Hebrews 2:14-18 • Jesus > Death • Joel McCarty

Be reading from Hebrews 2, verses 14 through 18.

Hebrews 2:14–18

Now since the children have flesh and blood in common Jesus

also shared in these so that through his death, he might

destroy the one holding the power of death.

That is the devil and free those who were held in slavery.

All their lives, by the fear of death.

For it is clear that he does not reach out to help Angels but to

help Abraham's offspring. Therefore, He had to be like his

brothers and sisters in every way so that he could become a

merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to

God, to make atonement for the sins of the people for sins.

He himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help

those who are tempted. This is the word of God.

Are you prepared to die? Some of you might have been

watching a few weeks ago when Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo

Bills. Collapsed during a Monday night

football game after taking a hit to the chest at the exact right

Ms of his heartbeats Rhythm. Now, if you were watching the

game, it didn't take long to realize that this was not a

normal football injury even though you couldn't see Damar

Hamlin's body on the field, you could see his teammates and the

reaction of the Medics. And you knew something was

seriously wrong, and later we would learn that his heart

actually stopped beating and he had to be revived.

Right there on the field. And since then, he has

progressed, he is expected to make a recovery and be able to

live a very normal life in the future.

But for the first few hours and days following that event, no

one knew that would be the case. No one knew if he would be okay,

the game was canceled immediately because it didn't

matter, even though from The Stance of football, you know, it

mattered, it didn't matter anymore and you could see Sports

reporters, who had rarely if ever talked about death on the

air. Or even spirituality or the

future Life. Begin to give their insights and

opinions. And there are moments when as a

society we are forced to collectively wrestle with the

reality and inevitability of death.

Sometimes it's one person that for some reason our culture is

captured by as it was in this case other times it's more

communal events such as mass shootings or something like

covid-19. Who I know, affected family

members of new Eden family here. And I don't bring up death just

because I want to start the sermon out.

On a morbid note I bring it up because our passage from Hebrews

talks about the reality of death.

And in fact, it doesn't take long to read the scriptures

before you start looking at the reality of death, just Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, it's there. The reality is no matter who you

are, no matter what generation you were born in, no matter what

culture or what, part of the world, you are born into death,

will be a part of your life. Death is the singular.

Most consistent thing that humans face you will die.

And so the question I proposed to you this morning as we look

at our text is this are you prepared to die?

So good morning again church and welcome to this Gathering of new

Eden here, at our building that we named the Garden.

We specifically named it the garden because you, the people

are new Eden Church, that sometimes causes confusion.

Someone thought we changed our name to the Garden.

I've heard that one when we moved in this building, also

this week on the little ring doorbell.

If you ever come here, you can leave me a little message, and

I'll get it out front. But this woman looks in the

building and she says, oh no, it's not a church anymore, and

Moves on. So I had, I was like, well,

joke's on you. We are the church, so that's

what you get. But, anyways, I don't know.

So, I am glad to be a part of this local expression of The

Universal Church from all times and all places.

If I've not been able to meet you yet, my name is Joel and I

have the privilege of serving as one of the pastor's here at new

Eden today, we are continuing in our series, through Hebrews, we

are finishing up chapter 2. So, what you just heard read

verses 14 through verse 18, which Which is the end of the

chapter. So a see if you guys remember

what we practiced last week, the theme of the book of Hebrews is

Let's try it again. The theme of the book of Hebrews

is Jesus is better. That's it right?

He is greater. He is supreme.

He is superior. However you want to say it

right. The preacher of Hebrews has to

this point and will continue to make it clear that Jesus is

superior to the best things you've ever known and he's

better than the worst things you've ever experienced.

We saw he's greater than the angels.

We saw that he is the true and better human.

We saw that he is the true. New and better older brother.

And this week, we're going to see that.

As powerful as death is Jesus is greater As I said, a moment ago

the scriptures do not sugarcoat the reality and issues that

death brings up and our passage today is just as honest it does

not sugarcoat what death is and so we're going to start right

there by looking at the problem of death.

This is the first point we have the problem of death.

In verses 14 and 15. There are a few different truths

that are preacher acknowledges about the problem of death three

that I want to highlight. The first one is death is scary

in verse 15. Our preacher says that humans

all their lives are held in slavery by the fear of death.

When we begin to think about death in one way or another it

grips us and it scares us I think death is scary because

it's unknown, right? It's brutal.

You can't ask someone who's died.

What it? What?

It's like because they're gone. You can't try to learn about the

experience. Like, you can maybe with

marriage or parenting or starting a business or something

else. Scary.

There's also the fears of all the things associated with

death, right? When I think about that, I

actually don't think I fear death as much as like, what

death encompasses, how am I going to die?

Is it going to be painful? Is it going to be over a long

process? We might have the fear of our

loved ones having to take care of us.

Like we've had to take care of others.

We might have the fear of not having enough strength to do

basic human functions for ourselves, and that's just

getting into the realm of the fear of our own deaths.

What about the fear of the deaths of those closest to us?

Ask any parent if they're able to even think about what it

would be like to lose their child or maybe they have and and

fear is probably a pretty appropriate word to describe

that emotion. We just acknowledge that.

And that's just like death is scary.

I'm just scratching the surface, it separates it.

Fractures it destroys and it divides and there's nothing

anyone can do to stop it. That's what's crazy.

Death is not only scary. Our text tells us that death is

also powerful and verse 14. Our preacher says that there is

a power of death and that power is strong.

We can look at it in our text. We can go to a lot of scripture

but we can also look around us. Death is intimately powerful.

It can like, like, very acute. It can destroy an individual in

just a moment or sometimes even worse over years as a body and a

mind deteriorates towards the grave, it's acutely powerful.

But it's also broadly destructive death has touched

everything. That's why we see natural

disasters while we see these accidents and and the effects

It's of death or powerful as well.

Things don't get better things. The moment they're created, they

move towards death. You spent half your life, just

trying to maintain stuff. Go look at the trampoline

falling apart in my backyard right now, right?

It's only like, a year and a half old and it's falling apart.

I'm like, I'm just gonna have to throw it away.

It's deteriorating. I was looking, I try to stay up

to what the city council is doing.

And I was reading the paper the other day and they're having to

vote on replacing the rubber playground like area at Delano

Park just the Rubber surface out there, thousands of dollars not

to make it better just to make it what it was.

Like just maintaining stuff, death, affects everything.

And the last thing that we see our text acknowledges about the

problem of death is probably the most disconcerting, and it's

this death is no respecter of persons.

It does not matter your Earthly status.

Every human, no matter how great you are, no matter how much you

took care of your body, which is a good thing to steward.

No matter what we will all die. Duff is undefeated like it is we

watch it like if you follow Sports you see like at some

point like people say it this way you know father time is

undefeated is the way the sports announcers will say like it

comes for all of us whenever and however and from the moment were

born, that's the path we're headed on and we can try to

distract ourselves. We can try to just not think

about it. We can live our youthful lives

and there's nothing wrong with that.

But death will ultimately beat us and we can't stop it for

ourselves or those around us. Death is a problem, it is scary,

it is powerful and it is no respecter of persons, but our

passage does not only acknowledge these truths.

It also takes time to explore death of bit further because

death is actually only a symptom of a deeper problem.

We saw the problem of death and now as we keep reading, we see

the source of death. See, death is just not this

abstract thing that happens. It happens for a reason.

There is a root problem and it is why death is powerful and

prevalent. And that problem is sin, that's

the source of death. Verse 14.

We're told that the one who holds the power of death is the

devil. As we saw a couple weeks ago, he

is the one who in the garden deceived, the first man and

woman convincing them that it was best to rebel against their

creator. And this is how sin is the

Avenue by which death came into the world.

Romans is very clear that Romans 5:12.

Romans 5:12

Therefore just as Sin entered, the world through one man, Adam

and death through sin in this way.

Death spread to all people. Why?

Because all Send sin is the source of death and that's not

good news because none of us are immune to sin.

Mankind is deeply flawed and depraved though.

We were we talked about original Glory.

A few weeks ago, we were created in God's image.

We have rejected that to go our own way and we have begun to

worship ourselves and those around us instead of the one who

created us and this hurts us And it hurts the ones around us sin.

Brings death sin destroys. I had to remind one of my

daughters of this this week is she's getting in trouble and she

brought her younger sister into this who now also got in trouble

and I was like, sin hurts you. And not only that, it hurts

those around you, sin is not harmless, it's not meaningless.

It is disruptive and destructive.

And it's everywhere on an individual level.

Sin is in the heart of every human of every individual.

Not only that sin is in the depths of every system, it's a

systemic problem. Sin, affects governments

politics churches. Schools, police forces

courthouses and communities. It is everywhere and it touches

everything and it fractures, and divides.

And it was the goal of the To me for this to happen, to destroy

the opposite of God's plan, which was cultivating life, and

flourishing, and joy, and Justice, and righteousness, and

in its place sin replaces that with violence, destruction,

Injustice and immorality. And because of this sin, not

only leads to physical death but even worse a spiritual and

eternal death, a separation from our life Source, who we were

created to be in Union with when we rebelled against him and sin.

Fractures this we are now separated from that fraternity

and because of this, no one, I don't care how you answered the

question earlier. If we are still in our sin, we

are not prepared to die. The Outlook of the world is

pretty bleak. We are not progressing towards

some greater Utopia and there is no greater Utopia back here that

we just want to get back to and things would be better.

The reality is ever since Genesis 3 ever since the fall

it's been broke. This is what the one who holds

the power of death wanted. This is why the enemy dresses up

sin to be desirable. He is tempted and deceived and

caused Humanity to call evil good and good evil.

This is why we have to take sin, seriously, it's why we don't

play around, it's why warnings against the deceitfulness of sin

are prevalent for God's people. It's not just like, I know.

Here's some really good stuff you want to do and it'd be fun

but let me keep you away from that.

No, it's like ripping the mask off of the sheep to show the

wolf behind the mask, it is peeling back the layers to say

this destroys. This is not the way of life.

This is the way of death. It's what the Book of Proverbs

is It's what it's all about. But here's the problem, we can

name sin and we should. But sometimes I think we think

the answer to dealing with sin, it's to just name it if we just

unmask it and we beat people over the head with the Proverbs

and the rules and the commands, then they'll get it right?

But here's the problem. Taking sin more serious.

Doesn't loose the chains. The preacher of Hebrews uses the

language of enslaved. The way we deal with sin,

sometimes like going to a person and change that is enslaved by

their captor and yelling at them and tell them.

Don't, you know, you're enslaved.

Just stop doing what your Masters making you do.

Just stop. It's absurd, you can yell at him

and tell him to stop being a slave, but you haven't dealt

with the problem. You haven't freed the man.

Even if he knows he's a Slave. He does not have the power to

set himself free. He cannot break his own chains.

And this is how it is, this is how the preacher describes us

with sin and with death. This is our lot.

There's the problem of death. There is the source of death but

thank God. The story does not end there.

Because dripping off the pages of our text is not only these

realities but also the truth about the supremacy of Jesus, as

powerful as death is Jesus is greater, he is greater than the

source of death and death itself.

Until Jesus death was undefeated.

But when death face the Son of God, it met its match.

And this is the last thing. We'll see the death of death.

I'm going to pick up my tissues. The death of death.

See, Jesus was unwilling to watch us struggle against sin

and leave us alone. Jesus was unwilling to stay

distance. As death wreaked, havoc, on

humanity and Enslaved. The people, he created.

So, he decided to what our writer says in Hebrews, 2:14 to

share in our Flesh and Blood. Now, since the children have

flesh, and blood and common, Jesus also shared in these the

Incarnation of God Emmanuel God With Us all, because he wanted

to cross. The chasm cross the Divide not

to help Angels but he reaches out to help us.

That's what verse 16 says, to her to reach out and help

Abraham's offspring. That's true.

Israel. All God's people through belief

in the gospel. And so how does he help us?

How does he deal with the problem of death?

He gets to the root of it. Hebrews 2:17 2:18 therefore

Hebrews 2:17

because he's reaching out to help and deal with this problem

of death. He had to be like his brothers

and sisters in every way top to bottom so that he could become a

merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to

God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he

is able to help those who are tempted.

Jesus. God becomes Like, Us in every

way willingly submitting himself to the limits of humanity,

taking on the weaknesses of Flesh and Blood, 100% God, who

also became a hundred percent man.

He got physically, tired. He knows what it's like to be

exhausted. After a long day of caring for

others, he gets it when you're in that area.

He knows what it's like to be lonely.

He needed time to rest. He laughed.

He cried. He was happy and he was sad.

He added aches. He had pains, he bled, like you

and me. He was rejected.

He was human. And the whole goal of his

Incarnation was to deal with sin and he not only knows what it's

like to face the natural limits of humanness.

He also knows intimately what it's like to face the suffering

of the temptation of sin. And so because of this, this is

important for us to grasp and mind-blowing that when you are

struggling against sin, Jesus is not distant and aloof standing

offs hand. You got yourself in the mess,

hope you can figure it out. Let me know when you do.

Because that's how I parent half the time.

He's not waiting for us to finally get it right.

Rather, he is a merciful and faithful high priest faithful to

intercede for us. A faithful high priest is making

atonement for the sins and bringing them into the presence

of God, not kicking them out. He is sympathetic and

understanding, like, in this, this is like changing the way I

parent. Like, I know this in my head,

but like, when I was talking to my daughter the other day about

the danger of her sin because it's he's like I'm like, why

would you eat food in your room? I've told you a million times.

Not a lot of have food in your room.

Why are you hiding it? But then like I'm like this is

not how God deals with me. So I'm like, hey F was with say

it was I I think from The mind of a seven-year-old who sees

candy and food and they want it. I said it's hard.

Huh. It's hard and I get it and then

it's hard to not lie about it because you don't want to get in

trouble. And so I get that and even more

so Jesus gets it. He understands.

Do we see Jesus holding that loving posture toward us when we

are in the midst of giving it a Temptation because I'm much more

inclined to think he's angry at me.

Disappointed. But the scriptures paint the

truth for Jesus. He is on our side, he is for us.

It's also important for us to have a category of suffering

that is fighting since Temptation.

Most of the time, we have two categories for suffering General

suffering, like someone, I loved died.

Okay, and that is suffering. Then the other category we have

is persecution. Somebody actively hurting us

because we are standing up for the gospel.

Okay, there is a third category in scriptures.

Not only here, go read 1st, Peter, that suffering is

fighting temptation of sin. It is not a sin to be tempted.

Jesus was tempted. And This ship's only see the

Temptation instead of throwing on guilt to an already difficult

struggle. We recognize that it's hard.

And that Jesus recognizes that it's hard.

God gets it as the psalmist said, he knows our frame and he

remembers that you're simply dust.

But he also gets it because he became flesh.

He faced the same thing. Hebrews 4 14 to 16.

This is later but I know you guys are going to forget it by

the time we get there. So I'm gonna jump ahead

therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed

through the heavens Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to

our confession. For you do not have a high

priest who is unable to sympathize with your weaknesses

but one who has been tempted in every way as you are yet without

sin. So if that's true.

Let us approach the throne of grace, with boldness, so that we

may receive mercy and find Grace to help us in time of need, when

you are facing Temptation. And when you've completely given

in, don't run away from Jesus, run to a throne that is dripping

with Grace and receive his Mercy.

There, your sin is not too much grace abounds, all the more

Jesus does not only sympathize in your struggle against sin.

He does that intimately, he crawls down into the mess.

But he's also the great high priest who deals with it.

He atoned for it, propitiated for it.

Here has will explore this in more detail later about Jesus as

our high priest but for now I want you to think about what it

means that he has a tone for us. This idea of atonement is both

dealing with the judicial penalty of sin.

This propitiation his life for ours but also a holistic

restoration of a relationship. Okay, the whole goal of

atonement on Even on the old Covenant was so that people

could be in the presence of God. It's not just this arbitrary

thing where, God just as judge, that's a piece of it.

But it's also got his father and restoring that relationship.

And so there was a need for a perfect sacrifice, who could

make atonement for the people? Without the shedding of blood,

there is no forgiveness. And so on the cross, Jesus

becomes the lamb, slain Behold the Lamb of God who takes away

the sins of the world, he is also the scapegoat on whom the

sins of the people are placed sent outside the city to suffer,

bearing your guilt and your shame.

He atones for us and deals with our sin once and for all, he's

not sacrificed over and over and over.

Once for all and in dealing with sin, he deals with death.

Back 2, verses 14 and 15. It's what we're told through his

death. Through the death of Jesus.

He might destroy the one holding the power of death.

That is the devil, and not just tell them, they're in sin, but

actually free those who were held in slavery, all their lives

by the fear of death. Welcome to the death of death.

By denying Jesus destroyed death and the one who wielded its

power. So upside down doesn't make

sense. He does it by dying as he has

led to the instrument of his death, this Roman cross where he

will be hanged, the crowd jeers and they mock him yelling.

Why don't you save yourself? Unaware, that he was actually

saving the world. His hanging begins.

But the irony is, they seek to slay Jesus But instead, they

slay sin. Because Jesus became what he

hates. So we might become the ones he

loves and the upside down way of his kingdom, though.

Jesus really did die. It was really his physical body.

That was laid in the grave, but because he became our sin, he

did not go to the Grave alone. Death was also buried in the

Tomb that day. Jesus and death.

Both go together to the grave but only one is getting back up.

and even though the enemy wants held the power of death, On

Easter morning, it all changes. On that third day, the ground

shakes Stone rolls away and up from the grave.

Jesus has raised loose. Our chains, death is now slain

and the King Reigns. Deaf has died Nevermore to

return, death is no longer undefeated it, took a massive L

and it'll never recover from it. Through the Life, Death burial,

and resurrection of Jesus death has lost its sting So even

though in the here and now we acknowledge, we still see the

effects of sin. We get it, it's up close and

personal, but the sting is gone. So we no longer have to fear

death, through the power of the spirit, we can look death in its

face and makáts. That's what the scripture is.

That says o death. Where is your sting?

That's mocking it. Death is the one thing as cool

to Trash Talk. Where's your sting?

It's gone. Grave.

Where is your Victory? Oh yeah.

You lost. I love the way the wrapper

triply puts it in a song, Ready is what it's called it talks

about losing his father to death and it talks about being ready

to die. And in the last verse he talks

directly to death and this is what he says.

Those of you that don't know, rap just excuse the grammar.

Here we go. But hey, death police know.

We won't have much to grief. Oh, because you got to rhyme it,

okay? When all your winds are repoed.

And the reaper reaps what he sowed.

So I'm going to run from you. What I got to flee for, did it

hurt your self esteem? When you heard your sting was no

more except he says no mo mo mo and my kids.

Love that part. It's good.

Go check it out. This is good news.

See we try to cope with the reality of death by saying it's

just a part of life. But it's not.

It was never meant to be that way things in the garden.

We're not dying. But now, through the work of

Christ things get put back together again and death and

he'll go to the Grave where they belong, and for those in Christ,

there is no power over us. It's why we can sing no guilt in

life. No fear and death.

This is the power of Christ in me exchange, the power of death

for the power of Christ. And he's going to return and

finish the work completely. There will be no more death, no

more crying, No More Tears, no more pain.

Not only will the sting of death be gone but the presence of

death will be gone. And as we begin to believe this,

we are actually freed in the Here.

And Now from the fear of death, we are no longer slaves to the

fear of loss and death. Whether it be physical death, or

the loss of a dream, or a reality, or a relationship.

Or an ideal. We once had and don't get me

wrong, like, fear and death and loss and pain doubt that all

still exist. In one sense, we can be honest

about that. We can admit that death is hard.

This is not some hope that just glosses over the depths of

suffering and grief, we can grieve but not as those who have

no hope if death and the one who wills it has been destroyed.

Then there is nothing left. Left to fear.

And this can change us from placing safety as the top

priority in our life. Safety for me.

And the ones I love, I just want to live as long as I can, which

is just a freaking blip on the radar of Eternity.

And we spend all our lives grasping for that.

Instead, we moved from safety to stewardship and say this is

God's and it can be stirred it for his kingdom, both for myself

and those I love. And I don't say that without

recognizing the sacrifice that that is The good news of the

Gospel does not ignore the depths of grief but it does free

us to look at and its face look suffering in its face and the

walk right into it because we know that that death, that pain,

that suffering that Temptation, it's all just become a slave to

the purposes of God. Just like the enemy when they

placed Jesus on the cross, inadvertently helped accomplish

the atoning work of salvation for all.

Now in Christ, your life, the enemy's work of Temptation and

death in your life will only serve to bring about God's glory

and your good. This is the massive upside down

nature of the Gospel instead of us now being enslaved to death.

Death is now a slave to the Glorious work that God is doing

in your life. And so, I finish where I

started. Are you prepared to die?

And if you answer that question by talking about the things,

You've accomplished in your life where the will that you've

prepared or the Investments you've made or the life

insurance plan you have. I might have to push back.

Because who can really ever do enough to make sure you're

prepared to die. But if by God's grace, you could

answer that question by saying, I have no other argument.

I have no other plea. But it is enough that Jesus died

and that he died for me. It is only the death and

resurrection of Jesus that could ever remove the sting of our

death. And so the invitation is, if you

don't know Jesus, we want you to know him like that, all the

things of this age will let you down and they're all taking you

towards death, but in Christ, there is life offered to you.

And for those who do know Jesus, I want you to be encouraged that

Duff and the source of death. Your sin has all been fully

dealt with, by Jesus hear me. Clearly it is not your battle to

fight. The work is finished.

It is accomplished, it is complete.

So, rest in the work of Christ, because death is dead.

You are are now free to live.