02 Oct 2016
Jesus: Our Greater Brother
Passage Hebrews 2:5-18
Speaker Chris Haley
Meeting Morning
Series Hebrews: Jesus is Greater
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Passage: Hebrews 2:5-18
Transcript
Introduction
Who do you go to when you’re in trouble? You know what I mean. When it’s all going wrong—when the car’s broken down, when the kitchen’s set on fire, when you’re low, when you’re ill. I don’t mean the mechanic, or the fireman, or the doctor. There are generally people in our lives we turn to when we’re in trouble. Often it’s our family. Sometimes it’s a friend—those amazing ones you know will keep their cool when the ceiling’s coming down. Sometimes literally!
What about in our life? Who do we turn to when our life is going all wrong? When our plans aren’t working out, when our dreams don’t seem to be coming true, when relationships fall apart, when people we love leave us, when our relationship with God seems to be coming apart at the seams? Who’s on our speed-dial when those things happen?
The Hebrews this letter was written to were facing those same kind of questions. They’d had it tough—property taken, some thrown in prison. This whole “becoming a Christian” thing wasn’t working out like they expected it to. Some of them are tempted to throw in the towel, give in. Not into nothing, but into what they used to have. Maybe have Jesus, but maybe a little less prominent. Maybe that would take some of the heat off. Outwardly, their lives were falling apart. Inwardly, they were drifting away from God. Who could they turn to who could understand? Who could they run to who wouldn’t throw it back in their faces?
The author of Hebrews has spent a chapter and a bit explaining about the awesome Godness of Christ. He has shown us the divinity of Jesus, but in this chapter, he will show us his humanity. Not to engage in some theological debate—no reason to believe these believers doubted the humanity of Christ. He’s telling them this so they can know who to turn to in their desperate need, in their crisis of life and faith.
The first thing he tells them is that…
Jesus is the Glorious Man on the Throne
God’s purposes for the world are centred around man, not angels. The world to come refers back to chapter 1, verse 6. Knew that it wasn’t him becoming a man, but entering the homeland of heaven. He’s talking about the future, the age to come. Doesn’t belong to angels. Shockingly, it belongs to man. Quote from Psalm 8, read earlier, harks back to Eden—being given glory and honour, being given dominion over the beasts. Talking about mankind as a whole in its original state.
His point is, though, that we don’t live in Eden anymore. We don’t see everything in subjection to human beings. Actually, we live in a world that is thoroughly outside of our control. We are daily at the mercy of the elements. We are weekly at the mercy of the animals we are supposed to rule over. People mauled by dogs, zoo animals attacking people—that’s just in this country! About the most poisonous thing is a daddy longlegs! We are not in control of our world. We are not even in control of ourselves! Who hasn’t been in that situation where something escapes your mouth before you’ve even thought about it? Who hasn’t tried to give something up to find that their willpower was just too weak? Who hasn’t tried to change something in their life only to find they are powerless to do so? We are not as we are supposed to be—we are not in control as God intended at first. We do not see this in our world.
What do we see, though? God’s plans are centred around one human being. He is one made for a little while lower than the angels. He is crowned with glory and honour. He is Jesus. First mention by name—emphasizes his humanity. God the Son became Jesus. He is eternally Jesus, but Jesus is the God-man. Up until this point, emphasizing the deity of the Son. Now emphasizing the manhood of the Son. Because even this made him superior to the angels! Took a temporary demotion to get a massive promotion. Not as the Son—we’ve had enough evidence that he was already superior to the angels. As a man. There is now a man on the throne of heaven! Crowned with glory and honour—as intended. There by virtue of his death!
By becoming a man, the Son has rescued his people from death. His death in our place has made Him superior to the angels. Angels couldn’t die for our sins. Angels, as far as we know, can’t die! Jesus, the God-man, died. Only way he could die—taking on flesh. Jesus is the ultimate man. Fulfils that creation mandate from Eden—rule over all things, crowned with honour and glory. His death undoes what Adam did in Eden. Through His death, he overthrows the curse of death. Whilst we don’t see mankind ruling over the world as intended, we do see Jesus, the God-man, fulfilling that. And we can look forward to reigning with him. We will join in fulfilling this.
Why? Well, even though he is the glorious king of the world to come…
Jesus is Not Ashamed of Us, His Family
Do you ever find yourselves embarrassed of your family? Jesus isn’t. This section talks of sons and brothers. Sons of God the Father, therefore brothers of Jesus. Stop for a second. Fatherhood of God—yes. Brotherhood of Christ! Jesus addresses us, flesh and blood, dust, as brothers. The very race who nailed him to the cross. More than that, he’s involved in bringing his brothers to glory. God the Father is bringing many sons to glory through Jesus. Many sons! We’ve spent three sessions looking at Jesus as the great exalted Son. God addresses Jesus as Son, not the angels. Now he addresses us as sons! We’re in a better position than the angels! Bringing us to glory. We will be crowned with glory and honour—as intended. Because of Jesus’ death. That is what was needed to bring us back to Eden.
He makes Jesus perfect in the process. Not that Jesus wasn’t already perfect. The word has the idea of completeness. Which is the perfect pork pie? Weegmanns or Lichmans? They might seem the perfect ones. But then add brown sauce! Then it really is the perfect pork pie! Not imperfect before, but now complete. Something added. Jesus’ death is the reason for Jesus, the God-man’s, exaltation to the right hand of God. God the Son is now more complete. Taken on manhood and fulfilled all man should be. A man now sits on the throne of heaven. He now helps his brothers.
Because we have one Father. Older translations have “Father”—literally “all of one.” What’s in mind here is God the Father. Our Father is God. Jesus’ Father is God. The one who makes us holy—Jesus is God’s Son. The ones Jesus makes holy are God’s sons. Aside: Great definition of a Christian—one whom Jesus is making holy. We are all works in progress. Jesus is working to make us holy, to make us like Himself. Because we all have one Father, he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He is not embarrassed of his family.
Three Old Testament quotes to back up his unashamed brotherliness. Psalm 22—this isn’t Jesus speaking, it’s David! Is this ripped out of context? Is it just David? Psalm is a familiar one. Completely consistent to speak of it like that. Again, David is the anointed of the Old Testament—literally the Christ. Isaiah 8:17—word “hope” there can be translated “trust.” Likely this in mind because of verse 18. Isaiah speaking, but here the author has Jesus identifying himself as one who trusts and hopes in God. We know in His earthly ministry, he prayed. He entrusted himself to God the Father as a man. Again, the emphasis on His humanity. He is our brother because, like us, he trusts in God.
Isaiah 8:18—Isaiah speaking again. God had given him children with warnings of judgment in their names. Here, the author has Jesus speaking these words. Not his own children, but the ones God the Father had given Him. In other words, his brothers. Is he taking random quotations? No! Read the context—Isaiah 8:11-18. One of the most quoted verses about Jesus—the rock of offense. Isaiah 8:22-9:2—do I need to read on? These verses are all about Jesus. Not a stretch that the bit in the middle would be! Again, though—not places we would automatically go to. Clue that the whole Old Testament is about Jesus!
So, the Old Testament testifies not just to the divinity of Christ, but to his humanity. It testifies that we are his family, brothers and sisters, and he is not ashamed of us. Application: Such a relief. Can be so easy to fall into thinking that Jesus is ashamed of us. Can be so easy to think that Jesus must despair of us. But he doesn’t. We are God’s sons, he is God’s Son. As kooky as we are, as wayward as we can be, we are His brother. He is not ashamed to call us brother, because God is not ashamed to call us sons. We need to grasp this: God is for us. When things are hard, he is disciplining us, as sons. God is not embarrassed of us—He delights in us because of Jesus.
We should not be embarrassed of each other. Easy to badmouth other Christians, especially if they go to other churches. But if Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers, then neither should we. Not talking about everyone who walks into a church building. Not talking about every building that calls itself a church. But where there are genuine believers, we should be kind and loving as a brother or sister. The same is true within Bethel too. Are you embarrassed by the person sitting next to you? When that friend says, “You’re different from all those weirdos who go along to church,” do you agree with them? If Jesus is not ashamed to call them brother or sister, neither should you? Jesus is our brother—he is not ashamed of us, we are his family.
There’s one more thing our author wants us to see about this Jesus:
Jesus is Our Devil-Disarming Deliverer
Three reasons why Jesus became a man and took on flesh and blood. Jesus became a man to disarm the devil. The word “destroy” is a bit strong translation—means disarm, render powerless. The devil hasn’t been destroyed…yet, but disarmed. What was his weapon of choice? The fear of death. The devil is not the one who ends your days. He is the one who handed us over to death, back in the garden. He lauds it over us. He makes us fear it. Not in a helpful way, in a paralyzing way. Illustration: Rabbit in the headlights versus birds in the headlights. Birds see danger and fly away. Rabbits see danger and freeze. This is the sort of fear the devil provokes. Fear that makes us put it out of our minds. Fear that makes us fool ourselves we will live forever. Fear that distracts ourselves with entertainment—anything to avoid our mortality because it’s terrifying.
Seen on evenings at the course of your life—death is the unknown without God. It comes to us all, but none of us know by ourselves what happens. That’s terrifying! In a ‘90s film, there’s an unusually candid moment: the man doing the eulogy at a funeral says this: “It is at moments like these, my dear friends, that we must ask ourselves: How can this not be part of some larger plan? Do good men like Thompson just blink out one day like a bad bulb? I mean, one minute you’re with a knockout gal… or guy, and the next, you’re a compost heap. Doesn’t that bother any of you? Because it scares the living daylights out of me!” We would never say that. But we might think it.
Jesus frees us from the fear of death. He has conquered death. He has beaten it for his people. He has shot the devil’s fiery arrow right from his hand. He has disarmed the devil.
That brings us to our second reason Jesus became a man. Jesus became a man to be our deliverer. Jesus, by defeating death, has freed us from the fear of death. Death has no sting for the Christian. The New Testament refers to it as sleep. Stephen, in the book of Acts, dies a cruel and painful death as he is stoned to death. The Bible says, “and then he fell asleep.” If Stephen’s horrific death can be described as a nap—what have we to fear? The ultimate penalty has totally lost its power. Jesus has removed the fear from death because he has conquered Hell. No longer must we go there if we are trusting in Jesus. Hell has no claim on us. Death has no hold on us. We will rise as Jesus rose on the last day when he comes with his holy angels.
But he does not do it for angels, but for people. The offspring of Abraham here refers to all God’s people—Jew and Gentile. Galatians 3:7, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” The contrast is not Jew/non-Jew, it’s angel/human being. Jesus is the “helper” of mankind, not of angels. The word “helps” harks back to the Exodus. It’s literally to “take hold of” or “grasp” them—rare verb. Used again in Hebrews. Hebrews 8:8b-9, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.” What Jesus does for the offspring of Abraham is what God did in the Exodus. He takes hold of them and rescues them. He leads them out of slavery and into the promised land—his promised rest. That is exactly what Jesus is doing here. A rescue from slavery to the fear of death. Breaking the power of evil that holds us captive. Jesus really did bring about a new Exodus for God’s people. He did it by becoming one of us. Just like Moses, he associated himself with God’s people. Bore the scorn with them.
One last reason he became a man. Jesus became a man so that he could be our faithful high priest. We are all priests—no mere human stands between us and God. But Jesus is our high priest. Brief intro to something that will run throughout. Merciful. No mention of Old Testament priests being merciful. They couldn’t offer mercy—it wasn’t theirs to give. Jesus can offer mercy because he is the offended party. He can offer forgiveness because all sin is ultimately against Him. And he is willing to. He is merciful.
Faithful. A faithful priest was promised in the Old Testament. One in opposition to the faithless sons of Eli, who didn’t care for the things of God or for the people, but just for themselves. Jesus is that faithful priest. He cares for the things of God and he cares for the people. So much so that He made propitiation for the sins of the people. Much debate around that word “propitiation.” Not quite the same word used elsewhere for the same idea. Propitiation, if unfamiliar, has the idea of taking the wrath or anger of another on yourself. Jesus definitely did that—he took the anger of God on himself. He offered himself as the sacrifice instead of us.
This seems to be the idea in mind and is developed later in the letter. What it’s saying is that as our high priest, he has offered himself. He has been not only the priest, but the sacrifice. He suffered and died on the cross in our place. He suffered as a man. His death, but also the run-up to his death. The persecution. The taunts. Gethsemane—shedding drops of blood in agony at what was before Him. Facing the temptation to turn away from the cross. He was tempted as a man. Faced with this, it must have been tempting to give in. His own people against Him. His disciples abandoning Him. His Father forsaking Him on the cross. All of it could stop in the twinkling of an eye. All of it could go away if he just willed it. Twelve legions of angels could have come and taken Him off the cross. But Jesus didn’t give in. Despite the overwhelming temptation, he endured the cross, he didn’t shrink back.
That means He can help us. The word “help” is different here. Used of the supports under a ship. It’s what the blind and lame cry to Jesus as he walks along. It’s the idea of support, aid. We all know it’s different helping people when we’ve been through the same thing. There’s an empathy and sympathy that’s just impossible without having gone through it. Illustration: Losing the twins. Jesus has lived our human experience. He was tempted just like we are tempted. When it was hard—he was tempted to jack it all in. He didn’t give in.
Application: Original hearers. He can understand the temptation. He persevered and now offers help to those facing the same temptation. Able to help with all temptation—tempted in every way. Here it’s more specific: He’s been there. He knows what it’s like to be tempted. He is able to plead that before God the Father for these people.
He understands when we’re tempted to draw back. He understands when we’re tempted to give up. He’s been there. He is able to help us, support us, aid us, because he’s been there. We have a merciful high priest. Doesn’t laud our temptations over us. Doesn’t even laud our failures over us. He understands. If we’ve drifted, he’s not going to throw it back in our face. If we’re drifting, he’s not going to turn us away. He is merciful and faithful. We can turn to Him in our need.
Sometimes He’s the last person we want to turn to. We feel the shame of our failures. We feel the weight of our guilt. But he is the most merciful and faithful person in the universe. Who must we turn to in our trouble? Jesus. He is the only one who can help us. He will by no means turn us away if we come to him: he understands, because he’s faced those temptations himself. Unlike an earthly priest who, at best, can say, “I’m the same, pray for me too,” He can say, “I can help you, I can support you.” This whole section picks up words from Isaiah 41. He will strengthen us, help us, uphold us with His righteous right hand.
So we must go to our great high priest in times of need. We must go to him for strength to persevere. We must go to him because he alone can help us in our time of need. Let’s turn to Him now in prayer.