Background
In chapter one the writer of Hebrews begins by exalting the Son of God. A song is written with the word, “He is exalted, the King is exalted on high.”
This Hebrew audience, Jewish by birth but Christians by the new birth, were having difficulty letting go of their Judaism like Paul did (Philippians 3:1-10). Paul wrote in Philippians 3:7, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.” The Hebrews had a tight grip on their legacy in Abraham and Moses and the priesthood and the sacrifice. This book was written to teach them that “Christ is better; He is superior.”
He is superior to the prophets (1:1-3)
Heb 1:1-3 “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…”
He is superior to the angels (1:4-2:18)
Heb 1:4-6- “…having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"? And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"? But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him.”
He is superior to Moses (3:1-6).
Heb 3:5-6 - Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
The Hebrew Christians were to put their faith in Christ alone (3:7-4:16).
Heb 4:14-16 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
Not only was Christ’s person superior, the writer of Hebrews also taught that Christ’s priesthood was superior (5:1-10:39).
Heb 9:11-12 - But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
The only way that Christ could be superior to the prophets and the angels and Moses and the priesthood is that He had to be God. He had to be God Incarnate, which means, “God in the flesh.” He had to be Immanuel, which means, “God with us.”
Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus is “the radiance of His (God’s) glory and the exact representation of His (God’s) nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
Jesus is God! Verses 8-10 say, “But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions." And: "You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.”
Jesus Christ is God but for the purpose of accomplishing that great work of redemption, that great work of saving us from our sins, Hebrews 2:9 says that He had to be made lower, just for a little while, than the angels.
Not only did He have to be made lower than the angels, the Bible says that He had to suffer. Hebrews 2:10 says, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.”
The word "perfect" has the idea of completion. In other words, Jesus had to fully experience the suffering of humanity through complete identification with humanity. (BSB) Jesus, God the Son, had to become human in order to suffer for our sins.
In order to bring many people to glory, God had to leave heaven’s glory and come down and take upon Himself a body and suffer in this body and die in this body and be raised from the dead in this body. This is the reason for the season.
Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV) is where we take our text: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity (His birth) so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil--and free those (His resurrection) who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
In this passage of Scripture we find the birth of Jesus Christ, His death and His resurrection from the dead—thus we have three simple points in our outline for this message. (1) He was born, (2) He died and (3) He arose.
He Was Born
Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Jesus shared in our humanity. This is what Christmas is all about. It is about God the Son becoming human.
Galatians 4:4 tells us, "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law…"
The expression "God sent forth His Son" points to the deity of Christ—meaning that Jesus is fully God. Being the God’s Son, He is of the same essence of God. He shares the same attributes or characteristics of God—omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, etc. In Bible College we learned that these “essence” attributes were called “non-communicable attributes.” In other words the attributes of Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence and Sovereignty, God doesn’t share with anyone. But there are also communicable attributes like love, compassion, mercy and truth that He does share with us.
When Paul writes in Galatians 4:4 that “God sent forth His Son” he is telling us that Jesus is fully God!
The next expression Paul uses in Galatians 4:4 is that Jesus was, “born of a woman.” This points his readers to the humanity of Jesus Christ--meaning Jesus was also fully man. When Paul writes that Jesus was “born of a woman” he is alluding to the truth that Jesus was born by way of the virgin birth.
The virgin birth is a reference to the belief that Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary by the miraculous action of God without a human father.
Matthew gives the account of the virgin birth from the viewpoint of Joseph. He was betrothed to Mary. Before they were married, she was discovered to be pregnant. Joseph planned to divorce her without public scandal. Only then did God reveal to Joseph that the child was conceived through the Holy Spirit.
Luke gave the events from the viewpoint of Mary. An angel appeared to her while she was still a virgin betrothed to Joseph. It was revealed to her that she would bear a son who would be called “the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32).
It is significant that in both the Matthew and Luke accounts the Holy Spirit leaves no room or doubt as to whether or not there is a human involved in the conception or the "fathering" of Jesus. In the Matthew account Joseph says, "I'm not the man!" In the Luke account Mary says to the angel, "How can this be, since I'm still a virgin?"
So why the virgin birth? The virgin conception of Christ guarantees the perfect union of two natures in one Person. He is Jesus, the God-Man (cf. Isa. 7:14; 9:6, 7).
The Bible teaches that Christ, before coming to earth, was in the form of God (Philippians 2:6). The word form is the Greek word morphe which means “shape” or “nature.” The Bible in John 4:24 also reports that God is spirit. This means that God the Son had to become embodied because God had decreed in the councils of eternity that the blood . . . makes an atonement for the soul (Leviticus 17:11).
In the Old Testament, animals were sacrificed to provide a covering for sin. But animal blood was a temporary and inadequate covering that looked toward the day when Jesus would shed His own blood to cleanse away sin.
(Heb 9:12 NKJV) Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
This eternal offering had to be a sacrifice of blood. Could it have been the blood of a mere man? No. Why? Because man's blood was poisoned through Adam's sin (Romans 5:12).
(Rom 5:12 NKJV) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned;
Therefore, since animal blood was inadequate and man's blood was tainted, the only solution was that a member of the Godhead should take a body containing blood.
Now if God the Son were to come into the world the natural way, the seed of a man deposited into the womb of a woman, the tainted blood would then be passed on to the newborn Christ. So God planned and prepared a body for His Son:
(Heb 10:5 NKJV) Therefore, when He (Jesus) came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.
The Holy Spirit miraculously conceived this “body” in the womb of the virgin, and the result was the incarnation -God in the flesh, with sinless blood. That is why I Peter 1:19 declares that we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Belief in the virgin birth is a central doctrine of Christian thought. There was no human father. Jesus was the Child of God. And, rather than coming to earth in the fullness of the glory of God, He came as a baby and grew up as a man who submitted all that He was to God the Father.
My three youngest daughters have been trying to convince my wife and me that we should get a dog or a cat. Most every time the Penny Saver arrives in the mail my 13-year-old daughter grabs it and turns to the “pets for sale” section. Often times she points out that there are puppies or kittens available—some even given away for free!
I always remind my daughters that little cute puppies grow up to become big dogs. In our text we are reminded that the sweet little, baby Jesus didn’t remain an infant; He grew up to be a man. Luke says in 2:52, “And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”
It was as a man that Jesus entered into the synagogue and said, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” (Luke 4:18-19)
It was as a man that Jesus “made a scourge of cords, and drove all the money changers out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and overturned their tables…” (John 2:15)
It was as a man that He was nailed to a Roman cross and suffered and died for our sins. It was as a man, that He arose bodily from the grave and as Luke says in Acts 1, “presenting Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs.”
Not only was He born but He died.
He Died
Hebrews 2:14 goes on to tell us that “by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil.” Here the writer of Hebrews is referring to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus was born to die.
John 3:16 -17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”
Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”
Jesus was born into this world to save sinners. In order to save sinner He had to die for their sin. In dying for their sin, He would destroy Satan who holds the power of death.
This world system belongs to Satan. This world system is not of God—“the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”—but the world system on this earth belongs to Satan.
1 John 5:19 says, “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” 2 Timothy 2:26 tells us that humanity is ensnared by the devil and “held captive by him to do his will.”
Each one of us is born by default, a child of the devil. 1 John 3:10 says, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
When Adam was created, he was given authority over God’s creation. In Genesis 1:28 God blesses the man and the woman and God says to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule…over all creation…anything that moves.”
When Adam sinned, he lost the authority to subdue over the earth. Proof of this is in Genesis chapter nine when Noah comes out of the ark after the flood. God gives Noah the same command, “Be fruitful and multiply…” but this time the command to “subdue the earth” is not included. Mankind had given up this right when Adam sinned.
Romans 8:20 tells us the plight of creation…it was subjected to futility or to vanity because of Adam’s fall into sin and is up until this day, groaning and suffering under the pains of childbirth waiting for the new heavens and the new earth. (vs. 22)
This whole world is under the control of the evil one but the writer of Hebrews lets us know that Jesus, God the Son, was born in order to share in our humanity and to die and by His death He would destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.
From the time of Adam, each member of the human race save Jesus, was born in sin, shaped in iniquity, dead in trespasses and sins, held captive in the slave market of sin; children of the devil, held captive to do his will.
But when Jesus, hanging on the Cross, paying our sins cried out with a loud voice, “It is finish!” The shackles were broken, the prison bars flew open; the veil was ripped in twain from top to bottom, the graves were opened and we who have trusted Christ were set free!
A song writer from the 16th century put it this way:
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
Hebrews 2:14- 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—
The writer of Hebrews concludes this passage of Scripture we are studying with these words: “…and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb. 2:15)
In verse 14 we see the birth and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He was born to die.
In order to celebrate Christmas accurately, we must acknowledge that He came to this earth to die.
If He came to this earth to die, we must also acknowledge that He died to pay the penalty for our sin. We were the guilty ones; we were the ones who disobeyed the Law of a holy God.
He died for us. If you’d ask Jesus, He would tell you that “we were the reason for the season.” 1 Peter 3:18 says, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God…”
In verse 14 we see the birth and death of Jesus and in verse 15 we see the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He Arose
He was born to die and three days after He died, He was raised from the dead! Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”
Hebrews 2:15 tells us that Jesus came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” When was the last time that you told someone that Christmas is all about being free from the fear of death?
We are living in a time when people do not want to talk seriously about death. It was Woody Allen who said, “I’m not afraid to die; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
When someone dies we send them to an undertaker where they are fixed up and dressed up and makeup is put on them to look like they are alive, just sleeping. We pack all kinds of stuff in a casket as if they were going to use these things in the afterlife.
One internet writer says, “Death has become one of the most taboo topics in our society so talking about it can be quite uncomfortable for some. Families used to have wakes and funerals in their homes and relatives died in their own beds surrounded by family. Now, death is sanitized and we tend to stay as far away from it as we can because it makes us uncomfortable.”
17th century French writer, François de La Rochefoucauld, said, “One cannot look directly at either the sun or death.
In a research page called, Digging Up the Dead; Facts About Obituaries the Penn State Library reports that prior to the 19th century, obituaries focused on a person's character. In the 20th century, writers moved more toward a list of accomplishments and associations and less on the character of the deceased.
In another article that reports that New Orleans jazz funerals have changed over the decades. It said that unlike the jazz funerals of the past, today’s jazz funerals are “above all, a tribute to life rather than a concession to death.”
There is a greater fear of death today then in the past. Could this be why people no longer have home funerals like they did in the past? In the past there were “home funerals” today we have “funeral homes.” By the way, because of the expense of funerals, home funerals are on the way back.
People fear what they do not understand. People fear the unknown. But Jesus came, according to Hebrews 2:15, to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
This is what Christmas is all about. He was born, He died and He was raised from the dead. Someone said Jesus arrived in a cradle, was affixed to a cross and arose from a crypt.
Because He lives, we live. When you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior, death holds no fear. We're released from the bondage of our fear. The apostle Paul said, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). Death is a promotion for the follower of Jesus Christ.
Paul didn’t mind staying here and in some respects he wanted to remain in order to finish his work among the churches, but he knew that to be with Christ was far better (vv. 22-23).
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ we can say with Paul, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55). Death holds no fear for believers. It simply releases us into the presence of Jesus Christ. We are no longer in fear of death because Jesus conquered it when He rose from the grave.
In one of his daily devotionals, Dr. David Jeremiah told the story of a Hawaiian football fan named Lyle Akaki.
Monday night football is played mid-afternoon in Hawaii due to the time zone, so the local TV station delays its telecast until 6:30 that evening. Mr. Akaki, admits that when his favorite team is playing, he is too excited to wait until the evening when the game comes on TV where he lives, so he listens to it on the radio in real time.
When he watches it on television later that night, if his team won, it influences how he watches the game: Fumbles or interceptions aren't a problem because he thinks to himself, "That's bad, but it's okay. In the end we’re going to win."
As Christians, we have no reason to fear death. The game has been played, the Lord has won, and the Bible promises us in Romans 6:5 that "we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”
The famous evangelist Billy Graham once said, “I've read the last page of the Bible. It's all going to turn out all right.”
Let me end with the words of a Christmas carol that sums up all we’ve been talking about:
Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King,
peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!"
Joyful, all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies;
with th' angelic host proclaim, "Christ is born in Bethlehem!"
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"
Christ, by highest heaven adored; Christ, the everlasting Lord;
late in time behold him come, offspring of a virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail th' incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.
Mild he lays his glory by, born that we no more may die,
born to raise us from the earth, born to give us second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King!"
The 3rd stanza of another Christmas carol, Good Christian Men Rejoice! says:
Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all, to gain His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!
