Jesus Paves The Way | Lawrence Campus | September 27, 2026

How many of you remember nursery rhymes?

How many of you have ever questioned how weird nursery rhymes actually are?

I mean, think about this.

Rock and by baby, on the treetop.

When the wind blows, the cradle will rock.

When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all.

What in the world is the baby doing on the top of a tree?

Like, who does that?

And then we have Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water.

Jack fell down and broke his crown, and Jim came, or Jill came tumbling after.

Not Jim, Jill.

Jill came tumbling after.

It's like all their efforts to get the water, it was unsuccessful.

And not only that, but poor old Jack broke his crown.

Or Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a big fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men could not put Humpty together again.

Now, many of our children's book had Humpty as an egg.

Was he an egg?

Or was he a boy?

Here's the big thing nobody could put Humpty back together again.

And these were the stories that we heard as kids.

And it's like, good night, kids.

Sleep well.

And all of those, something that was irrevocably broken that could not be fixed.

And that was the end of the story.

And yet, as we open up God's word, the Bible tells us something that from the very beginning, from the opening pages in Genesis, something that was broken.

And yet, the beautiful story of the Bible is that God had a plan to restore what was broken.

And it didn't involve all the king's horses and all the king's men.

It involved the king himself coming to repair what was broken.

It is an incredible story.

And we're going to see that further as we jump into Hebrews chapter 2 this morning.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

Good morning, Spring Lake.

My name is Adam.

I am the Bellevue Campus Pastor.

It is so good to be with you.

Lawrence people, this morning I love looking out and seeing people that I haven't seen for a while, and I love seeing people that I've never seen before.

And so if we have not yet met, it is so good to see you.

We are one church in three locations, and it is so good to worship the Lord together this morning.

As we jump into Hebrews, a reminder last week, Pastor Arlen took us in the latter part of chapter one where the author of Hebrews was saying how Jesus is greater than even the angels.

In that passage of how they were looking at, you know, the people that he is writing to, they were tempted because things are starting to get more difficult for them in being followers of Jesus.

It wasn't an easy pathway.

They were facing difficulties.

They had already had property confiscated from them.

They had faced jail.

There is immense suffering on the horizon.

And so in the midst of this, he is writing these believers to encourage them that in everything that they are facing, Jesus is greater, even greater than the angels.

And so the encouragement for them is don't go back to what you once knew.

Don't be tempted.

Don't get distracted.

Don't lose hope.

Don't lose focus.

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Don't drift away.

And he's going to pick up right from that passage last week as we're going to look at uh Hebrews chapter 2 this morning, beginning in verse 5, going through verse 18.

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

So I want to encourage you to follow along in your Bibles, whether you have that digitally in front of you or you have an actual physical Bible in front of you.

But we're looking at chapter 2, verses 5 through 18 this morning.

This is what it says.

But there is a place where someone has testified.

What is mankind?

That you are 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.

And 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, who was made 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.

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.

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, and 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 shared 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.

Free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For surely it is not angels he helps, 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, 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.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your word.

God, over this next half hour, I just pray that you would help us to be focused on what you have for us.

Help us to hear your voice.

Help us to be attentive to what you have to say.

Help us to see you as we should and respond to you as we should.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Well, with the hardships that the people that the author of Hebrews are facing, they are tempted to go back to life as they knew it.

And so what this author is continuing to do is showing how Jesus is greater than anything else that they could be pursuing, that Jesus is worth it.

And today we're gonna see how Jesus has done for us what nobody else can do.

And it happened because he came in the flesh fully man.

He was fully God and fully man, and through what Jesus took on, through what Jesus did, through what Jesus shared in our human experience, he has something to share with us that can only come through him.

And that is very good news for us.

And so throughout today, we're gonna see three different aspects of what Jesus shares with us because he shared our experience.

First, we're gonna see how we can share in his glory in verses five through ten.

So leaving off from the passage last week, we see that the author jumps right back into making this point that distinguishes Jesus from the angels.

For those that think angels are all that, a reminder that regardless of how we look at angels, whether we look at guardian angels or all these things that people can get caught up in, he's saying Jesus is greater than all of that.

And he goes further here to say, in making this point, that angels are not the ones that are going to be ruling over the world to come.

We see that in verse 5.

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come.

We're gonna see that that role is in particular for someone else, namely humans.

Now, that might seem right off the bat pretty far-fetched because we know our failures.

We've seen how people blow it, we see how governments blow it, we see how power corrupts, and yet what he is doing is he is quoting the psalm that we just read, that Arlen just read for us, Psalm chapter 8.

Psalms 8 · chapter mention

And so in that psalm, we can relate to the wonder that the psalmist is experiencing as he is looking at the universe, and he's saying, Man, what is mankind that you think of him?

I mean, he's looking at the moon.

Any of you see that full moon last night?

You see that, and you're like, oh my goodness, this is amazing.

This is beautiful.

You look out at the stars in those moments, then it makes you feel so small, like just a speck, seemingly insignificant, and yet people were made in the image of God and were given dominion over creation.

We're to rule it for his glory.

People were created to be God's representatives on earth, his image-bearers to rule over it.

We see in the very beginning of the Bible, in the first chapter of Genesis, where it says in verse 28 that God's command to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

So here's the author of Hebrews.

He's referring back to Psalm 8, and he's saying, God's design was that humans were going to rule over everything.

And in the vastness of everything that God had created, he subjugated it under the rule of Adam's reign.

And that design was good.

It was the follow-through on Adam and Eve's part that suffered.

That's where everything got messed up.

Because we see from the story of Genesis that Adam and Eve were deceived and they disobeyed God.

What Adam should have destroyed, he was destroyed by, and things were immediately broken.

And so at present, as we see in Hebrews verse 8, chapter 2, verse 8, we don't currently see everything that is subjugated to us.

It doesn't seem like everything is under the rule of man.

There is disease and death, there is conflict and heartache.

And as it comes to this grand design, sin distorted everything.

From the beginning of the pages of Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible, we see that things were broken, and regardless of our attempts, regardless of the latest innovation, regardless of the latest invention or progress, we can't fix it.

So we don't see that grand design that God had in mind.

And yet, in this, there is the lifeline in verse 9.

But we do see Jesus.

That is so key in all of this.

We don't see how Psalm 8 is living out, but we do see Jesus.

Now, the author of Hebrews is not saying we physically see them.

In other words, it's not that he has one up on us that he's just saying, I see him, but you can't.

No, he's saying, by faith as well, I see Jesus.

We know who he is, we know what he did, we see Jesus.

He became like us, he was made a little lower than the angels for a time to be like us.

One way we see that is in the way that people responded to Jesus.

Anytime an angel showed up on the scene, people freaked out, right?

They always had to be told, don't be afraid, fear not, right?

Fear not, I bring you good news.

Because people had a natural tendency to freak out when they saw an angel.

Now, when Jesus shows up, people weren't freaking out.

They accused him of being all sorts of things, but they were not afraid of him because his glory was veiled.

He was made a little lower than the angels for a time.

His glory was masked.

However, while on earth, while he was lower than the angels, now Jesus is crowned with glory and honor.

That glory and honor that humans were supposed to have.

Notice that the author of Hebrews is using the same word referred to, or the same phrase that he refers to, how man was created in Psalm 8 with glory and honor.

And now he's saying, Jesus has that.

And he's ruling with that.

What was lost in the Garden of Eden by mankind, Jesus has as the one who is fully man and fully God.

The original design is restored through Jesus.

And how does Jesus restore what was broken?

We see it in verse 9.

Because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Now notice the important phrasing in that.

It's not that he experienced death like everyone.

It's not just that he experienced a death like everyone else does or with everyone else, but that he experienced a death for everyone.

In other words, there's a particular kind of death that Jesus experienced that's different from any death that we'll experience because his death was substitutionary.

In other words, his was in our place.

That his death was what we deserve.

Now, get this, because anytime we talk about God's grace, being recipients of God's grace, we are talking about receiving something that we do not deserve.

And for us, it always ends up for our benefit.

Like when we get grace, we are getting something good that we don't deserve.

But on the flip side of grace, of us getting something good that we don't deserve, on the flip side of grace is Jesus getting something that he didn't deserve.

We get the good, he gets the punishment, all of it is grace out of his immense love for us, becoming human, receiving what he did not deserve so that we could be restored, so that we could be spotless, so that we could be holy in his eyes.

And he suffered horribly.

And he did so willingly.

It wasn't accidentally, it wasn't naturally, it wasn't that Jesus could just show up and then just live a long life and then take his last breath.

No, there had to be a shedding of blood.

That's why we sing that song about the blood.

Why we say, How glorious the blood?

Because without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins, and the fact that Jesus willingly took that on in our place so that we could be forgiven, so that we could experience that.

And look at what the text says in verse 10.

Jesus was made perfect through what he suffered.

Now let's just clarify that because that can look confusing because we might think, well, I thought Jesus was spotless.

What do you mean he became perfect?

The text here, it's not insinuating that Jesus became better and better.

It's not that Jesus improved in any way, it's that salvation was perfected in what Jesus had done.

It's what Jesus had accomplished.

So at that point, as Jesus lived a sinless life and died on our behalf, salvation was perfected.

It was completed, it was accomplished.

He was the perfect Savior through that act.

And so that is what he is referring to, the finished work of Jesus.

Like Jack in the nursery rhyme, whose crown, whose reign was broken because of his fall, Jesus comes in and restores what was broken.

Where humans reign on earth as it was designed, that was instantly shattered.

Jesus restores, he takes people from brokenness to glory.

We don't yet see that glory, but we will.

That's what we have to hold out to, and what he is encouraging the Hebrews with.

The glory that is to come, because sometimes what happens is people put their trust in Jesus and they expect everything just to automatically be fixed.

Like I expected life to be better, like my prayers to be answered, my relationships to improve, my job to be great, my car to work.

And yet the glory that Jesus has achieved for us is what is to come.

When I was eight years old, my family took our first big family vacation.

We went down to Florida, we were going to Disney World for the first time ever, and I was so pumped.

I mean, got to ride on an airplane for the first time, and we got to Orlando, and we got the rental car, and we we got um to our hotel and we got everything settled in our room, and I said, Okay, let's go to Disney World.

And you can imagine my disappointment when my parents said, Oh, Adam, we're not going today.

Like I thought we go to Florida, we check in, and we we head over and we see Mickey Mouse.

But that's not the timing.

It was it's coming, and we're closer than we've ever been, and the ticket has been purchased, it's inevitable.

We're in Florida, we're in Orlando, it's down the street, but we're not there yet.

That's what we need to remember with what Jesus has done for us.

Those times when we're frustrated, like I thought it would be better by now.

We're not there yet, but what Jesus has secured has accomplished everything necessary.

And so Jesus shares in that.

Secondly, we see that we can share in his family.

We see that in verses 11 through 16 as we think about the significance of relationships.

What is to be some of the most significant of relationships is our family bonds.

You know, that go beyond just classmates or teammate or co-worker or neighbor or fellow citizen, that there's a shared blood, a shared history, a shared experience, shared values.

We know that in a sinful world that doesn't always happen, that even in family relationships, there's brokenness and things get distorted.

But what happens here is that Jesus shares in his family.

We've already seen in verse 10 those that are saved by Jesus referred to as sons and daughters.

Look at verse 11.

Both the one who makes people holy, it's talking about Jesus, and those who are made holy are of the same family.

So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Now get this.

Because having a relationship with Jesus does not just put us as part of the same club, or not just attending the same service or the same church, that it's so much more significant than that, that followers of Jesus are made family with him.

That he restores from the brokenness, he redeems, and he makes us family with himself.

Like the big brother that is looking out for us, he does what we cannot do for ourselves.

Now, my wife, when she was a little girl, was playing on the playground and she fell off the slide.

As she went to brace herself, both hands hit the ground first, instantly breaking both wrists.

And as she sat there in her tears, unable to get up, it was her older brother who came alongside of her and picked her up off the ground and carried her all the way home.

And that's what Jesus does for us in our brokenness.

There is nothing that we can do to help ourselves, and Jesus comes alongside of us as the big brother, as family, and he picks us up and brings us home.

When we put our trust in Jesus, we become part of his family.

Not treated as distant relatives, not treated like that weird cousin.

But as family.

You know, sometimes there might be people that you don't want to admit that you're related.

You don't want other people to know that you like belong to one another, and yet look at how Jesus views us, and this is so important for us.

Because I don't think we really get it in our heads how Jesus views us.

Check on what he says in verse 11.

He's not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Jesus isn't ashamed to say, yeah, that's my family.

I mean, we we have family we don't even want to do that with.

And yet, in all the ways that we've messed up and we've blown it, because of what Jesus has done for us, I love you.

You're mine, you're part of my family.

I'm not ashamed to let people know that you're mine, that we belong to one another, that we're part of this family.

That it's not about some accomplishment that we've made, it's not some future condition that we've met, that he's not ashamed of us right now because of what he has done.

And the author quotes three Old Testament passages.

Verse 12, he's quoting Psalm 22, where he says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly, I will sing your praises.

So he's referring to here the fact of even from Psalm 22, this picture of having brothers and sisters.

We're gonna take a deeper dive in this in the follow-up tomorrow.

But then also he quotes Isaiah 8, verses 17 and 18, where in that Isaiah is facing enemies all around, and he's saying in Isaiah, in this passage, he's saying, I'm gonna trust the Lord.

Isaiah 8:17

I'm gonna be the one that trusts the Lord despite the enemies around.

I'm gonna be the one that sticks to what God has called me to do.

And that is the fulfillment that what we see Jesus doing right here.

The way in which Jesus did this in taking this on, he came to infiltrate the stronghold of the enemy from within, from the inside.

And in order to do that on our behalf, Jesus had to become fully human.

Now get this, because this task that Jesus took on, it seems like something kind of mission impossible, to go into this fortress of the enemy by yourself.

He doesn't do it like Chuck Norris style, or he doesn't go in guns blazing, he doesn't do it with violence, he simply lays his life on the line.

I mean, for all of us, death is the great weapon of the enemy, that's Satan's deception of mankind is what led to death.

And Hebrews is referring to it as this fear of death, this slavery that we have.

There's nothing that we can do to outrun it.

Death was the giant that everyone feared and no one had the ability to take on.

Death was the enemy that always taunted and laughed at the latest plan of what people thought would extend their life, the newest habit, the latest supplement, the latest invention that promises longer life.

He saw all of that and he laughed.

Then Jesus showed up.

And in the most unlikely of ways, Jesus defeated death.

Unlikely because it involved his own death.

Jesus had to come and become fully human so that he could experience the death, the penalty for our sin on our behalf and defeat it.

He had to experience the things that we go through so that he could fully represent us, and he did that so that we could have victory through him.

Only Jesus can secure that hope that in Jesus we have been given freedom and belonging, that we are family.

For all those who put their trust in Jesus, we are family.

That's not just a nice way of saying it.

It's not just trying to make people feel warm fuzzies.

That's biblical reality.

That is the unifying factor for us.

That it's not all we're all in the same boat because we all have kids, or we don't have kids, or we're married, or we're not married, or we live in the same area.

The unifying factor is what Jesus has done for us.

That is the bond that we have.

That is enough.

That's everything.

So as we look at relationships within the church and within life groups, it's not about finding people that are in the exact same boat that you are, it's finding people that love Jesus.

Because regardless of their age or the boat that they're in in life, they have something that is going to minister to you, and you have something that's going to minister to them.

And so, as we see in all of this, it's based on what Jesus has done, that we receive salvation, we enter into his family by faith in what he has done.

Faith is the key, and that's the point of verse 16.

It is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.

Again, this distinction of why it's not all about angels that they were starting to get focused on.

Jesus is greater.

And the role that we have as people, as followers of Jesus, that's even greater.

Because he's saying it's the descendants of Abraham that God is helping.

Who are the descendants of Abraham?

It's not by race, it's by faith.

Those are the ones that God helps.

So we become part of his family.

We receive his grace, we receive his help, we receive the belonging that only comes through Jesus.

And then lastly, we share in his victory over sin.

We see in verses 17 and 18.

Remember those TV commercials that used to offer products where it was like, you know, this knife set, and and they really made this big appeal, but then it would always be this point of, but wait, there's more.

You know, if you act now, you get this.

Or Steve Jobs used to do that when he would unveil the latest Apple device, and then he would say, There's just one more thing.

And then it would be like this groundbreaking, revolutionary new thing.

And you'd be like, oh my goodness, how can it be any better than this?

Well, when we look at what Jesus has done for us, it's like, wow, he has provided forgiveness and he has provided belonging, he has provided this victory, and yet there's more.

There's even more.

Look at verse 17 and 18.

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.

So we saw that Jesus had to become fully human.

God couldn't just say people, okay, I'm just gonna forgive.

No, there had to be a price that was paid.

There had to be a sacrifice.

Jesus being that perfect sacrifice, he had to become human so that he could die.

And he had to become human so that he could be our perfect high priest.

Meaning he is the one that stands in the gap between us and God to fully represent us.

Where it's like, man, I'm not all that.

I blow it every day.

Just ask my wife.

And you blow it every day as well.

And so, how do you stand before God knowing he is perfect and you are not?

Jesus stands in your place as the perfect high priest who loves you, who offers belonging, who offers forgiveness, who offers hope.

That forgiveness is not based on the measure of our sin.

And this is so important for us to understand.

Forgiveness is not based on the measure of your sin.

In other words, how many sins that you've done, how big those sins are.

Forgiveness is not based on the measure of your sin.

Forgiveness is based to the degree that the person that is doing the forgiving is willing to absorb the offense and not hold it against you.

And Jesus has done that.

That he is merciful and faithful before God for you.

I mean, if you have someone representing you, if you have a lawyer, you want to make sure they're doing a good job.

They represent you well.

You don't want someone that's like, you know what, I'm just kind of learning this as I go.

You want someone that knows their stuff.

And Jesus is perfect and he is merciful and he is faithful.

The sin is taken care of.

It's forgiven, it's not used against us.

Before God, we are completely covered because of what Jesus has done for us.

Our sin is atoned for.

And when we think of a covering, you might think of those Christmas gifts that are poorly wrapped.

A bowling ball.

It's a bowling ball.

I know it's still there.

I mean, you wrapped it, it's a bowling ball, I can tell.

The covering that Jesus provides for us.

It's not that, well, yeah, he provides it, but you can kind of still see what's under there.

No, it is perfect as though you had never sinned.

God forgives all of it because of the finished work of Jesus.

Now, to be clear, on this side of eternity, there are still consequences to sin.

Consequences does not mean that God does not forgive you.

Like if you were to do something, you can still destroy a relationship, you can still lose your job, you can still get the speeding ticket.

Being forgiven by God does not mean the absence of consequences this side of heaven.

But at the same time, God completely forgives every sin that we brought before him, and even the sins that we are ignorant of because of the finished work of Jesus, he covers us.

Jesus is the only one, the only one who has faced temptation and not given in.

Ever.

He has power over sin.

He has power over the temptation that comes our way, and in those temptations that come our way, he provides help as well.

It says not only is he representing us as the perfect high priest, but he also offers help to us in our time of temptation.

In those moments where he is willing to hear, to respond, that we do not fight on our own, that Jesus shares the victory over sin, that he is greater than sin's power.

So we started out with brokenness.

And Genesis gets into brokenness very quickly.

But for all the broken, for all those who are discouraged and weary, for all of those who have failed and fallen, there's hope in Jesus.

Only Jesus.

And so because of that hope, in the midst of our brokenness, when we bring that to Him, I can honestly say to you, good night, God's kids.

Sleep well.

Because this story of brokenness doesn't end broken.

Only through Jesus.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much for what you have done for us through Christ.

God, that this was not our idea, it was not our plan.

We cannot think of something this good.

That out of your immense love for us, you have this plan to redeem us.

And God, each of us, we've seen how sin can taint and how it can destroy, how it's messed up different facets of our life and relationships, and we've seen its power.

And yet, God, we rejoice that there is one who has overcome our sin, who provides forgiveness, who provides belonging, who has shared our experience as a human so that we can share in his glory, in his victory, and the belonging that we have with you.

And so, God, help us to live in light of that incredible truth.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.