Captain and King | Charles Zimmerman | Calvary Church

Well, good morning and welcome to week

two of Hebrews.

Now, if you've tried to read Hebrews

either in the past or this week, my

guess is you've discovered it's not too

easy. It's kind of like a puzzle, right?

There are strange images, unfamiliar

people, obscure references.

Not just that, complicated arguments.

And you may be asking yourself, who

decided on this series and why? Well,

let me tell you why. It's in the

subtitle. What is Hebrews main message?

Jesus is better. In fact, we can take

the tagline uh the sub the subtitle of

the series. And that can be the outline

of the book. So, we have a slide up here

if you want to kind of outline how the

book works. It would go like this. In

chapters 1 and two, we read that Jesus

is better than the prophets, better than

the priests, better than the kings, even

better than angels. In chapter three,

Jesus is better than Moses and the law

that Moses gives. Chapter four, Jesus is

better than the promised land and the

rest that came from the promised land.

Jesus is better than the priest. Jesus

is better than the old covenant. And in

chapters 9-10,

Jesus is better than the tabernacle and

better than all the thousands of

sacrifices that have happened through

the years. That's why we're looking at

Hebrews. Now, you may be sitting there

saying, "Yeah, but wait a minute. I'm

not tempted to trust or to lean on or

build my life on the priest, the

tabernacle, thousands of sacrifices, the

promised land.

But you are tempted to lean on and trust

something, aren't you? In the uh uh

bumper that played before I came up

here, are you tempted to lean on and

trust your wealth, 401k, reputation,

family, grades? Are you tempted to lean

on and trust something? What's the

message of Hebrews? Jesus is better.

better than anything else we can lean

on, better than any foundation we can

build our lives on, better than anything

else we can trust. And so what that's

why we're studying Hebrews. And this

morning, we're going to look at Jesus,

our captain and our king. Now, to get

started, I we're going to look at

chapter 2. But in order to get started,

I want to show you how chapter 1 relates

to chapter 2. What's chapter 1 about?

Well, last week, Carlos talked about

chapter 1. And what was that all about?

Jesus is superior. So here here are a

few things you read in chapter one.

Jesus is the heir of all things. All

things. He's the heir. That means he one

day will have it all. And even today he

has it all. Jesus is the creator of the

universe.

Jesus is above the angels.

And Jesus is worthy of worship. So what

could we write over Hebrews chapter 1?

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

Jesus is superior, right? Jesus is the

king who's superior. But this king

doesn't sit up there looking down on us

and seeing our little plight and doesn't

pay any attention. What does the king

do? He comes to lead us. And that's

where chapter 2 fits in. So if chapter 1

is all about the king and his

superiority, he's the heir. He's the

creator. He's worthy worthy of worship.

He's above angels, infinitely above

angels. What's chapter 2 about? Jesus

comes down not just to see us, but to be

with us and become one of us. Now, we're

going to read a few verses from Hebrews

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. But before I read 5-18, I

want to read two verses that kind of

summarize the fact that Jesus is

superior, but he's approachable. That's

our king who leads us. He's superior

chapter one. He's approachable chapter

two. So look at verse nine.

In putting everything under him, God

left nothing that is not subject to him.

Yet at present we see everything subject

to them. But we see Jesus who was made

lower than the angels for a little

while. There it is. Chapter one,

superior. Chapter two, he was made a

little lower than the angels. Look at

verse 14. Jesus shared in their humanity

so that by his death he might break the

power of him who holds uh all things.

Okay. So Jesus is superior. Chapter one.

Jesus is approachable. He doesn't just

notice and see us. He becomes one of us

so that we can then spend eternity with

him. That's chapter one. All right. So,

let me read verses 5-18 of chapter 2.

And let's see what this journey of Jesus

is like when he comes to be one of us in

order to take us forever with him. Verse

5, it is not to angels that he was that

he subjected the world to come about

which we are speaking. But there is a

place where someone has testified, "What

is mankind that you were mindful of

them? A son of man that you care 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 time, we do not see

everything subject to them. But we do

see Jesus who was made a little lower

than the angels for a little while now

crowned with glory and honor because he

suffered death so that by the grace of

God he might taste death for everyone.

and bringing many sons and daughters to

glory. It was fitting that God for whom

and through whom everything exists

should should make the pioneer of their

salvation perfect through what he

suffered. 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 put 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 shared in their

humanity so that by his death he might

break the power of him who holds the

powers of death that is the devil and

free those who all their lives were held

in slavery by their fear of death for

surely it is not angels he helped but

Abraham 's descendants. 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 service to 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 being tempted. Chapter one,

superior. Chapter two, approachable. And

all that complicated reference and all

those images point to the overarching

theme. Jesus is better not just because

of his superiority but because of his

approachability. All right? So Jesus is

the king who leads us but he's also

the brother who accepts us. The brother

who accepts us. And so in verse 11 we

read this. But 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. All

right. Now in culture, any culture,

acceptance, right? He's the brother who

accepts. Acceptance always comes with

conditions and qualifications. Isn't

that right? You don't just accept

somebody for no reason. There is a

condition to the acceptance. There's a

qualification for the acceptance. Now

our world is different than the ancient

world and different than some cultures

in the world. So for example in the

ancient world acceptance the condition

of acceptance and the qualification was

your family right your genealogy who you

who's your daddy who's your granddaddy

and that's what mattered most and so

every year I read a couple times through

the gospels and every time as I'm

reading through the gospels you start in

Matthew chapter 1 and Matthew 1 if you

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

haven't read it you should read it you

should check it out a long genealogy to

start his gospel right I mean I'm

talking long right And uh it's kind of

interesting as you look through the

genealogy. If you know anything about

the characters that are mentioned, uh

let me tell you about it. There are

cheaters in that genealogy. There are

sinners in that genealogy. There are

liars in that genealogy.

There is a victim of incest in the

genealogy. And there's the perpetrator

of incest in the genealogy. There are

idolattors in the genealogy. They're

adulterers in the genealogy. I mean, I

don't know about you, I'd be ashamed to

list those kind of people. Maybe I have

them in my genealogy, but Jesus says,

"I'm proud to call these people my

brothers and sisters." What What are the

terms and conditions? What What are the

qualifications if people like that get

listed in gene in Jesus genealogy? And

remember, in that culture, genealogy was

much more important than your resume.

And so culture, there's always

conditions and qualifications. In the

ancient world, the qualifications and

conditions were all about your family

line. Now, we still have some of that.

So, regardless of where you've been and

what you've done and who your best

friends are and who your boss was and

how big your resume is, when it comes

time to checking out, you leave your

estate to your kids.

That's kind of a genealogy, right?

Genealogy kind of trumps your

accomplishments.

But that's not how our world works. Our

world, the conditions and qualifications

in our culture aren't really

genealogical.

They're accomplishments and

achievements, right? And so what do we

do in our it's is it's here's a picture.

It's as if when you're a little kid,

you're we do this to our kids. We walk

up to them and we put a little ladder in

front of them, right? And we say, "Now,

your job in life is to climb that

ladder. That's what you need to do. And

so you need to be potty trained by this

time. And you need to listen to what I

say. You need to be safe. So And you

need to get into a good school. Darn it.

And you need to get good grades in

elementary school so you can get into

the advanced class in high school. And

you need good grades in high school so

you can get into a good college. And you

need to get into a good college so you

get a good job. And you need a good job

so you make a lot of money. And you need

to make a lot of money so you go buy a

house and a vacation house. And then you

need to make money so you can fill the

house with stuff. so much stuff that

eventually you have to rent some storage

units to put stuff in so that when

you're die your kids have to clean all

that mess out.

Funny how that ladder climbing works,

isn't it? Um, but isn't that how life

works? Life's all about climbing the

ladder. Whether it's in athletics, you

got to be good enough and accomplished

enough and have enough enough

accomplishments to make the team to be a

star on the team. How about when it

comes to intelligence and academics,

you've got to perform well. You got to

climb the ladder. Everything in our

life's about qualifications, conditions.

In the ancient world, it may have been

genealogy. Jesus breaks that terms or

those terms and conditions. In our

world, it's about achievements and

accomplishments.

What does the gospel say?

Here's what the gospel says.

Whether it's genealogy or

accomplishments,

it doesn't matter what family you're in.

It doesn't matter what you've done.

It doesn't matter what you're guilty of.

It doesn't matter what you've trusted

in.

It doesn't matter when it comes to your

pedigree. And it doesn't matter when it

comes to your resume.

What matters

is are you connected to Jesus Christ?

His life, death, and resurrection

can be given to you without condition

and without qualification.

Boy, the gospel radically opposes and

comes up and smashes against whatever

culture um there is because every

culture has conditions and

qualifications in order to be accepted.

But our brother Jesus

becomes a human being and and through

the incarnation through his crucifixion

through his resurrection he says you

cannot only be accepted you can be taken

into my family

and remember what I said in chapter one

um Jesus was heir of all things

when you get adopted into his family

you become an heir with Jesus

of all things. That's amazing, isn't it?

The king who leads us, superior and

approachable, the brother who accepts

us, the only term and condition is, are

you connected to him by grace through

faith? The brother who leads us. Well,

that's not all that's there.

You also have the rescuer

who frees us. He's the rescuer who frees

us. Now, this is a long passage here,

but let me just read a couple verses to

kind of show you what I'm talking about.

You need to check this out later today.

Eagles are done. You can check it out

later. And here's what the author of

Hebrews says. Since the children have

flesh and blood,

he too shared in their humanity. That's

incarnation. He shared, that's

Christmas. He shared in their humanity,

so that by his death, Good Friday, he

might break the power of him who holds

the power of death, that is the devil,

and free those who all their lives were

held in slavery by their fear of death.

Now, what did Jesus come and rescue us

from? Uh, let me ask you another

question first. Who's the greatest

rescuer, the greatest deliverer from the

Old Testament? Somebody yell, "Who's the

greatest rescuer?" Yell it out. Moses.

Moses. Right. Moses kind of ran away

from Egypt. He's in the desert tending

his grand sending his father-in-law's

sheep. All of a sudden, God said, "Go

back and deliver my people. Go back and

rescue them from slavery in Egypt." So,

he goes back through the desert and he

del he delivers the Israelites from

slavery in Egypt. goes through the

promised land or through the desert to

the threshold of the promised land. We

won't he can't get in, but he makes it

all. He's a deliverer, right? Well, if

Moses delivered the Israelites from

slavery, from bondage, from captivity in

Egypt, well, in those verses, what did

Jesus deliver us from? Well, the evil

triad. You notice how to write our

Hebrews. Here's the evil triad. What did

Jesus deliver us from?

Death, sin, and the devil.

Now,

where do you think the writer of Hebrews

got that from? You can't read Hebrews

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Well, maybe you can, but if

you know the Bible, you can't read

Hebrews 2 without thinking about Genesis

3.

The writer of Hebrews clearly think

about Genesis 3. What's the evil triad

in Genesis 3?

The serpent slithers up to Adam and Eve

in the garden and seeks to deceive them.

And what's the deception? Here's the

deception.

You know, if you trust God, he's going

to keep you down. He doesn't have your

best interest in mind. You need to not

trust God. You need to trust yourself

and your own instinct. You know, look

inside. Follow your heart. Don't follow

God. You need to be the decider rather

than let God be the decider. and they

they agreed they became the decider.

That's called sin. That's called

treason.

And once they commit sin, what's the

natural consequence of sin? Death.

The devil deceives

by causing Adam and Eve to doubt God's

goodness. They doubt God's goodness,

trust themselves, commit sin, and as a

result of sin, they now will experience

death. There's the triad. Death, sin,

and the devil. They go together.

Why does Jesus go on this mission, this

rescue mission to rescue us from sin,

death, and the devil? And it doesn't

matter what order the order of Genesis 3

is. The devil came to deceive, right?

The serpent comes, they commit sin, and

then they die. How does he, the writer

of Hebrews says, "Yeah, we experience

death." That's what we look at. But

underneath death, the cause of death is

sin. And what's underneath that? There's

an evil force in the world. There's an

evil person who's trying to get us to

follow him and our own instincts rather

than follow God. The Why did Jesus come?

Not to deliver us from slavery in Egypt.

He came to deliver us from the ultimate

enemies that will separate us forever.

Sin, death, and the devil. That's what

he came to do.

Uh but there's one more thing.

Jesus is also our champion

who dies for us. My uh favorite verse in

Hebrews 2 is verse 10. Here's how verse

10 reads.

In bringing many sons and daughters to

glory,

it was fitting that God for uh for whom

and through whom everything exists

should make the pioneer of their

salvation

perfect through what he suffered. Now,

depending on the version of the Bible

you use, that word pioneer is going to

be translated differently. Maybe it's

going to be translated captain. Maybe

it's going to be um author. Maybe it's

going to be leader. All those things are

Here's the idea. Here's the idea. A

pioneer

cuts the way through the forest. The

pioneer is the one who climbs the face

of the mountain first. The pioneer leads

the way. And without the pioneer leading

the way, those that follow are going to

be lost and never make it. So Jesus is

not only the king who leads us, he's the

brother who accepts us. He's the rescuer

who frees us. And he's the champion, the

pioneer

who dies for us. That's what he does.

Jesus comes not just to become a human

being so we can understand what he's

saying. He becomes a human being so he

can die. He leads the way. How do we say

it?

Jesus died to death. We deserve to die

to pay for our sin. And since he has

paid for our sin, we now do not have to

experience the eternal consequence of

death because the pioneer has led the

way through the forest. The pioneer has

ascended the mountain. And if you're

tethered to him, you will make it to the

top, too. If you're tether, if you're

not tethered to him, you got no shot of

making it.

So the real question is is uh is Jesus

your pioneer? Are you tethered to him?

That's the question. Now at the

beginning uh of the section I read I I I

like how the uh how the writer of

Hebrews says it. Look at verse six.

There's a place where someone has

testified.

Yeah, that someone actually comes from

Psalm 8. So if you look at all those

indented verses there, that comes from

Psalm 8. Now, I'm going to read uh those

verses from Psalm 8. And when I read

them, you're going to hear echoes of

what we talked about Jesus

rescuing us. And you're going to hear

echoes of Genesis 3. So, here's Psalm 8.

What is mankind that you are mindful of

him? The son of man that you care for

him. You made him a little lower than

the angels, crowned them with glory and

honor, and put everything under their

feet. You know what that says? That says

we were created to have everything under

our feet. We were created in God's image

to lead as his co-regent. That that's

the original intention. That's what God

wants. That's Genesis 1 and two. Um but

then the writer of Hebrews uh says this,

maybe the understatement of of of all

understatements. Look, look, look at the

end of verse eight. Yet at the present,

we don't see everything subject to them.

Yeah, you got that right. In fact,

rather than being over things, it seems

like we're under everything. So, the

original intention is that we would

reign and be reproducers of God's image

to fill the earth. That's Psalm 8.

That's Genesis 1 and2. That's what the

writer of Hebrews says. That's the

original. Well, what happened? Well,

deception, rebellion, death. That's what

happened. So,

the original intention is swallowed up

in the rebellious

consequence

which is then swallowed up by the

gracious initiative of the gospel.

That in a nutshell, Hebrews chapter 2 is

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

in miniature the story of the whole

Bible. God's original intention, Genesis

1 and2 is that we would have all things

under our feet. Only God above us,

everything under us. That's the

original. But that's not how we see

things today. Yeah, you got that right.

Everything seems over us. Yeah, that's a

consequence of sin. That's like Genesis

3 all the way till we get to Jesus.

But the gospel, the gracious

strategy, the gracious intention is that

Jesus comes to change that

in bringing all things, all sons and

daughters, the pioneer of our salvation

ascends the mountain. And if you're

tethered to him, you're guaranteed to

ascend it as well. Now, I want to end

by looking at verse one of chapter 2.

You say, Charles, we read the end, the

beginning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We read in

the beginning. Here's what verse one

says.

We must pay careful and most careful

attention

to what we've heard

so that we do not

drift away. Drift away.

Pay careful attention

to what you've heard.

So, do you do not drift away?

Notice the author doesn't say, "Pay

careful attention. Jump through all the

hoops. You got to obey all the rules so

you don't drift." No, no, no. Pay

careful attention. You got to memorize

all this Bible stuff. You got to And you

No, it doesn't say all that. Pay careful

attention to what you've heard.

What have you heard?

The king of the universe, heir of all

things, the creator of the universe, who

is the only one worthy of worship. God

himself went on this mission and became

a human being.

He wants to adopt us into the family.

Our brother accepts us not on the basis

of accomplishment or genealogy, on the

basis of his mission.

Our champion

dies for us.

He defeated our enemies for us. He cut

through the forest and ascended the

mountain. And if you're tethered to him,

you're guaranteed to make it too. How do

we not drift away?

Remember, don't forget, don't forget who

Jesus is and what he came to do. Chapter

one tells speaks of his superiority.

Chapter two speaks of his

approachability. You need both of those

things. You his divinity, his humanity,

and his mission for us. I was reminded

of drifting away.

I went jet skiing with my grandsons not

too long ago. And so we're kind of jet

skiing around and they want to go as

fast as we can. And the little one says,

"Pop, this jet ski only goes 50. How

come it can't go faster?" So I'm scared

going my 50. Well, we there's somebody

leading us and eventually we stop. It's

pretty shallow. And the person leading

the jet ski tour, he jumps off his jet

ski. It's kind of shallow here. Jumps

off and he says, "Here, let me grab all

your jet skis." So, he's these little

little ropes and he gathers them all and

he holds them, right? All three of our

jet skis. He holds it and he says,

"Okay, jump off, swim around, have a

good time."

Huh?

Why did he have to jump in and hold the

jet skis? Because if you didn't, those

suckers would have floated away and I

couldn't swim fast enough to get mine

back.

Yeah. Kind of funny, isn't it?

If you do nothing,

the current of culture

and a desire of your own heart

will cause you to drift away.

So what do we have to do? You need an

anchor. You need to hold on. And how do

you hold on? You remember these things.

Be very careful. It's most important.

Remember,

the king

came to lead us.

God's only natural son,

went on a mission to accept us as

brothers and sisters into his family.

The ultimate rescuer, infinitely better

than the rescue Moses brought. The

ultimate rescuer

delivers us from death, sin, and the

deception of the devil.

How did he do that? The champion

paid the price we owed. He came to die

for us.

If you want to stay secure and not

drift,

pay careful attention.

Remember these things. Who Jesus is,

what he came to do. That's the anchor we

need. Let's pray.

Father, we give you thanks for this um

for this book with the strange images

and the complicated arguments and some

of the unfamiliar people and the obscure

references,

but thanks for the big picture. It's

easy to see Jesus is better. So Lord,

when we're tempted to lean on, trust in,

build our lives on something other than

the gospel, help us to remember. To

remember so we don't drift away. We pray

in Christ's name. Amen.