INTRODUCTION
If we were to go out on the streets and ask people at random, “What is your greatest need?” we would probably get a number of different responses. We wouldn’t be surprised in this economy if we got several answers of people needing a job so they could provide for their home and family. If people were honest many would say they were lonely. Their greatest need is a friend or spouse. Some might say, “Peace in my home. My husband is abusive or negligent. The kids are defiant and disrespectful. The in-laws are impossible.”
Suppose we conducted those street interviews in another country like India or Haiti. The answers would center more on raw survival. It’d be more common to hear, “I’m starving. I need food.” “I’m dying. I need a doctor and medicine.” Over and over we’d hear young and old say, “I live on the streets. I need a place of shelter.”
But it is Christmas that gives the answer to our greatest need. Don’t think I’m being uncaring or uninformed of the great needs of people in this world, but our greatest need is to receive God’s salvation and forgiveness of sin. One reason this is our greatest need is we will live far longer in eternity than the brief dash of time we experience in this world.
I know it is easy to dismiss statements like this from a well-fed, comfortable American. So I point you to K.P. Yohannan. He grew up in India and didn’t wear shoes before he was 17. In his book Revolution in World Missions, he tells about his experience of preaching the gospel all across India. He is not oblivious to India’s oppressive poverty. Yet he strongly contends against getting distracted with meeting physical needs, while ignoring the spiritual needs. He says that India has seen 150 years of schools and hospitals brought to them by British missionaries, but it has not had any noticeable effect on either their churches or society.
Yohannan says that it is one of Satan’s lies that people will not listen to the gospel unless we offer them something else first. He has sat on the streets of Bombay with beggars who are about to die. He has told them that he does not have material goods to give them, but he has come to offer them eternal life, and he has seen many respond. He says:
There is nothing wrong with charitable acts—but they are not to be confused with preaching the Gospel. Feeding programs can save a man dying from hunger. Medical aid can prolong life and fight disease. Housing projects can make this temporary life more comfortable—but only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can save a soul from a life of sin and an eternity in hell!
He makes the point that social concern is a result of the gospel. We’re tempted to put the cart before the horse. So this Christmas by all means contribute to the Salvation Army bell ringers or any other charitable organization that ministers to the needs of people. But let it be a reminder that Christmas reveals that our greatest need is to receive God’s salvation and forgiveness of sin. (Idea: Steve Cole sermon, Heb. 2:16-18)
It’s Christmas and Easter that give us hope that our greatest need has been provided. We use the word “hope” very differently than the Bible. For us “hope” can be defined as a fanciful wish or desire. We think of it as optimism. “I hope tomorrow is a better day.” “I hope the Cowboys beat the Sooners.” What is hoped for may or may not come to pass. In contrast, hope in the Bible is not a wish or desire or a positive attitude. Biblical hope is an unshakeable confidence. This confidence is based on the faithful character and promises of God—even when circumstances give us every reason to doubt.
In Psalms we are told to “hope in the Lord” 23 times. The Bible teaches that hope in the Lord will give us strength. Our culture promotes self-confidence. The Bible promotes confidence in God. It’s our confidence in Him that gives us the strength to face any challenge that comes our way.
Hope in the Lord teaches us patience. Society teaches us to solve our own problems. But when a Christian faces a hopeless situation, he looks to God to give him the strength to endure and/or the wisdom to choose the best action.
Hope in the Lord brings encouragement. Do you remember the last time you were anticipating a long weekend of recreation or vacation and it lifted your spirit? That’s what hope does for a Christian in this life as he looks forward to what God has prepared for him in eternity. Hope gives us joy and encouragement for living.
When Christmas is rightly understood we experience genuine hope. This hope is found in the one Savior, Jesus Christ. Our theme this month is “One Hope.” You know someone that is running low on hope. Invite them to join you for church. Pray for them to experience the hope that is found in Jesus Christ. I am preaching on hope. The choir is singing about hope. You and your friends need to hear the Christmas message of hope.
One reason for hope is Christmas teaches that God cares. God cares enough that His Son Jesus died so you could receive salvation and forgiveness.
To understand how much God cares for us, we need to know where we are.
I. WHERE WE ARE (HEBREWS 2:5-8)
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.
The writer implies in v. 5 that the angels have some kind of governing authority in this world, but they absolutely will not be in control in the world to come. Who will be in charge of it? The world to come refers to the age of salvation that Jesus has inaugurated but not completed. That will happen when He returns. He says the answer to who will be in charge of the world to come is found in scripture.
He quotes from Psalm 8 and he knows it is Psalm 8. He refers to the passage this way to emphasize it comes from God. The author has a high view of scripture. Whatever it says settles the issue for him.
This passage from Psalm 8, written by King David of the Old Testament, speaks of the insignificance of man. I’m sure we’ve all had David’s experience. He is looking into the starry night and he is overwhelmed with how small he is in this vast universe. Our galaxy is one of a 100 million galaxies. Though our galaxy is small compared to the others, if you travel at the speed of light, 186,000 miles/second, it would take 100,000 years to cross. The stars and planets and suns number in the billions. In the great expanse of the universe we are like a grain of sand on an endless beach.
Despite our insignificance David says that God is “mindful” of you. The word means God is concerned about you, God thinks about you. He advances the thought in the next part of the verse when he says that God “cares” for you. The word “care” describes a visit from a doctor. He not only has you on his mind, He takes the time to investigate and examine and understand all that is happening to you right now.
God did more than think about us, He made us a little lower than the heavenly beings called angels. He didn’t stop there. God put the whole universe under our submission. That’s the point of the story where Adam is naming everything. To name something in that culture was a mark of power. We repeat that scene of authority when we name our children. We don’t wait and ask them what they’d like to be called. They bear that name all their life. In fact, it says that God put “everything” under our feet. The Bible tells us that the role of angels is to serve our needs.
I have a picture of one of my daughters in her pom uniform posed beside a real live eight-foot tiger! Some of my grandkids swam with dolphins and they have a couple of horses they make jump over barriers. We dominate every animal and live in every climate and region of the earth. We make the minerals, the wind, and the sun work for us. Occasionally, the earth will shudder or blow and remind us how small we are but most every day we make the earth serve our needs.
Look at that again: supreme favor, special privileges, unique dignity, and unrivaled authority. But we lost it. Look at the exalted place God gave to Adam and Eve. The only thing they lacked was deity, and they grasped for that. This is what sin cost us. Where are we? We are without special favor, special privileges, unique dignity, and unrivaled authority.
The writer of Hebrews uses this to point us beyond man to Jesus, the God-Man. How can we possibly ever reclaim what we lost? God’s Son became one of us.
We understand that Jesus is greater than angels because He is God. That’s chapter one. But how can He be greater than the heavenly, eternal beings of angels if He is a man. Only a man can restore what we lost, and even angels exist to serve man.
One of the industries that has grown despite our struggling economy is the identity management industry. The internet has given people a false anonymity and they have disclosed thoughts and pictures that have come back to haunt them. In one survey (2006) one in ten hiring managers admitted to rejecting candidates because of things they discovered about them on the Internet. Because of wrong actions in the past, people are losing out on jobs and relationships. So identity managers surf the Internet with a person’s reputation in mind and scrub web sites of material that would harm their clients identity.
Where are we? Rejected. No hope. But the Son of God became a man to scrub us free from sin and make us acceptable before God. Why? God cares.
To understand how much God cares for us, we need to know who can help.
II. WHO CAN HELP (HEBREWS 2:9-13)
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."
“But we see Jesus” are the most hopeful words in the Bible. It explains how a disgustingly sinful slave trader like John Newton became a preacher of righteousness and the author of the most famous hymn “Amazing Grace.” Bob Coy, the pastor of the huge Calvary Chapel Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was the leader of the group Carol and I went with to Israel. Prior to his salvation he was a pimp. But Jesus can change a sex slave owner into a godly man.
Three statements are made about Jesus in v. 9. First, Jesus became a man. Second, as a man He experienced suffering and death. Third, the outcome of his suffering was to be exalted to Sovereign over the universe.
What was the purpose of Jesus’ incarnation? He explains that in v. 10. Jesus’ death was the appropriate way for the gracious God to provide salvation. What does it mean that this was “fitting”?
God loves His creation. All of creation exists for Him. He made it and sustains it. He loves with grace. Even though the object of His love doesn’t deserve His love nor could ever earn it; even though His creation deserves His judgment because of rebellion against Him, this God of mercy and justice finds a way to save and forgive His creation. The life, death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ reveal the kind of God we believe in like no other way could. This is a perfect plan of salvation and there is no other way that men could be saved.
This plan of salvation is said to make Jesus “perfect.” How can that be? We know he is not saying that Jesus was somehow imperfect. That’s a direct contradiction of the clear teaching of scripture. He was without sin.
In the O.T. when a Levitical priest was consecrated to perform his office he was described as being perfected. Literally it meant “to perfect or fill the hands.” In Exodus 29:33 it says that the priest is free to eat the offerings because he is “consecrated.” He is set aside for this service. When someone is qualified to do the job you could say their hands are full. They are capable of doing the whole job. They can do all that is necessary to perform the job. That’s what is being said about Jesus.
In eternity past without a human body Jesus could not have suffered. He could not have died. He couldn’t bear the punishment for our sins because He was not one of us. What filled his hands to bear our sins and receive our just punishment for sin on the cross and die was him adding to his deity the nature of a man.
So in v. 11 we belong to the same family. In other words, if Jesus is going to deliver us from our just punishment of sin, He had to become one of us.
One of the outcomes is Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers—v. 12. Despite the awful way we treated Jesus, He still came to save and forgive us.
Sometimes you will see brothers and sisters ashamed of one another. Maybe it is a teenage sister and she has an annoying, goofy little brother. She doesn’t want him around her friends. Maybe it is an older brother that mocks and bully’s a little brother. He tries to avoid his brother hanging around with his friends. They are ashamed of them. Maybe you have a family member of the family that’s the black sheep. They are a drunk or homosexual or a bum. They embarrass the family name.
I wonder if sometimes we think that way about the church? Have you ever been a part of a church that had some embarrassing members? We seem to collect odd balls, don’t we? We’re told how important first impressions are on prospects. We just pray that the first people they meet are not those people. The church puts up with people that no one else does. Their ways would get them fired on the job or excluded from social circles. The one that gets me is the fellow that is no more loving and kind than the day he was saved when he was a difficult young man.
But in light of this text maybe we should repent of that kind of attitude. Could it be that these folks are really our badge of honor? Despite the many faults of the church, most churches are the most welcoming and accepting group of people on the face of the earth. Besides, if Jesus is willing to call someone brother, what right do I have look down on any other person that God loves and saves?
This is followed by three proof texts. The first is Psalm 22. This is a Messianic psalm. That means it points to Christ and reveals Christ. The psalm is about a time of suffering for David but there are elements that reveal it points beyond David to David’s greater Son to come. This particular quote implies Jesus is in the congregation worshiping God along with believers as evidence of his brotherhood with them.
Then he quotes from Isaiah 8:17 and 8:18. Isaiah is told to trust God as the Assyrians come against Judah. This describes Jesus trusting and depending on God the Father during his earthly ministry. It illustrates his humanity. The third quote from Isaiah 8:18 is in a context where Isaiah is told to look to God for his sanctuary instead of Jerusalem. Again it is another sign of trust and dependence on God the Father.
When was the last time you played “Warmer or Colder” with your children or grandkids? You know the game. You take something they value, a toy or stuffed animal, and hide it in a safe place. The place is not some place they’d typically look. Then as your child begins to hunt for the toy you tell them if they are getting “warmer or colder.” Sometimes to encourage them even more you might say “red hot!”
The more you come to understand the incarnation of Jesus, the greater and warmer becomes your hope and trust in Jesus. Without the incarnation we are merely speculating about God’s love for us. It’s because of the incarnation that the author of Hebrews can even use family language to describe our relationship with God. Without the incarnation there is no salvation and forgiveness of sin. And as we will see in the next verses, there is no resurrection and hope over death. It is Christmas that reveals Who can help.
To understand how much God cares for us, we need to know who can help.
III. WHAT WE NEED (HEBREWS 2:14-18)
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. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Basically, the verses speak of two provisions. First, Jesus provides liberation from the fear of death (v. 14-15). Second, Jesus saves us from sin and provides power over temptation (v. 16-18).
Jesus shared our humanity and died to destroy the devil’s power of death. In what way did Satan have the power of death? According to Luke 12:5 only God has the power of death. The devil has the power of death in that he seduces the human race to sin. God told Adam and Eve if they sinned they would die, and they did. Why? Satan seduced them by temptation. That’s his power of death.
But Christ liberated us from the fear of death. I know that it’s a bit scary to think about dying. Will our death be painful or humiliating? Every day we advance toward its cold embrace. One day life’s sunshine will go out and this life will be forever over. No wonder we feel uneasy thinking about and talking about death.
But look what Christmas and Easter have done to our fear of death. For the Christian he knows he will face God Almighty forgiven and accepted. He knows where he will be at the moment of his death. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Though we may know pain here, we will be free of pain there. For the Christian, the happiest, greatest day of his life will occur on the day of his death! What we need for that to happen is for Someone to provide us salvation and forgiveness of sin. Well God cannot die. But He became a man and died on our behalf on the cross. Hallejuah, what a Savior!
He closes by saying Jesus didn’t die to save angels. He has mercy toward the sinner and He is faithful toward God. He is the perfect sacrifice to provide forgiveness for our sins. He can provide the power to overcome the temptations to not go on with Jesus.
CONCLUSION
Edwarda O’Bara died Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2012 at age 59. She’d spent more than four decades in a coma in her Miami Gardens home. Edwarda was a teenage high school student who wanted to be a pediatrician when in 1970 she fell ill, throwing up her diabetic medicine.
Her family rushed her to the hospital, where she slipped into a diabetic coma. Before losing consciousness, Edwarda asked her mother, Kaye O’Bara, to never leave her side. Kaye O’Bara promised, and kept her word. Her family never left her side. She was turned every two hours to keep away bedsores, given insulin and fed through a tube.
She was read to, had music played for her, and constantly had company. Her father, Joe, died in 1976. After his death, Kaye continued to care for Edwarda, always saying she was a blessing, not a burden, no matter the piling debts and difficulties.
A devout Catholic, the mother said she had felt the presence of the Virgin Mary in Edwarda’s bedroom.
Their story inspired a book by Dr. Wayne Dyer. Visitors from across the world traveled to their home to celebrate her birthday or just show up random days. Colleen O’Bara, the sister, said Edwards was “the best sister in the whole wide world. She taught me so much, and I’m talking about now, after she was in the coma. She taught me so much about unconditional love that I couldn’t say I had it before. She taught me about patience, that I didn’t have before. I learned so much from taking care of my sister. It’s like I grew up overnight.”
Colleen quit her job as a horse trainer when her mother died in 2008 to take care of her sister. “I didn’t give it a second thought. She’s my sister and I love her,” said Colleen. (Miami Herald, 11-22-12)
My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed;
I trust the Everliving One, His wounds for me shall plead.
I need no other argument, I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.
