Jesus: Our Unashamed Brother

Well, please have a seat.

Please grab your Bibles or turn them on and scroll to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Just before we dig in, why don't I pray for us and then we'll get to work.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you that so much of our service has been on the truth that you came.

And Father, our prayer now is that you would come and meet us in your word.

Father, you would come and speak to us.

Father, that we would leave here loving your son more, cherishing him deeper.

And Father, being more conformed to his likeness as we've already been praying.

So Father, help us concentrate.

Fathers, help us discern your voice in the midst of the great cacophony of noises that crowded on our lives.

Father, do your work to your glory, we pray.

In the name of your son.

Amen.

Well, this is the second installment in our series in Hebrews, Out of the Shadows.

This morning we're in Hebrews 2, looking at Jesus, our unashamed brother.

And the book of Hebrews is written to Jewish Christians.

And the writer writes the book because these believers are tempted to turn away from Jesus and to crawl back to the safety and security and familiarity of Judaism.

And the book is a letter-ish, but it's more of a sermon.

And in the sermon he is telling them, stick in with Jesus.

He's saying, stick in with Jesus and don't turn back to the shadowlands of the now defunct Old Testament Jewish faith.

And in chapter 1 last week, Graham was telling us that Jesus was fully God.

He is 100% God.

He is the one as superior to the angels as the name that he's been given is superior to theirs.

He's written explicitly that Jesus the Son is God's full and final word to humanity.

He's written that Jesus is God's final fulfilled and finished work for us.

That Jesus is God's glory revealed and his character disclosed.

He is God's agent of creation and the sustainer of creation.

He is the one infinitely superior to angels and given the name superior to every name.

In chapter 1 he is laying out unequivocally his case that Jesus is 100% God.

In the rest of chapter 1 he gives us seven Old Testament quotes to highlight all that God has said to, through, in and about his Son.

Which brings us to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

If Hebrews chapter 1 is all about Jesus being 100% God, then Hebrews chapter 2 is all about Jesus being 100% man.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

100% man.

I don't know about you, but as I get older, I'm amazed how small things are becoming other than myself.

I seem to be swelling as time goes by.

But if you think of the first mobile phone and how enormous that was, and now you get a phone that's just one and a half inches big.

Or you think of the computer.

I don't know how many of you were at school when computers came in, but they took up almost whole wings of the school.

There was a room.

Computers, tough.

Huge things.

And now you can get this little thing that plugs into your HD television and turns it into a fully functioning PC.

Way more, infinitely more powerful than the one that used to take up a room.

Or the television.

Used to be huge.

There used to be three of you to carry it, and you still wanted more.

And now you get something that's so wafer thin and small that's curved and in 4K.

If Santa was good to you.

Or the car.

That now is shrunk down to that kind of size.

Or the library that now fits on that.

It's amazing how you can shrink massive things to become tiny things.

And that's true.

The miraculous miniaturization that took place 2,000 years ago is unbelievable.

That when a young peasant girl a long way from home amidst the squalor and stench of a stable,

grasping the hand of her betrothed gives birth to God.

That is miraculous miniaturization.

The big message of Hebrews concerns this mind-bending doctrine that God would shrink himself and take on human flesh.

That is the video at the beginning said that the God of all would come as a baby.

Just look at our passage.

Look at verse 9 in Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

But we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while.

Lower than the angels he became man.

Look at verse 11.

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

That is, they are human.

That Jesus became human.

Look at verse 14.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too, that is, Jesus, shared in their humanity.

Verse 17.

For this reason, he, Jesus, had to be made like them, fully human in every way.

The unfathomable truth that Hebrews 2 is looking at is the incarnation,

where the infinite becomes finite, creator becomes creature,

the sustainer of all things is sustained by others.

The all-powerful becomes weak.

The sovereign God becomes dependent on others.

The one without being is born.

Spirit becomes matter.

Boundlessness takes on flesh.

The indescribable becomes 65% oxygen, 19% carbon, 9% nitrogen, 9% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, 2% calcium, 1% phosphorus,

with a sprinkling of potassium, 2% sodium, 2% sodium, 2% sodium, 2% magnesium, thrown in for seasoning.

Hebrews 2, the big thing, Jesus becomes man.

Jesus becomes man.

It's a potentially embarrassing truth, isn't it?

That when you take your friends to the nativity service and you say,

well, that inanimate object, that doll in the manger, that's God.

That's what I believed to be God when God came.

To focus on Jesus and his teaching and his humanitarian work,

rather than the fact that he's God is a little bit more comfortable.

To say that Jesus is a good man, a great teacher, a revolutionary leader, a proper prophet,

is all very fine in our world, but to say he's God,

that God entered human history, that's potentially embarrassing.

And it seemed to be potentially embarrassing for the first readers of Hebrews.

They've given up all the pomp and circumstance of the temple

and now they worship God who became man,

who died on a blood-spluttered cross.

It's potentially embarrassing, isn't it, to say that God came,

that all of God was contained in this person, Jesus Christ.

So easy to think this is a pipe dream, a fairy tale you want to file alongside the tooth fairy,

the Easter bunny and the Scottish qualification for a major football championships.

Yet the writer to the Hebrews lovingly, pastorally and compellingly shows the readers and us

that the incarnation is beautiful,

that it is necessary, it is miraculous,

and it is unescapably central to everything we believe.

Far from ridiculous, it is glorious.

The writer to the Hebrews, as we read Hebrews 2,

it sounds complicated, but I want to give you four simple things,

hopefully, that it means.

You can tell me at the door afterwards if I've managed.

Why did Jesus became man?

Here's the first thing.

Jesus became man to announce salvation.

Read with me, one to four.

We must pay the most careful attention,

therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away.

For since the message spoken through angels was binding,

and every violation and disobedience received is just punishment,

how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?

This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord,

was confirmed to us by those who heard him.

God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles,

and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Did you read it?

First announced by the Lord.

This message of salvation first announced by the Lord.

After 400 years of salvation,

Jesus says salvation has come.

The King has come.

The kingdom is here.

And the message that Jesus announces,

the message of salvation,

is being contrasted with the message communicated by angels,

which is almost certainly to say the Old Covenant,

the Old Testament law.

The message that came through angels to Moses,

Old Testament covenants,

is being compared with all that now comes in and through,

spoken and delivered by Jesus.

So in Deuteronomy 33 verse 2,

Deuteronomy 33:2

the Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seah upon us.

He shone forth from Mount Parah.

He came from the 10,000s of holy ones,

angels with flaming fire at his right hand.

Or in Acts 7,

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,

God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

This is the one who was,

this is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness

with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai.

And with our fathers,

he received living oracles to give us.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?

And they killed those who announced beforehand

the coming of the righteous one,

whom you have now betrayed and murdered.

You who received the law as delivered by angels

and did not keep it.

Paul writes something very similar in Galatians 3.

Do you see that he's saying,

you got this message from angels,

this Old Testament law.

This Old Testament delivered to you,

announced to you by God through angels.

And he's saying,

if you didn't obey that message,

you were in real trouble.

There was punishment for every violation and disobedience.

If you disobeyed that,

how will you escape if you turn away from this message?

This message that Jesus comes as a fulfillment of all of that message.

This message announced by Jesus,

confirmed by eyewitnesses,

testified by God through signs and wonders,

affirmed by gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Why would you go back to that message,

which was just the national anthem before the kickoff

that's now been announced by Jesus?

If you leave this message,

you leave everything.

Because that was simply pointing forward to Jesus Christ.

If you were punished for ignoring the old message,

then it's not going to go well

if you ignore this new message given by Jesus.

And so there's this explicit warning.

How shall we escape

if we neglect such a great salvation?

And the answer is we won't.

We absolutely won't.

And so what does he say to them in verse 1?

Don't drift away.

We must pay the most careful attention,

therefore, to what we have heard

so that we do not drift away.

So we don't get lost.

If we start ignoring this,

if we start minimizing what Jesus has said to us,

we drift away into nothingness and lostness.

The writer is worried that his readers

are not tied up tightly to Jesus Christ

and they're going to drift away.

They're going to drift back to Judaism

and they're going to lose everything.

He's saying don't drift away.

Tie up tightly to the message of salvation.

Pay the most careful attention

to what God has told you

in his son, Jesus Christ,

or you'll suffer eternal loss.

The most careful attention.

Unless you keep the main thing,

the main thing,

you'll just drift away

into nonsense and nothingness.

The writer to the Hebrews

is worried that some of his readers

are in the haven of the church

but they're not more to Jesus Christ.

So when the storm comes

and it's coming,

they'll just float away.

Maybe that's true of some people

here this morning.

We love church.

We've got some friends here.

The coffee's reasonable.

The tray bakes are awesome.

We quite enjoy the singing.

But the Jesus stuff,

we could take or leave.

And the writer to the Hebrews says,

if you leave the message of Jesus,

you leave it all.

That is the very center of everything

that this place is here for.

Saying this message is of eternal worth.

And paying close attention to that

is the only way

not to drift away into lostness

and nothingness.

Jesus became a man

to announce salvation

and it's implicit

that we listen to him.

It's the most important thing

that we hear and respond to

and keep responding to

unless we drift away.

No, Jesus.

Only punishment, he's saying.

Second thing he says,

and the rest of the chapter

is really just fleshing out

that truth

that Jesus became man

to bring us to glory.

Verse 5.

It is not to angels

that he has subjected the world to come

about which we are speaking.

But there is a place

where someone has testified,

what is mankind

that you are mindful of them,

a son of man

that you came for him.

You made them

a little lower than the angels.

You crowned them

with glory and honor

and put everything

under their feet.

In putting everything under them,

God left nothing

that is not subject to them.

Yet at present,

we do not see everything

subject to them,

but we do see Jesus.

He was made lower

than the angels

for a little while,

who now crowned

with glory and honor

because he suffered death

so that by the grace of God

he might taste death

for everyone.

In bringing many sons

and daughters to glory,

it was fitting that God,

for whom and through whom

everything exists,

should make the pioneer

of their salvation perfect

through what he suffered.

He now quotes Psalm 8

and in Psalm 8,

God looks at the magnificence

of creation.

He's humbled by it

and he says,

well, why do you care

about human beings?

If you've done all this stuff,

why am I significant?

Why am I important?

Why would God be so gracious

and promise humanity

glory and honor

when he's obviously

so powerful

and so magnificent?

And so in Psalm 8,

there's this promise

that mankind will be crowned

with glory and honor

and everything

will be under mankind's authority.

That's a great promise,

but it seems that something

has gone severely wrong.

That it doesn't feel like

we have authority

over really anything

in our world.

We have natural disasters,

we have wars,

we have terrorism,

corruption,

domestic abuse,

child poverty.

Despite all the efforts,

it doesn't seem we can

find a total cure to cancer

across the board.

That this glory and honor

and this authority

that we're promised

doesn't seem to play out

in real life.

So what's happened?

Well, we've happened.

Our sinfulness

has spoiled the plan.

That we are all created

for God's glory,

to enjoy God's glory.

That is the trajectory

we're on.

But we turned away

and we prefer to

worship ourselves.

We wanted glory

for ourselves.

We turned inward

on ourselves.

We forsook

God's glory

and sinned against him.

So now we don't see

everything subject

to mankind.

We see a world

that's in real trouble

and seemingly spiraling

out of control.

But the beautiful thing

it says here,

yet at present

we do not see

everything subject

to them,

but we do see Jesus.

Jesus came

to bring us

to glory.

We now can't

get there ourselves,

so Jesus comes

to bring us

and restore us

to the glory

for which we were

created for.

we lost

paradise,

but Jesus

regained it

for us.

That he

was made

a little lower

than the angels

for a little while.

That he

maintained the

trajectory

towards God's

glory.

And therefore

hope is restored.

Hope is restored.

He suffered

our death

for forsaking

God's glory.

glory.

So we can

have the life

that he won

for us.

Hope is restored.

Glory once again

can be ours

in Jesus.

He brings us

to glory,

verse 10.

In bringing

many sons and

daughters to glory,

people who will

trust him,

that he's

accomplished

what we

have failed

to do.

It was fitting

that God,

for whom

and through whom

everything existed,

should make

the pioneer

of their salvation,

the one who

wins for us

perfect through

what he suffered.

He becomes

perfectly

qualified

to be our

saviour because

he suffered

for us.

He took

what we

deserved.

One who

has absolute

authority over

everything,

even now.

And in the

future it will

be utterly

revealed,

as so to

everyone.

And so the

writer to the

Hebrews is saying,

give up on

Jesus,

you give up

on any

hope of

glory.

Jesus is

the one who

brings you

to glory,

and if you

turn your

back from

him,

no,

you won't

be bought

because you

can't get

there yourselves.

Jesus became

man to bring

you,

to bring me

to glory

through faith

in him.

The one who

got there

when we

couldn't.

So hope

is restored.

Jesus became

man to

bring us

to glory.

Number three,

verses 11 to

16.

both the

one who

makes people

holy and

those who

are made

holy are

of the

same family.

So Jesus

is not ashamed

to call them

brothers and

sisters.

He says,

I will declare

your name to

my brothers

and sisters.

In the

assembly I

will sing

your praises.

And again,

I will put

my trust in

him.

And again,

he says,

here am I

and the

children God

has given

me.

Since the

children have

flesh and

blood,

he too

shed in

their humanity

so that

by his

death he

might break

the power

of him

who holds

the power

of death,

that is the

devil,

and free

those who

all their

lives was

held in

slavery by

their fear

of death.

For surely

it is not

angels he

helps,

but Abraham's

descendants.

Point three,

Jesus became

man to

free us

from the

power of

the devil

and our

fear of

death.

Death is the

great taboo

in our

world.

We'll talk

about anything

but no one

wants to

talk about

death.

80% of

all American

health insurance

is paid out

to people in

the last year

of their

lives.

That it

seems that

when death

comes we'll

pull out all

the stops

and throw

all the

money we

can at it

because we

don't want

to die.

As Woody Allen

famously said,

I'm not afraid

to die, I

just don't want

to be there

when it

happens.

That's true

for all of

us, I

dare say.

Death is the

great taboo

of our

world.

Death is

one each

and yet

the fear

of death,

the fear

of our

day coming

terrifies us.

The world

is terrified

of death.

And then

these verses

give us the

perfect antidote

to the

power of

death and

the fear

of death.

Jesus,

who's not

ashamed to

call us

his brothers

because he

loves us.

Then

quotes Psalm

22 in

Isaiah 8

to make

the point

that he

became like

us.

Before

verse 14

applying the

significance,

he became

human so

that by his

death he

might destroy

death and

the power of

the devil who

holds the

power of

death.

He breaks

us out.

He frees

us.

Jesus died

our death

for us,

meaning that

we through

faith in

him need

not fear

death and

need not

eternally

die.

No one

else has

got an

antidote to

death except

Jesus.

Jesus

shared our

flesh and

blood so

that by his

death, death

might forever

be defeated

and death's

puppet master

the devil might

be ultimately

disarmed.

death.

He declares

by his

death that

death is

dead and

the power of

the devil is

destroyed.

Picture it

like this.

You're in the

school playground

and every day

of your life

two bullies

make your life

an absolute

nightmare.

One's called

the devil and

the other's

called death.

Every day you

go and they

ruin your life

and they leave

you cowering in

fear.

You go home

in tears

every day but

the bullying

never stops.

And one

day the

terror campaign

ends and how

does the terror

campaign end?

Because our

big brother

Jesus comes

into the

playground for

us and

gives death

and the devil

such a beating

that they

cannot touch

us anymore

because now

our death

has been

died for

us and

the one who

holds the

power of the

fear of death

has been

destroyed

forever.

We sold

ourselves

we subjected

ourselves to

this bullying

through our

sin and yet

Jesus comes

and he

destroys the

power of

death

the fear

of death

and the devil

who stands

orchestrating it

all.

Jesus became

man to die

so that by

his death

death might be

destroyed.

No one else

has got that.

death.

So the

writer to

the Hebrews

is saying

you forsake

Jesus you

subject yourselves

again to

death and

you return to

the fear that

you need and

have through

Jesus.

Only hope of

escaping death

is trusting that

Jesus died for

us.

No Jesus

only death.

Lastly

Jesus became

man to atone

for sin and

help us to be

holy.

Look at

verse 17.

For this

reason he

had to be

made like

them fully

human in

every way in

order that he

might become a

merciful and

faithful high

priest in the

service of

God and that

he might make

atonement for

the sins of

the people.

Because he

himself suffered

when he was

tempted he is

able to help

those who

are tempted.

Jesus became

man to atone

for sin and

help us be

holy.

The significance

of the high

priest is that

he is the one

who stands for

the people

before God.

He is the

intermediary.

He is the

go-between.

There's going

to be way

more detail

about this in

this letter.

But in the

Old Testament

it's always

unsatisfactory

because the

place of the

high priest is

a human.

And a human

standing before

God on behalf

of humans will

always be

unsatisfactory to

bring the two

together because

he's so biased

and fallen on

the side of

humanity.

But then we

get Jesus who

is a better

go-between.

Why?

Because he is

fully God and

fully human.

So he is the

perfect bridge in

that gap.

And therefore

he's able to

make atonement.

That word

atonement is

literally at

onement.

He is able to

bring two things

separated by sin

back together as

one.

By removing sin,

by paying the

ultimate sacrifice

for sin,

by crawling onto

the altar

himself.

Therefore,

he's able to

be merciful to

sinners whilst

also being

faithful to

God.

He is the

perfect high

priest.

So in Jesus

and only in

Jesus,

God and you

can be brought

back together.

You can be at

one where your

sin has utterly

formed a

barrier.

He deals

with our

sin,

but see that

it's not just

something that

he's done for

us.

It's something

that he

continually does

for us.

Verse 18,

because he

himself suffered

when he was

tempted,

he is able to

help those who

were being

tempted.

Because Jesus

became human,

he knows all

about temptation.

He knows more

about it than

any of us

because he was

the one who

never gave

into it.

And therefore

he's able to

help us,

he's able to

strengthen us,

he's able to

give grace to

us,

he's able to

teach us how

to resist when

we're so readily

and often

tempted.

And so I

don't know what

your New Year's

resolutions were,

dare say they're

in the bin

already.

But there are

some sins,

aren't there,

that we just

commit habitually.

We're going to

stop gossiping,

we're going to

stop using our

internet badly,

we're going to

stop being so

aggressive when we

drive.

we're going to

stop worshipping

money,

we're going to

stop twisting

and being

economical with

the truth.

I don't know

what it was.

But the truth

here is,

Jesus is able

to help us.

We're conscious

of these sins

year after year

after year and

we're never able

to break them.

But this says

Jesus is ready

and willing

and able to

help us.

So next time

you're going into

a situation where

you're tempted

to speak badly

of others in

order to make

yourself feel

better.

When you're

tempted to

gossip and

just relay

truth from the

grapevine

to diminish

others.

What about

praying?

Jesus, thank

you that you

always use your

words well.

Thank you that

you only told

the truth to

people, about

people, for

people, that you

only ever built

people up.

thank you that

now you're

using your

words really

well to pray

for me before

the Father.

And I'm going

into this

situation today

where I'm

tempted.

Where I'm

going to be

tempted to

speak badly

and just

join in

with everyone

else in the

banter.

Jesus, would

you give me

grace and

help so that

when I'm

tempted to do

that I might

be able to

withstand it as

you were able

to withstand it?

What if we

actually believe

that Jesus was

there to help

us?

As one who

knows what it

is to be

tempted,

withstood it

all, and

now stands

there ready to

help us when

we're tempted

to turn away.

You know, it's

a great truth

that Jesus

became man for

us.

No other

religion, no

other God has

got something

like this going

on.

A God who

is so

magnificent and

majestic.

He made

himself small,

crumpled

himself,

into human

history so

that we

might have

hope.

Jesus

becomes man

to give us

the absolute

essential and

only message of

salvation that

we must hear

and not drift

away from.

Jesus became

man to bring us

to glory because

we've fallen

short and are

utterly lost,

and yet he

brings us

through faith

in him.

Jesus became

man to free us

from death

and the power

of the devil.

No one else

is promising

that.

Jesus became

man to atone

for our sins

and be our

constant helper

in our pursuit

of holiness.

holiness.

And so he

writes,

love Jesus,

tie up tightly

to Jesus,

or else you'll

suffer loss

for everything.

Give up Jesus,

you give up

every hope,

every joy,

and every

comfort.

It's a wonderful

chapter,

one that exalts

Jesus to us,

one that's been a

joy to study this

week and highlighting

my absolute need

to stick in

and keep on

with Jesus

Christ.

Let me pray

and then we're

done.

Father God,

thank you that

Jesus became

man.

Thank you that

he gave up the

boundless glory of

heaven for us.

That he won

where we failed.

That he succeeded

where we gave up.

That he

persevered when

we tapped out.

Father,

thank you that

he is so

gracious to us.

He's so

understanding of

us.

He is the one

able to save

completely those

who come to

him in faith.

So Lord,

I pray for those

that do not

know Jesus.

Father,

may they trust

him as one

who knows

everything about

them and wants

to help and

to love forever.

Father,

I pray for those

who are tempted

to drift away.

Father,

I pray that

we might tie

up tightly

to Jesus

Christ and

know his

help and

comfort forever.

And Father,

I want to pray

for those that

are sticking in

with Jesus.

Father,

may we love

him more,

serve him

better and be

conformed to

his likeness.

More and more

we pray.

Father,

thank you so

much for Jesus

in whose name

we pray.

Amen.

that

and

we savior

so

as

we

do

have