Hebrews
Christianity – A Superior Way of Life
Because of Who Jesus Is
Part 2
Hebrews 2:5-18
Because Jesus is God…
…His Actions are Valuing to us (Hebrews 2:5-9)
He Values us by Honoring us with His Authority
(Hebrews 2:5-8)
He Values us by Humbling Himself to Our Image
(Hebrews 2:9a, 14a)
Because Jesus is Man…
…He can Relate to us through his suffering
(Hebrews 2:9-13, 18)
Jesus suffered Death
Jesus suffered Temptation
Because Jesus is Man…
…He can Redeem us through his sacrifice
Hebrews 2:14-17
Slide
Intro
We are continuing this week our study in the letter to the Hebrews.
Last week we began talking about why we should listen to Jesus.
Slide
We have seen so far that
because of who Jesus is,
because Jesus is God that
His message is vital to us and to our eternal life and
if we ignore his message, it will have consequences for us.
God wanted to make sure we listened by
sending His best messenger,
confirming it through other people that were known and authenticating it with miracles.
Now, If you are like me, more intellectual and less emotional, then those things are reason enough to convince me that I need to take this message to heart.
But, unfortunately, not everyone is like me. Or maybe that is fortunate!
But regardless, God knows how He has created people with different ways of thinking and receiving things and does not just give intellectual reasons why we should listen to Him.
Emotional Reasons
He also gives us some emotional reasons why we should listen to His Message to us.
I want you to think for a moment about people who have taken actions in their life to support you, to help you, to see the best for you.
We tend to know by their actions that they
care about us and
want the best for us.
We actually feel that they love us. Sometimes the actions of another person doing something for us can even bring another person to cry tears of joy because how they are touched in their emotions.
We sometimes devalue emotions
There are times that Christians devalue emotions.
And while it is true that we cannot just rely on our emotions to make decisions, our emotions matter because God has created us with emotions.
Therefore there are emotional as well as intellectual reasons that it is important for us to listen to God’s message to us, because His message is important to our entire person.
There are times in our life when we take a step back and look at some of the things we do
And can’t believe that we have done such a thing
And we hate the thing we do,
and it affects us in our emotions
We feel like we can’t do anything right
We feel like total failures.
We feel worthless.
Well, the author of Hebrews helps us understand that even though there are times that we feel worthless, we are valuable to God.
And it is because of Who Jesus is
Because Jesus is God, that
His Actions are Valuing to us
Slide
How are his actions valuing to us?
Well turn with me to
Hebrews 2:5-8
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
"What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor
8 and put everything under his feet."
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.
We see a couple of ways God values us after creating us. First
He Values us by Honoring Us with His Authority
Slide
The author of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 8:4-6.
I want to read that whole Psalm to you so you can get the context of what the Psalmist is talking about and what the author of Hebrews is trying to show us.
Psalms 8
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
In context, we see this Psalm is talking about the awesomeness of God and how he has cared for man and exalted him to a place that honors us with His authority upon the earth.
It is referring back to Genesis 1 when God gave mankind dominion over the earth.
Genesis 1:28
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
(from New International Version)
God honors us by
creating us in His image and
giving us His authority to rule upon the earth.
And even though we have been made a little lower than the angels, God gave us authority upon the earth the Angels did not have, and beyond that He has reserved for us authority in the world to come.
Revelation 20:6
6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
Even though there are times that we feel worthless, and like failures, God values us and shows us that in his actions.
As we see that, this should be another reason that we listen to the message God has for us. He thinks we are valuable and we should realize that because of that, He tells us the things we need to know and do for our benefit.
Why don’t we see it now
Well, Scott, if He has given us this authority, how come it doesn’t seen that way. Even the author of Hebrews acknowledges that by saying,
“Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.”
Why do Some Animals attack us
Why do Some plants are poisonous
It is because of sin that creation is not subject to us.
So even though God has valued us by honoring us with His authority, we lost that authority through our sin.
But God did not say well too bad for you, you lost that authority by your own actions.
Instead He sought to restore the authority we lost by showing us how truly
He Values us by Humbling Himself to Our Image
Slide
Hebrews 2:9
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.
In Chapter 1, the author has already told us that the Son of God is by far better than angels.
Now, we see that the Son of God, so much better than angels, has humbled Himself by putting on flesh, taking a form lower than the angels, to show us how truly valuable we are to Him.
For these past 2 weeks, up to this point, we have been seeing that we should listen to Jesus, because as God
His Message is Vital to us and
His Actions are Valuing to us.
But this last action, Being God and becoming man, shows just how much He really does care for us and why we should listen to Him because He spares no effort in seeking to communicate to us.
It is Because Jesus is Man that
He can Relate to us through His Suffering
Slide
Hebrews 2:9-13, 18
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.
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. 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. 12 He says,
"I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises."
13 And again,
"I will put my trust in him."
And again he says,
"Here am I, and the children God has given me."
And verse 18 says,
18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
We see a couple of ways that Jesus suffered and is able to relate to us so that we can know not only in our heads but in our hearts and emotions as well, that He cares about us and wants the best for us.
We see this in how
Jesus suffered Death
Slide
Hebrews 2:9
God loves us so much that He not only gave us the message of life but He gave His Son over to suffer death
so that we could have our sins paid for
so we could have the authority and the glory we lost when man sinned, restored to us.
He suffered death to do that for us.
He wants the very best for us and is willing to suffer death for us.
This should help us emotionally to hear and believe his message because He is not some “god” that does not care about us, but cares so much in fact that He is willing to experience the things we experience to relate to us in our times of distress.
Advice from the ivory tower
How often have we received advice from someone where we think to ourselves, “Easy for you to say, you’re not in my shoes.”
Well, Jesus walked in your shoes and tasted death for you so that He knows what He is talking about when He tells us how to live so we can live the Superior Life.
And Jesus is not here to sugar coat it.
Oh, the Christian life is easy.
Become a Christian and you will be rich in money and healthy physically.
No, He tells us that the Christian life is going to be hard sometimes.
John 16:33
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Take heart. Even though it will be hard sometimes, you will live the Superior life overall and you will live it forever.
Jesus tasted death and overcame so now you can overcome as well.
But Jesus not only suffered death
Jesus suffered Temptation
Slide
Hebrews 2:18
18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
And because He suffered temptation, He knows how to help you and wants to help you.
I want you to think about this a minute.
Jesus has suffered temptation beyond anything you have ever suffered.
Each one of us here have given into temptation.
When you have given into temptation, the pressure of temptation subsides for a time.
Imagine never giving into temptation. How temptation would build over time.
Jesus felt the full effects of temptation because it never subsided because He never gave in to temptation.
So He knows what you are going through and wants to help you be strong and find a way out.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Jesus knows what it is like to suffer in the face of temptation and stand up under it and He knows how to provide you with that ability to stand up under it. He can relate to us in our suffering.
And because He knows what it is like and can relate to us, we should listen to what He has to say because He does know what He is talking about.
Well, there is one final reason that because of Jesus’ humanity that we should listen.
Because Jesus is Man,
He can Redeem us through His Sacrifice
Slide
Hebrews 2:14-17
14 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- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
By Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself, He was able to make atonement for our sins.
He had to become a Man so as to live perfectly as a man to be able to be an acceptable sacrifice to make atonement for men.
It is because Jesus was willing to suffer temptation and death just so He could
relate to us and
redeem us, and
restore what we lost.
Is this the type of Person who would sacrifice and suffer so much and not want the very best for us?
We need to listen to His message.
He has gone to the extreme for us to
hear Him
believe Him
receive Him
Conclusion
Will you do that today?
Will you hear His message of salvation?
Will you hear his message of Living?
Living life now
Living life eternal
John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (from New International Version)
Will you follow it and apply it so you can truly live the superior life?
I am going to pray.
For the Christians here
For those of you who are sitting hear today who are Christians but really haven’t been following what the Lord would have you do, I hope you realize today just how truly valuable you are to the Lord and that He does want the very best for you.
Knowing that and feeling that through His actions for you, I want to pray that you are strengthened to follow His message to you.
Jesus wants the Superior Life for you.
He tells us how to live it.
Are you ready to follow what He says because He is God and He showed His love and care
by honoring us with His authority
by humbling Himself to our image
so he could relate to us in our suffering and
redeem us by His sacrifice.
Do we have an awesome God or what?
Pray for strength to follow Him.
For those not yet Christians
And for you here who are not Christians, who have never personally received Jesus as Savior,
I hope that you can see that Jesus really is God and that He has shown His deity and His incredible love for you through His actions.
His action in creating you, honoring you and ultimately by humbling himself to human form, to redeem you.
Won’t you make that first step today and receive Him, the only way of salvation.
This is a message that you should not ignore or forget.
Receive Him now as we pray.
Pray
