to stop there. Once you become His child, He wants you to grow in your relationship to Him. He wants you to become a devoted disciple and faithful follower of His Son. And that was the challenge that faced the recipients of this New Testament letter—the book of Hebrews. This struggling congregation was facing persecution for their faith in Jesus. And they were tempted to revert back to their old religion—the religion of Judaism—a religion that wasn’t facing persecution. They were seriously considering abandoning their Christianity and going back to their former Jewish religion. And so the writer of Hebrews writes to them to encourage them not to quit—not to jettison their faith in Christ. But instead to push forward and to persevere and to endure and to remain steadfast to the end.
Now, in order to motivate them to continue in their Christianity, the writer of Hebrews reminds his readers of the benefits of faithfully following Christ. And those same benefits apply to you. What was true of those 1st-century Christians is also true of you as a 21st-century Christian.
In Hebrews 2:10-15, you are told of 3 rewards that you will receive for being a devoted disciple of Jesus. The first reward is this: Jesus will …
1. LEAD YOU TO A GLORIOUS FUTURE
What future does Jesus have in store for you? Well, you’ll remember that we touched on it last Sunday morning. Look at verse 5: “It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.”
The writer of Hebrews has been talking about the subject of the world to come—the time when Jesus Christ will return to earth to set up His literal, visible, tangible kingdom on this planet for 1,000 years. And the writer tells us that God has not given angels the privilege of ruling in the world to come. Rather He has bestowed that honor on man—specifically, the faithful followers of His Son, Jesus. And now the writer of Hebrews continues that thought in verse 10: “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.”
God has a glorious future planned for the devoted disciples of His Son. God will allow them to rule and reign with Jesus in His millennial kingdom. That’s what the writer means by the phrase “bringing many sons to glory.” This is not a reference to all Christians going to heaven or to all Christians entering Christ’s earthly kingdom, but rather to all faithful followers of Jesus ruling in His future earthly kingdom.
And it is Jesus who will lead them to this glorious future. That’s what is meant by the phrase “the author of their salvation.” The word author means “pioneer or leader.” Jesus is the trailblazer—the one who leads the way. Jesus isn’t standing at the back of the line shouting out orders. He is the one who leads the way—showing believers the path to follow in order to rule in His kingdom. And that path is the pathway of obedience—obedience even in times of suffering. Turn over a page to 5:8. Notice what it says about Jesus: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”
As a man, Jesus experienced suffering. And He was completely obedient throughout all His earthly ordeals as a man. That made Him completely and uniquely qualified to die for our sins and to rule over all creation. And Jesus extends to believers the opportunity to join Him in ruling over God’s creation—the opportunity to fulfill God’s original intended purpose for mankind.
If you follow Jesus as His devoted disciple, He will lead you to a glorious future of ruling with Him in His earthly kingdom. But there is a second reward that Jesus wants to give you. And it is found in verses 11-13. And it is this: Jesus will …
2. LINK YOU IN A GENUINE FELLOWSHIP
And so we read in verse 11: “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.”
Now, when you trust in Christ as Savior, you become a child of God. But as you grow in the Lord, you develop a deeper, richer, fuller fellowship with Christ. We saw that truth repeatedly in our study of 1 John last year. It’s the same intimate, personal experience with Christ that Paul spoke about in Philippians 3:10: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”
That is the genuine fellowship that Jesus will share with you as you continue to faithfully follow Him. And the writer of Hebrews emphasizes this through the use of 3 Old Testament quotes.
The first quote is Psalm 22:22 and we read it in verse 12. Jesus tells those committed to Him, “‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.’” Jesus will openly acknowledge those who follow Him. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 10:32: “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.”
The second Old Testament quote comes from Isaiah 8:17 and it is found in verse 13: “And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’” Genuine fellowship with Jesus is not only seen in Him acknowledging us, but also in Him revealing to us His personal trust in the Father.
And then the third Old Testament quote comes from Isaiah 8:18 and is found in the middle of verse 13: “And again he says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’” Genuine fellowship is displayed in the fact that Jesus calls us His children.
These 3 Old Testament quotes describe the close, personal fellowship Jesus has with those who obey Him and follow the path of suffering that He walked.
If you follow Jesus—if you walk the path that He walked—then as His faithful follower He will lead you to a glorious future; He will link you in a genuine fellowship; and thirdly He will …
3. LIBERATE YOU FROM A GRIPPING FEAR
Look at verses 14 and 15: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
Many people fear the prospect of dying.
· Some fear the pain associated with dying. Although because of modern medicine most deaths are not that painful.
· Some fear the separation from loved ones that dying brings.
· Some fear the unknown. They don’t know what awaits them beyond the grave—perhaps punishment.
· Some fear non-existence. In philosopher Bertrand Russell’s words, “Brief and powerless is man’s life; on his and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.” How depressing!
Well, whatever fear man has of death, that is the grip that Satan uses to hold them in bondage.
In January 2004, police were shocked by what they found inside a house in the small town of Durham, Ontario, Canada. The police responded to complaints from relatives. And when they entered the ramshackle house, they discovered two teenage boys—ages 14 and 15—locked in cages. Their biological aunt had adopted the teens when they were 4 and 5 years old. For over a decade, the boys suffered abuse at the hands of their adoptive parents. Ontario officials learned that the boys did attend school during the day, but they were sent to their cages at night. On weekends and holidays, they often were allowed downstairs for a bowl of cereal in the morning, and then sent back to their cages wearing diapers, where they would spend the rest of the day. The adoptive mother was described to the court as “a domineering, controlling woman whose husband was an illiterate and dyslexic handyman, who beat the boys on her command.” It was Detective Kate Lang and Constable Tim Maw who released the boys from their makeshift cages. They told the boys that they would never be locked in those cages again. And the teens responded with one word: “Really?”
Really! They were released once and for all from their bondage. And released from their fear of bondage as well.
Satan holds men in bondage by fear of death. But Jesus died so that we might have eternal life and be released from that gripping fear of death.
Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, “The first duty of every soul is to find—not its freedom, but its Master.”
The duty of every child of God is to make Jesus Christ Master of his life. It is only then that he will experience true freedom from the fear of death.
Conclusion
There is a remarkable facility near the city of San Paulo, Brazil. Twenty years ago, the Brazilian government turned a prison over to two Christians. The institution was renamed Humaita, and the plan was to run the prison on Christian principles. With the exception of the 2 full time staff, all work is done by inmates. Families outside the prison adopt an inmate to work with during and after he serves his sentence.
Chuck Colson—the founder of Prison Fellowship—visited the prison and made this report: “When I visited Humaita, I found the inmates smiling—particularly the murderer who held the keys, opened the gates, and let me in. Wherever I walked, I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas, people working industriously. The walls were decorated with biblical sayings from Psalms and Proverbs…. My guide escorted me to the notorious prison cell once used for torture. Today, he told me, that block houses only a single inmate. As we reached the end of a long concrete corridor and he put the key in the lock, he paused and asked, ‘Are you sure you want to go in?’ ‘Of course,’ I replied impatiently. ‘I’ve been in isolation cells all over the world.’ Slowly, he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell: a cross, beautifully carved by the inmates—the prisoner Jesus, hanging on a cross. ‘He’s doing time for the rest of us,’ my guide said softly.”
Angels can’t do that for you. Your pastor can’t do that for you. The people of this church can’t do that for you. Your neighbors down the street can’t do that for you. Your friends, your relatives, people with prestige and wealth can’t do that for you. The only one who could serve your time—the only one who could take your punishment—is Jesus Christ.
And He did that so that He could …
· Lead you to a glorious future—ruling with Him in His earthly kingdom
· Link you in a genuine fellowship with Himself
· Liberate you from a gripping fear of death
Let’s pray.
