Hebrews 2:5-18

And if you'll turn to Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

And let me just say again,

we'd love you to come to the carol service tonight.

! It's the easiest invite to invite other people.

! So do pop around to neighbours

or send messages to different people this afternoon.

Drag them along.

And if you're a regular,

when you come in,

sit down straight away.

And if the stewards tell you to move,

do it.

Alright?

Okay.

I'm speaking from an iPad for the first time.

So this,

yeah, we'll see how this goes.

Alright?

I suppose verse 16 is my text.

Verse 16.

Hebrews chapter 2.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Where the writer of the Hebrews says,

For surely it is not angels that he helps,

but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

That's quite weak really.

It should be.

For surely it's not angels that he takes hold of,

but he takes hold of the offspring of Abraham.

When I was first thinking about becoming a minister,

my minister back in Cardiff,

I'm an animal, Andrew Bowden,

he used to take me on visits with him to visit old people.

And we used to go and visit a man called John Lawley Thomas.

He was a real character.

The house was a tip.

And he lived in this little cottage in the middle of nowhere.

And he had an open fire on.

And there was a kettle continuously on top.

And tea stewed in that kettle for days on end.

As I think about it,

you're reminded of that kind of verse at the end of Mark 16,

that you'll pick up snakes and you will drink deadly poison,

and it will not harm them.

It was tea that had been there.

Each day, just more tea bags were put in it.

And his wife would pour out this fowl liquid

that had been stewing for days.

And she'd pour it into a cup,

which you were not sure was clean.

And then she'd hand it to you and she'd say,

catch hold, Levy, catch hold.

And it's an amazing memory, really.

You're in this kind of strange little cottage.

Catch hold, Levy, catch hold.

She was telling you, hold on to it.

It's going to be boiling hot.

It had been stewing for days.

And this verse is really, that's what it's saying.

It's saying, catch hold of it.

It's not actually help, it's catching hold.

It's telling us that God doesn't catch hold of angels.

He catches hold of the descendants of Abraham.

And Abraham is the father of all who believe.

So if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,

if you're a believer in God,

you're a descendant of Abraham.

And what this verse is telling us wonderfully is that

in Jesus, God has got hold of you.

The whole message, in many ways of Christmas,

is wrapped up in that word.

You see, God is not an arm's length God.

He's actually caught hold of us in Christ.

He's laid hold of our humanity to rescue us.

Think about that for a moment.

What would it be like for God to grab hold of you today?

What would that be like?

Most people prefer God, don't they, at arm's length?

So that famous poem,

when I was going up the stairs,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

Oh, how I wish he'd go away.

And that sums up, doesn't it,

most people's,

what they feel when it comes to God.

Half the time we want God to be there,

but the other half we wish he'd just go away.

Like John Paul Sartre,

the French philosopher and atheist,

he said that God does not exist,

I cannot deny,

but that my whole being cries out for him,

I cannot forget.

He's saying,

oh, I wish he'd go away.

Most people, aren't they,

are ambivalent about God.

Still, most people would believe in God,

but they certainly want to keep him at arm's length.

And Christmas means that God wants to get up close

and personal with you.

How does that make you feel?

He wants not just to draw near,

God wants to grab hold of you,

lay hold of you.

Human beings,

the descendants of Abraham,

that he reaches out to help,

but it's stronger than help,

the message of Christmas is that God has laid hold of us.

There's the word help, isn't there,

in verse 16 and in verse 18.

They're two very different words.

In verse 18, the word for help is to lend a helping hand

as a merciful high priest who suffered

and has been tempted.

And because he's been tempted,

he's able to give us a helping hand.

He's able to help you in temptation.

But in verse 16, it's a very different word.

Let me give you an illustration.

If you're a cat lover,

you will know if you've got a cat at home,

you can't command a cat, can you?

You can command a dog.

You can tell a dog to sit,

to heal,

and the dog will do it.

But you don't command a cat,

but you don't command a cat, do you?

Cats have got a minor will of their own.

When you want to get your cat out of the house,

out of the flat,

what do you do?

You don't just say to the cat,

off you go,

get out.

You take hold of the cat,

don't you?

You've got to manhandle the cat.

You've got to gather him up in your arms

and grab hold of him

and throw him out the door.

That's the only way to get the cat out of the house.

And that's the word that's used in verse 16.

It's a very strong word.

And that's what Jesus has done for you.

He's laid hold of you.

Jesus is not actually giving you some help from a distance,

some kind of advice.

He's come to deliver you.

He's come to grab hold of you.

He's come to put you into a new realm altogether,

to move you from one place to another.

And look how he does that.

It's beautiful in the context.

He does that, if you look at verse 11,

as our older brother.

I think it's one of the themes

that we don't often explore.

That we don't often think about Jesus

as our older brother.

I've got two older brothers.

One's eight years older than me.

The other one's 12 years older than me.

I don't know if you've ever thought of Jesus

as an older brother.

There's a film, wasn't there?

A River Runs Through It.

Two brothers.

Both sons of the manse.

Both sons of a minister in Montana.

It's a sad film in lots of ways.

Two brothers growing up in the Montana countryside.

And the older one is hardworking,

studious fella.

He's got a good job.

He's a respected man in the community.

But the younger brother's a tearaway.

He's great fun,

but always getting himself into trouble.

Always getting himself into scraps.

Pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable.

And he ends up associating with people

who lead him deeper and deeper into trouble.

And finally, the younger brother

is killed in a pub brawl.

And his older brother couldn't get to him.

They'd grown too far apart.

It's a moving and quite tragic story.

And the tragedy is the older brother

saw it happening to his younger brother.

He could see what was happening

in his younger brother's life,

but there was nothing he could do about it.

He tried and he tried,

and the whole film is about this.

He could see what was going on,

but he couldn't reach him.

He couldn't get through to him.

He couldn't come to where the younger brother was

and rescue him.

But this verse is telling us

that Jesus has seen our plight from heaven,

and he's come down to earth

in order to grab hold of us,

in order to rescue us.

He is the elder brother

who protects us in the playground from the bully.

He's the one who comes to where we are

when our life has been made a misery by the bully,

and he comes right to where we are

in order to rescue us.

Not in a patronizing way.

Older brothers can be very, very patronizing,

can't they?

You can be maybe a little bit resentful

of your older brother.

Maybe he's always done the right thing.

It's a bit like the story of two brothers

that Jesus tells, isn't it?

The stay-at-home son who does the right thing,

and the one who ruins his life.

It's that sort of story,

and we're told here in verse 11,

can you see it, of Hebrews chapter 2,

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers.

That our older brother has come into the playground

as if it were to rescue us from the bully.

He lays hold of us in our sin and misery.

So how does he do that?

How does he rescue us?

Our older brother has come because we are flesh and blood.

He has become flesh and blood.

In order to bleed and die,

that's why he became flesh and blood.

And so don't coo over the little baby

and say, well, isn't he lovely?

The reason that he became a little baby

was so that he could go to the cross and die for us.

Do you see how the passage runs

from Christmas through to Easter?

Look at verse 14.

Since therefore the children

share in flesh and blood,

he himself,

likewise partook in the same things,

he became like us,

that through death,

he might destroy the one who has the power of death.

That is the devil.

The big brother

has come to beat the bully

who has made life a misery.

And how is he going to do that?

Verse 17.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers

in every respect

so that he might become a merciful

and faithful high priest.

That is how big brother took our human condition.

He came into a broken, fallen world.

He became like us,

but was without sin.

For this reason,

he had to become a merciful

and faithful high priest

in the service of God

to make propitiation

for the sins of the people.

Do you see?

It's Christmas,

therefore Easter.

He came in order to become

a priest,

a sacrifice

in the temple.

And by the eternal spirit,

we're told that he offered himself to God.

We're told in chapter 9,

in verse 14 of Hebrews,

that he is the priest

and the sacrifice.

He comes and he offers himself to God

as an atonement for sins

so that,

what?

We might come into the presence of God.

So that we might meet with God

in his temple.

One writer has said that

from the road from Bethlehem

leads to Golgotha.

The crib and the cross

are cut from the same wood.

Just think about that.

Here's a little poem.

God in a manger,

defenseless,

enfleshed,

Emmanuel crying

and fighting for breath.

God in a manger,

wriggling and raw,

laid out on the wood,

enthroned on the straw.

God at Golgotha,

pierced in his flesh,

Emmanuel crying

and fighting for breath.

God at Golgotha,

forsaken and lost,

stretched out on the wood,

enthroned on the cross.

He took flesh

in order to bleed and die for us.

Why does he have to do that?

Well, because of what we're told

in these verses,

that there is a bully

who has made life a misery,

hasn't there?

You might remember,

it's not a completely

unfamiliar story,

isn't it?

A 10-year-old girl

who is snatched

from the street

in the suburbs of Vienna.

For eight years,

she's kept beneath

this man's house

behind a steel door

in a tiny windowless cell

until mercifully

and wonderfully

she seizes the opportunity

to escape.

You might remember the story.

Just imagine that.

A 10-year-old girl

snatched off the street,

kidnapped,

locked in a windowless cell

behind a steel door.

The Bible says

that's the human condition.

That is why

the big brother

has got to come.

That's what's happened to us.

Look at verses 14 and 15.

Since therefore

the children share

in the flesh and blood,

he himself likewise

partake of the same things

that through death

he might destroy

the one who has

the power of death.

That is the devil.

and deliver

all those

who through fear of death

were subject

to lifelong slavery.

That is why

big brother Jesus

needed to come

and rescue us.

Because we've been enslaved,

we've been kidnapped,

the devil has a hold of us.

The devil has the power

of death.

And he holds us

in slavery to it.

That's why people

are so afraid of death.

They're so fearful of it.

It's the devil's trump card,

the fear of death.

Tolstoy wrote about it

in his confessions.

He says this,

he said,

something strange

began to happen to me

at the age of 50.

At the age of 50,

I had a wife

who loved me

and whom I loved.

I had a large estate

which without much effort

on my part increased.

My name was respected.

I enjoyed physical strength

and yet I could not live

because I was afraid to die.

The question

which brought me

to the verge of suicide

sought an answer

without which

one cannot live.

Is there any meaning

in my life

that my inevitable death

does not destroy

today or tomorrow?

Death will come

to those I love

and then to me.

Soon will not only

I not exist,

but eventually

no one will exist

who will remember

anything I've written

or done.

Why then go on

with the short effort?

What is it all for?

What does it all lead to?

What difference

does it make

whether I do this thing

or that thing

or nothing at all?

So Tolstice says,

I could give no rational meaning

to any single action

or even to my whole life,

but what was so surprising

was how we can fail

to see this.

For a time,

it's possible to live

intoxicated with life,

but as soon as

when it's sober,

it is impossible

not to see that life

in the face of death

is a fraud

and a stupid fraud.

How often I've been told

you cannot understand

the meaning of life,

so don't think about it,

just live.

I can no longer do that.

That's a stark reality,

isn't it?

That's universal.

What is the point

of it all?

If we live

for a moment

and then we die

and there's nothing else

or worse than that,

worse than that,

the Bible says,

it is appointed for man

to die

and then to face

the judgment.

And so Paul talks

about this,

the Bible talks about this,

the apostle

in 1 Corinthians 15

in those really famous words

that you hear

at the graveside

of a Christian.

And this is what Paul says,

he says,

death is swallowed up

in victory.

Oh death,

where is your sting?

Oh death,

where is your victory?

Oh death,

where is your sting?

The sting of death

is sin

and the power of sin

is the law

but thanks be to God

who gives us the victory

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying

there is hope.

There is hope.

I think I've told you

the story before,

there's a family

driving along in a car

and the window is down

and there's a bee

that flies into the car

and that is annoying,

isn't it?

And scary.

But there was a child

in this car

who was allergic

to bee stings.

And so it's not only

scary and annoying,

it's life threatening.

The dad swerves the car

to the side of the road,

the little child

in the back

is panicking

and what the dad does

is he manages

to grab hold

of the bee

and he presses it

against the windscreen

and he holds it there

in his hand.

And then eventually

the dad shouts out

in pain

and he releases his grip

and the bee flies out again.

And the little child

is panicking.

But the dad

is able to say,

isn't it,

look here,

look at my hand.

Look at my hand,

see the sting.

Its sting is in my hand,

it can't harm you.

I have taken the sting.

The bee can still buzz around

but it can't sting you anymore

and that's what

our big brother has done.

He's taken the sting

out of death

and that is the hold

that the devil has

and so you and I,

the truth is,

isn't it,

you and I are going to die

and you and I

are sinners

and so in death

we will encounter

God in judgment.

We will meet him

and the sting of death

is sin

and the strength

of that sting

is the power of the law

and we deserve

God's judgment

and we deserve

God's anger

against us forever

because we are sinners

and that is the devil's trump card.

And that's why you and I

are afraid of death

when we're willing

to think about it.

That is why death

haunts us

as a culture

every waking hour.

But Jesus comes to us

as our big brother

and he says,

look at my hands.

Look at my hands,

they've been nailed

to the cross.

See, there's the sting.

The sting is gone.

He has absorbed it.

Look at what it says

in Hebrews 2

in verse 9.

Can you see what it says

at the end of verse 9?

It says,

he has tasted death.

The Lord Jesus,

the baby in the manger,

experienced death

with the sting in it.

He was made sin

who knew no sin

that you and I

can be made right

with God.

And so that's why

the Christian would say,

oh death,

where is your sting?

Oh grave,

where is your victory?

Because thanks be to God

who gives us the victory

through Jesus Christ,

our Lord,

and our big brother.

There's a lovely story

of a man going

into an art gallery.

It's the famous painting

of Faust

playing chess

with the devil.

And the devil

is leering

across the table

at a despairing Faust

whom he's checkmated.

Apparently the story goes,

a famous chess player

used to come into that gallery

and he used to come in

time and time again

and he would sit

and he would stare

at that picture.

One day he found himself

staring at that painting

yet again

of the devil

leering across

the chess board

at Faust

with the devil

saying checkmate.

this chess player

looked at all the different

positions of the chess board

and one day

there's a great cry

he rings out

apparently in the gallery.

As he cries out,

no, there's another move.

It's not checkmate.

There's another move.

And so the message

of Christmas is this,

the devil thinks

he's got us.

The devil thinks

he's got a hold of us.

It is checkmate.

He holds us

in slavery

through fear of death

and Jesus comes,

our big brother,

and he says,

no, no,

it's not checkmate.

There's another move.

And he moves

from the cradle

to the cross

and he makes

atonement

by his eternal spirit.

He offers himself

to God.

That's the move.

His death

frees us.

It beats the bully.

It beats the hell

out of it.

It takes the sting

out of death.

His death

is for us.

It is vicarious.

It is victorious

because in his death

he beats the bully

who's made our life

a misery.

It robs him

of his hold

of us.

It takes away

the ground

from under his feet,

doesn't it?

He comes

and he accuses you

and he says,

you are a sinner.

And we say,

well,

yeah,

I know I'm a sinner.

He says,

you deserve

God's anger.

I know I do.

You deserve hell.

I know I do,

but the Lord Jesus

has taken that

for me.

He has taken

that anger,

that justice,

that hell.

And look at verse 13.

I love this.

Look at verse 13.

And again,

I will put my trust

in him.

And again,

behold,

I and the children

God has

given me.

what I'm trying

to say to you

is this Christmas,

if you will put

your trust

in the Lord Jesus,

if Jesus catches

hold of you,

the devil

loses his grip

on you.

Look at verse 13.

behold,

behold,

I and the children

God has

given me.

He's not going

to lose any of them.

Not after what

he's been through

to rescue us.

Here I am,

he says,

and the children

that you have

given me.

And so let me

ask you as I finish,

who has got

hold of you

this Christmas?

What is it

that is driving you?

You've got to

serve somebody,

haven't you?

Let me read to you

like I've done

before the Bob Dylan song.

You may be

an ambassador

to England or France.

You may like to gamble

or you might like

to dance.

You may be

the heavyweight champion

of the world.

You may be a socialite

with a long string

of pearls,

but you're going to

have to serve somebody.

Might be a rock

and roll addict

prancing on the stage.

Might have money

and drugs

at your commands.

Women in a cage.

You may be a businessman

or some high degree thief.

They may call you doctor

or they may call you chief,

but you're going to

have to serve somebody.

You may be a state trooper.

You might be a young Turk.

You may be the head

of some big TV network.

You may be rich or poor.

You may be blind or lame.

You may be living

in another country

under another name,

but you're going to

have to serve somebody.

You may be a construction worker

working on a home.

You may be living

in a mansion.

Or you might live

in a dome.

You might own guns

and you might even own tanks.

You might be somebody's landlords.

You might even own banks,

but you're going to

have to serve somebody.

You may be a preacher

with your spiritual pride.

You may be a city councilman

taking bribes on the side.

You may be working

in a barber shop.

You may know

how to cut hair.

You may be somebody's mistress.

You may be somebody's heir,

but you're going to

have to serve somebody.

Might like to wear cotton.

Might like to wear silk.

Might like to drink whiskey.

Might like to drink milk.

You might like to eat caviar.

You might like to eat bread.

You may be sleeping on the floor,

sleeping in a king-sized bed,

but you're going to have

to serve somebody.

Yes, indeed.

You're going to have

to serve somebody.

It may be the devil

or it may be the Lord,

but you're going to have

to serve somebody.

So who's it going to be?

Who holds the reins of your life?

What's driving you?

Listen to what the Apostle Paul says

in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

One of the things I love

about the Apostle Paul

is he's always telling his story.

He's been a Christian

at this point for about 30 years

and he writes this.

He says,

not that I've already

obtained all this

or have already arrived

at my goal,

but I press on

to take hold of that

for which Christ Jesus

took hold of me.

It's the very same word

that's in Hebrews 2.

It means to seize

or to arrest

or to be taken

into protective custody.

And Paul says,

that's what Jesus did for me.

I was walking along

the Damascus Road

and I was going the wrong way

and Jesus took hold of me.

I was going the wrong direction

and along came

the great shepherd

who came for his sheep

and he took me

into his protective custody.

Has he done that for you?

Do you know this morning

that if he's done that for you,

you are safe?

That's where our safety is.

It is to lay hold on Jesus.

It is to be taken

into his custody.

Maybe you're here this morning

and you think

that would be great

because my life

is out of control

and you're carried away

by your lust

to places you don't want to go.

Maybe this morning

you're stuck in a rut

and you can't get out of it

and you long for someone

to come and take hold of you

and to transform you

into a different realm

and that's why Jesus came.

And he can do that for you

this Christmas.

He can do that for you

before you leave this room.

I press on,

Paul says,

to take hold

of that.

This isn't just

turning up to church

once on a Sunday.

This is saying,

I'm going to catch hold

of Jesus Christ

who has caught hold of me.

Christmas gives us

God in the flesh

who catches hold of us.

Let's come back

to the verses we close.

Verse 16.

It's not angels

he took hold of.

It's the descendants

of Abraham.

It's believers.

Abraham is the father

of the faithful

for all who will believe.

It is not just

humanity blankly.

It is those

who believe in him

are safe in his grip.

Men will not live

forevermore

because of Christmas Day

despite what

Boney M say.

You will only live

in

forevermore

if you're in the grip

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If Christ has caught

hold of you.

If you're in the grip

he has manhandled us

in order that we

might become

sons of God.

Tells us he's become

a high priest.

What does a high priest do?

A high priest brings you

into the presence

of God

and he gets the presence

of God into us

and Jesus wants you

to do that

and he wants to do that

for you this Christmas.

Let's pray.