A GIFT WORTH UNDERSTANDING
John Maxwell
INTRODUCTION:
In Hebrews, chapter 2, the writer does a better job than any other New Testament writer in helping us to understand why God became flesh, born Jesus in Bethlehem for which we celebrate Christmas.
For 28 performances during the Living Christmas Tree, I would come out for about three minutes after Gail would sing "Jesus The Light of the World," and I would try in a 3-minute time span to encourage people to make the most important decision they could ever make in their life. And to make that decision I tried to, in a nutshell, help them to understand why Christ came into the world.
Now, I want to, this morning, do a good job with this. I don’t have a lot of time but I don’t think I need a lot of time. I want to just take this theological passage of scripture. Hebrews is a great book. It’s a little difficult to understand, and I want to bring it down to it’s minimum just so you can begin to understand, perhaps, even as a Christian, more than any other time, why God had to come into this world, born Jesus, in Bethlehem’s manager. We all grew up with the verse John 3:16. I have it in your sermon section. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Will you turn to the Book of Hebrews. The Hebrew writer does a better job than anybody else helping us to understand why God had to become flesh. He does a better job than anyone else helping us to understand the humanity of Christ. And in chapter 2, he talks about the fact that you and I, fallen mankind, needed a bridge or a mediator between ourselves and a holy, righteous God. And so, therefore, to help them to understand, help the Jewish people to understand what was needed, he refers to Christ continually as the high priest. Now, they immediately knew when he talked about high priest, every Jewish mind quickly grasped what that meant. Because they knew what a high priest was. They had them.
Now, there are four qualifications of a high priest of which the Hebrew writer, basically, tells the people that Jesus Christ met these four qualifications, and He is the eternal, supreme high priest.
Let me give you the four qualifications.
1. Must be one of the people.
The high priest must be one of the people. In other words, he had to be one of them. He had to be a Jew. He had to be living with them. He had to know them well. The high priest was identified. He became one of them. Just as Jesus Christ became one of us.
2. Must be faithful in ministry.
The high priest was to be very faithful in his ministry. Not only to God but also to mankind.
3. Must be appointed by God.
The high priest, not something randomly or democratically chosen. The high priest was appointed by God to be the high priest.
4. Must be cleansed from all sin.
The high priest must be cleansed from all sin because one of his chief functions was to offer up a sacrifice for the sins of the people.
Now, what the Hebrew writer is saying is, that Jesus Christ became man to be the high priest for all of us and he fulfills all four of those qualifications. He became one of us. He became flesh so that He would live with us and identify with us and know us. Secondly, He was faithful to the Father in his ministry. As you know He looked to his Father, speaking of His obedience on several occasions. And, thirdly He was appointed by God, the Father to come into this world. And, finally He was cleansed from all sin because He knew no sin at all. He was without sin.
Now, the Hebrew writer said, as soon as we understand those four qualifications of a high priest and if you want to read those in chapter 2 through chapter 7, you can get the parallel through those five chapters.
Hebrews to the New Testament is as Leviticus is to the Old Testament.
Now, as soon as the Hebrew writer lays this out, he says, I want you to know four reasons why Jesus came into this world. And I want to give them to this morning.
1. Two recapture our lost destiny.
Jesus came to recapture our lost destiny. We no longer are what we were in the beginning of creation, and Jesus came into the world to recapture that lost destiny for us. Let’s start with verse 5, in Hebrews Chapter 2, verse 5, "For He did not subject the angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking, but one has testified somewhere saying," now, he’s quoting Psalm 8 is what he’s quoting out of the Old Testament, "’What is man that though rememberest him or the son of man that though art concerned about him?’"
Now, let me stop here for a moment. When he speaks of the son of man, he’s not speaking of the God. Many times the son of man is referred to as God but he’s not here. He’s referring to us, humans. In fact, when he said, "What is man that thou rememberest him or the son of man that thou are concerned about him?" It’s just a repeat of the same thing. In other words, the son of man is just us, we humans. Simple mankind. In the book of Ezekiel, that was an expression. Son of man in the Old Testament is an expression of mankind, not of the divine son of God. In fact, in Ezekiel alone, God, 80 times, calls Ezekiel, the son of man. And all the psalmist is saying is, "God, what are we and why are we so that you would know us, that you would remember us, that you would love us so much that you would come and die for our sins?"
Well, it’s very simple. Because in the very beginning, in creation, God had a plan for us, and when Adam and Eve sinned, that plan fell through. Now, watch what I mean. You see the plan and design for mankind when God created Adam and Eve was they were to be dominant, they were to have dominion over everything. Genesis, 1:28, "Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." In other words they were to have dominion. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they lost that dominion, they lost that power. Whatever you can say about fallen mankind, what you really can say for certain is that man, after the fall, was never what he was intended to be before the fall when God created him to be dominant over everything on earth.
That brings us to verse 9. In verse 9 the story begins to change and the Hebrew writer says, "But we do see Him who was made for a little while, lower than the angels; namely, Jesus. Because of a suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by a grace of God He might taste death for everyone." Into this situation, God sent Jesus. Here’s the story, here’s the picture. Adam and Eve sinned, fell, were not what they were designed or created to become, they lost their position. They lost their privilege. They lost their power. Into this situation, Jesus Christ, the Hebrew writer says in verse 9, comes into the world to begin to restore us back to that original position.
There are three basic ideas that are given to us in this verse. Let me give them to you:
A. Man was created to have dominion over all things.
That’s a fact. You and I were created to have dominion over all things.
B. Through sin instead of dominion, we suffer defeat.
Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden; they lost the privilege and the position that God had given them in the beginning. So through sin instead of having dominion, we had defeat.
C. Into this defeat enters Jesus and his purpose for coming.
One of the four reasons was to restore us back, to give us dominion again over all things. And when the Hebrew writer begins to list the four reasons why Jesus came he said, first of all, Jesus came into this world to recapture our lost destiny.
2. Jesus came to this world to experience our trials.
He came to identify with us. He came to relate with us. He came to know what suffering was all about. And so, therefore, He came as man so that He could undergo the sufferings, the trials, the temptations that you and I undergo. Look at verse 10. Let me just kind of pick my way through verse 10 with you. "For it was fitting for Him," in other words it was logical, it just seemed right, "for Him of whom are all things and through Him are all things in bringing many sons to glory or in bringing us back to our original creation, the reason that we were designed and born and created and bringing us back to that glory." Okay. That rightful position. "To perfect the author," and when he speaks of the author of their salvation, he’s speaking, of course, of God who is the head of our salvation. More than that, the pioneer. That word "author" is a great word in the Greek. What it really means is, "to blaze a trail." It literally means to be the first to go through a wilderness or an area where there are a lot of trees or ruggedness and to blaze a trial, so that you and I, who come behind, can have direction and can, with confidence, proceed onward. Okay.
And the Hebrew writer speaks of Him as being author or the one who blazes the trail for us. And he says it’s for their salvation. What? Through suffering. It was through suffering that He’s going to blaze a trail. In fact, it’s a picture of God through Jesus Christ blazing a trail for us of which that trail was, literally, His blood. We followed His blood. It was His blood that forgives us of our sins. It’s His blood that literally blazes the trail for us, for you and me to be the sons of God.
Now, three things that the Hebrew writer is talking about here.
A. He’s talking about identification.
The fact that God would identify with you and me. He would identify with us by becoming man. Now, that’s totally opposite of the Greek thinking. The Greek thought of God as detached from mankind. When the Greek thought of God, they thought of God way out there in the cosmos. But when Christianity came into being, was born, instead of the idea of detachment, it became an idea of identification and closeness.
B. The second word is compassion.
He literally feels for us. That’s why in verse 18 it says, "For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has also suffered He is able to come to the aid or alongside those who are tempted."
C. Salvation.
There had to be a high price paid for your sins and for my sins. Now, what we have to understand about that high price that was paid is that the only way it could be paid was through Jesus Christ, not only coming into this world but dying for our sins. That’s why in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus said, "Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me." It was impossible. There was no way that you and I could be saved expect through Jesus Christ.
Now, the ancient thought and mind, they thought that their mediator would be angels. That’s why the Hebrew writer talks so much about angels. They thought angels, but no, angels could not be our mediator and our savior because the reason for that is because they did not become man, they did not identify with us. They did not go through what we went through. But Jesus did.
Now, there are three kinds of suffering that I want to give you this morning which I think relate very well to the redemptive plan of God so we can understand him. The first kind of suffering is the kind that we can avoid. We can avoid some types of suffering. Especially through, maybe, making right choices. We’ve all suffered things that we didn’t need to suffer but we suffered them because we made wrong choices. Isn’t that true? And we could have avoided them if we would have made right choices. So there’s the suffering that we can avoid.
But there’s another kind of suffering and that’s the kind that you cannot avoid. That’s the suffering that you and I experience and it’s not because we made wrong choices or right choices it’s because life is life, and we became a victim. We maybe were minding our own business, maybe we were serving God, maybe we were praying and disaster struck. And it was no rhyme or reason to it. We just couldn’t avoid it living in this world of sin and suffering. There are times when we’ll suffer and it’s absolutely never because we made a wrong choice. It’s just the suffering we just cannot avoid.
But there’s a third kind of suffering, and that’s the suffering that we must not avoid, and that’s the suffering that I just want to bring to your attention just for a moment this morning. The suffering that we must not avoid is suffering that if we go through it, it will make us better. It’s good for us. It’s character development. It’s good to round us out, to be all that we need to be. It’s the suffering and the trials that James talked about and Peter talked about that would even make us even more precious than gold when it is through. It’s the suffering that we must not avoid, it’s important for us to go through the process.
Now, those three kinds of suffering relate to sin and redemption. The first kind of suffering that can’t be avoided, could have been avoided. Adam and Eve didn’t have to sin, it was a choice. God looked at them and he gave them a choice. They knew right and they knew wrong, and they decided to do wrong. That’s the suffering that could have been avoided. But immediately when Adam and Eve sinned, there was the suffering that cannot be avoided and that was of the fact that God, automatically, because God is God, reached down to Adam and Eve. Remember in the evening when he went through the garden, "Where art though Adam?" It was a holy God who so wants communion and fellowship with fallen mankind that he’s willing to come down and go the second mile. It’s a suffering that could not be avoided. God, never in his eternal mind ever thought that he would allow man to stay in his sin and that gap never to be bridged.
There’s a third kind of suffering. And that’s the kind of suffering that must not be avoided and that’s the suffering that Jesus Christ did on the cross. Jesus didn’t have to die for our sins. He could have, if He would have desired, He did not have to become man, but because He knew it was the only way that we could be saved, it was a suffering that must not be avoided. It was a suffering that allowed for you and me to know forgiveness of our sins. Let me paraphrase verse 9 for you this morning.
"It’s only logical that God, who made everything for His glory, in bringing mankind back to His original design, should allow Jesus to complete God’s will by blazing a trail that all mankind should follow, yet that which leads us to our salvation and must be marked by the sufferings of Jesus Christ."
Okay. Four reasons why God came.
1. To recapture our lost destiny.
2. To experience our trials.
3. To release us from bondage.
And the bondage that He is to release us from is not only sin, but the ultimate result of sin which is death. And in verse 14 and 15 we see that He came into this world to release us from that bondage. Let’s look at it for a moment. "Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same that through death He might," I love this phrase, "render powerless him who has had the power of death." That is the devil. That word "render powerless" is in airest tense which means it’s done. When Jesus died for our sins, Satan was striped of his power in the area of death. It isn’t something present tense, it’s not something that’s in the future tense, it’s in the airest past. It’s over with, it’s done for. When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, arose the third day, Satan lost his grip and his power of death and his threat and fear that he placed on mankind. Wow, that’s neat, isn’t it?
Let’s go on, "And might deliver those, who through the fear of death, were subject to slavery all of their lives." In other words, Jesus came and died, not only for our sins, not only for us, but also to strip the devil of his power. Now, you ask yourself, "How did Satan have the power of death?" The Bible tells us, "The wages of sin is death." Now, how did Satan, how did the devil get that power? Well, it’s very simple. When you go back to Genesis, you read the account of man’s fall and you read the account when, remember the devil came to Eve and talked to her and he began to talk to her about this one forbidden tree that they were not allowed to eat or to partake thereof. And remember what Eve told him? In Genesis, Chapter 3, "The woman said to the servant, ’From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree, which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ’You shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.’" Now, you see, when God set the game rules out for Adam and Eve, he said, if you take of this fruit of this tree, you’re going to die.
Now, what does Satan do? He says, You’re surely not going to die. God really didn’t mean what he said. When they partook, we know the story. One of the things that happened, the fall of man, was that death came into this world. Adam and Eve would never have had to die. This was of the wrong choice. They made a bad choice. But because they made that choice, death came in and you see the prosecuting attorney, the devil, went before God and said, "God, you said that if they took of it they would die," and he pressed the claim of death upon the Lord. And so, therefore, mankind, born into sin, has, literally, had the curse of death upon us. And the prosecuting attorney, the devil himself, has constantly said, "You said, God, that they would die," and he began to use that as a club to mankind. It happened all the way up to the time where Jesus died on the cross.
Now, how was the devil rendered powerless then? Very simple. When he killed Jesus. When Jesus voluntarily laid down his life. The devil thought it was the greatest day of his life because he had killed the son of God, but what he did not understand was, was that he killed the sinless son of God and all of a sudden he lost his claim to death because he himself had taken the life of one who had never sinned and all of a sudden he was striped himself with the power of death. And when the Hebrew writer spoke of the fear of death, what he was basically saying is that because we are no longer dominated by the devil, and death itself, no longer is that over us, the fear of death of the Christian over the believer or for the person who has a relationship with God has now been absolved.
Now, I’ve given you in about 5 minutes an incredible amount of theology. If you understand it, nod your head. If you don’t, nod your head anyway because I don’t have time to explain any more of it. Now, I knew about this time that I’d be getting pressed for time in my message so I wrote down the next 4 notes for you. All right. Just so I could hurry up.
Christians know four things about death. That’s why we don’t have the fear of death on us any more.
1. The sting of death, which is sin, has been removed.
2. The judgment beyond death need not be feared.
3. Christ’s resurrection guarantees our own.
4. The devil cannot touch us.
Those are 4 things that we know all because Jesus Christ came into the world and all because He died for our sins and arose again the third day.
4. God came into the world to restore us from defeat.
He came into the world of defeated mankind. We were lost. We were battered. We were bruised. He came to restore us from defeat.
Now, the ministry of Christ, his priestly ministry, the Hebrew writer talks about in verse 17 is God word and in verse 18 it’s man word. Look at verse 17, "Therefore, He had to be made like His brother in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to," who? To God, "to make propitiation for the sins of the people." In other words, to satisfy God’s holiness and righteousness about our salvation, He literally had to come into the flesh to satisfy God. He had to die for our sins to satisfy the Father. That’s why when He said, "Father, if it’s possible let this cup pass from me." God said, it’s not possible. You have to satisfy me. You must. The sinless son of God must die on the cross.
Well, that was for God. But in verse 18, we see that he came for man also, "For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered He is able to come to the aid or to come alongside of those who are tempted." And every time you and I are tempted, every time you and I have trials, every time that you and I are going through difficult times, God, whose walking alongside of us says, Yes, I know what you’re going through. I understand that.
This week I had an interesting conversation with a couple of our members who have received Christ in the last few years. In fact, the husband, I led to the Lord about 5 years ago. But I asked them because of their total non-church background, the wife got involved in Bible study fellowship about 7 or 8 years ago. And she wasn’t even a believer but she was into the Word. And one evening she was doing her lesson in the book of Hebrews and she came into Chapter 2, this passage I’ve just read. She said, "I was sitting at the kitchen table. My husband and the kids were in the family room watching television, and I was sitting there and I had my Bible open and I was reading Hebrews 2 and all of a sudden I realized that God identified with me. He knew me."
And it was kind of like, she said, "I was right there at the kitchen table. I said, ’God if you identify with me, you know that I’m searching for you. And somehow you’re way out there and somehow I’m down here but I do know this, God, I want you to come into my life,’" and she told me the most beautiful conversion story. Nobody there, but all of a sudden you see, for the first time in her life, she really did understand why God came into this world.
CONCLUSION
There’s much I can say but let me wrap it up with three quick thoughts in conclusion.
1. Only Jesus can save us.
Only Jesus. The church can’t save you. The Hebrew writer, his whole writing was to tell them that the angels who they thought were mediators couldn’t save them. Only Jesus. Only the sinless Son of God.
2. Jesus understands.
He understands. He walks alongside of us, He identifies with everything that you and I go through. He knows us and understands us.
3. Victory can be yours.
You need not have not only the fear of death; you need not have any fear at all in your life. Victory is for you and victory is for me.
Now, watch me for 2 minutes. You see, what happens is we come to a church service and many of you maybe have been raised up in church. And everything I’ve said today, perhaps, now, the light is starting to come on and you say, "Well, yes, I believe that Christ was the Son of God and I believe He came into this world for my sins." And, you know, we really believe. I want you again to understand as I’ve illustrated to you before I’m going to do it again this morning because you’ve got to understand there’s a difference between believing in God and receiving Him and knowing Him personally in your life.
And the best way to illustrate is with a pen and with my friend Gary. You see, I’ve got this pen here and I can go up to Gary and I can say, "Hey, Gary, I’m going to give you this pen." And Gary knows me and Gary believes me. In fact, he would look at his wife Pat and say, "Pastor’s going to give me a pen." But you see, although Gary believes me. He doesn’t have the pen. I still have it, don’t I? You see, Gary has to do something before that pen becomes his and it’s not believe, because he believes, he still doesn’t have it. Gary, what do you have to do before it bottoms yours? "I have to take it." He’s got to take it. Now, it’s his. It became his the moment that he reached out and received it. It’s the same way with God.
You see, you may have gone to church all your life and you believed in God and you believed this wonderful Christmas story, but you’ve never experienced the joy of personally receiving God into your life. This morning I would suppose there were 12 to 15 people for the first time in their life experienced what it was like to receive Him. There’s a song that we sometimes sing. It’s entitled "He’s as Close as the Mention of His Name." He’s right there. I will encourage you this morning to reach out and touch Him.
Bow your heads with me please. Every head bowed, every eye closed. There are many of you this morning, in your spirit right now, you’re hungering for God. You know about Him. But this is your day, this is your moment, two days before Christmas, to reach out and experience Him. Every head bowed and every eye closed, I wonder how many of you would raise your hand up high and say, "Pastor, I want to receive God into my life today. And I want you to pray with me." And every head is bowed and every eye is closed, I wonder how many right now would just slip up your hand high right now. Many hands being raised. I want to know God and I want to know Him in a personal way and today’s my day. And I want to reach out.
You may put your hands down. But if you did raise your hand a moment ago, would you look at me right now. Our Father, I thank you so much for your goodness and your love and thank you so much for the people who have come forward and are ready to reach out and find the greatest gift that’s ever been given to anybody, the gift of the salvation.
As we leave this morning, I think, because of what we’ve heard, I think we all have a better understanding, God, of why you came. Now, may your grace rest upon us. May the eternal love of the Father, the blood of Jesus Christ, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit be ours today. This we pray if your name. Amen. God bless you.
TODAY’S MESSAGE:
"A Gift Worth Understanding"
Hebrews 2:5-18
Jesus meets the qualifications as our High Priest...
1. _________________________________ the people.
2. _________________________________ in ministry.
3. _________________________________ by God.
4. _________________________________ all sin.
Jesus came into the world to...
1. Recapture our ___________________________________. vv. 5-9
Genesis 1:28
Observations:
A. Man was created to have____________________________.
B. Through _____________________, we suffer ___________.
C. Into this ______________ enters _____________________.
2. Experience our ________________________________.
vv. 10-13
Jesus did this through:
A. ________________________________
B. ________________________________
C. ________________________________
Kinds of suffering:
1. The kind we _______________________ avoid.
2. The kind we _______________________ avoid.
3. The kind we _______________________ avoid.
3. Release us from _________________________________. vv. 14,15
1. What this release does: _____________, the__________ of death, has been removed.
2. The _____________beyond___________ need not be feared.
3. Christ’s _______________________ guarantees_________.
4. The _________________________ cannot touch us.
4. Restore us from __________________________. vv. 16-18
Some significant conclusions:
1. Only Jesus can ___________________________.
2. Jesus __________________________________.
3. ____________________________ can be yours.
