Message and Incarnation - Part 2

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 Open your Bibles to Psalm 22. We're gonna do something a little bit different this morning. Um, I actually did a switch. Uh, Psalm 22 is gonna be read at the beginning of this service, and then I was gonna read the Hebrews passage now, but I, this is the one I want ringing in your ears. And because I want you to think about it, I'm gonna ask you to stay seated.

Normally we stand for the reading of God's word. Um. But I'm gonna ask you to stay seated, and I just want you to think about these words. These are the words of Christ. This is a messianic psalm. The crucifixion is described, uh, hundreds, even I think over a thousand years prior to the invention of crucifixion.

So I want you to hear the emotion in his voice. Because we will better understand what we read and what we study in the book of Hebrews today, if we catch this, and we will be returning to this psalm in the midst of the sermon. So hear this for what it is, the words of Christ, the words of our Messiah. My God, my God.

Why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day. But you do not answer by night. But I have no rest yet. You are holy. You are enthroned upon the praises of Israel and you are fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them to you. They cried out and they were delivered and you, they trusted and were not disappointed.

But I am a worm, not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. They separate with their lips. They wag their heads. Commit yourself to Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. Yet you or he who brought me forth from my mo, from from the womb.

You made me trust upon my mother's breasts upon you. I was cast from birth. You have been my God for my mother's womb. Be not far from me for trouble is near. There is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of baan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lying.

I imported out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It's melted within me. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt. My tongue cleaves to my jaws. And you lay me in the dust of death for dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil doers has encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me, they divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots. May God add a blessing to the hearing, the reading, and the correct understanding of his word. Now you can turn to Hebrews chapter two. And the title of today's sermon is Incarnation part two, and I need to explain that a little bit because last week was Jesus and His Angels part two, and now we're on another part two.

Well, it's because they didn't finish last week, so today just became a part two. But the topic of today's sermon is the incarnation and Kids on your fill in the blank sheet, and moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas. This is every bit as important for you as well, but what does it mean to be incarnate?

And there's a, there's a fill in the blank. Kids that you can fill in to be incarnate means to take on flesh. Jesus took on flesh. In other words, Jesus became human. Jesus became one of us. And the writer of Hebrews number one on your outline is review or recap. And I just wanna review where we've been and then we'll pick it up.

But the writer of Hebrews begins by explaining that Jesus is superior to all things. And in chapter one, Jesus is superior to the angels. And then we begin chapter two and the, the topic continues, but all of a sudden we face a warning. It's a warning passage. And Jesus, or the writer of Hebrews says, we must pay closest attention to the gospel.

How often do you think about the gospel? How often do you rehearse the gospel to yourself? And this is covenant language, and we've talked about this a lot. And the writer of Hebrews is setting up a, a, a comparison throughout the book. He's going to compare the old covenant under Moses with the new covenant.

And what he's gonna argue is the new covenant far outshines the old. In fact, the old is so poultry compared to the new that it was always meant to go away. And because the old covenant was meant to go away, consider more careful the Gospel of Christ. Could you rehearse the gospel? Do you preach the gospel to yourself on a daily basis?

'cause we need it.

And then he cites Psalm eight. And the, the thing about Psalm eight is Psalm eight speaks about the, the dignity of man. Man was to have dominion over all things. But the writer of Hebrew says that that didn't seem to happen. It didn't happen. We don't see it. And he reminds us of sin and we think of the fall.

But then he refers to Christ because his topic matter is the incarnation. When Christ became flesh, when Christ became a man, he did fulfill Psalm eight, and he brings us with him. He lifts us up with him. And then beginning in verse 10, the author begins to expand upon the incarnation. Why? Why did Jesus have to become in incarnate?

And, and we see, we saw last week it was to die. Jesus became a man for one soul, perfect pur, uh, purpose to be perfected in death. So the next question we should be thinking about and the next question that the writer will start to unpack for the rest of the epistle is, what did the atonement accomplish?

And I just wanna stop for a minute because we do a really bad job in the modern church. The atonement of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension. We don't agree on it. Churches disagree. We don't agree on the nature of the atonement. We don't agree on what the atonement affected, what it accomplished, what it didn't accomplish.

And yet, 2000 years ago, he warns this group of Hebrew Christians. Who are toying with going back to the old covenant, consider the words of Jesus. Pay closer attention to the words of this new covenant and what's worse. I mean, it's bad enough that we don't agree, but what's worse is we don't even know how to talk about it.

We get into these conversations and they turn into arguments. They turn into church splits. They turn into a lack of understanding. What they normally don't do is turn to the text. Yeah, what does the text say? And we've got about 11 chapters where the author of Hebrews is gonna discuss this very topic matter and then look at verses 10 and 11.

I wanna read verses 10 and 11. The author writes for, it was fitting for him. Speaking of Christ, it was fitting for him. I'm sorry, speaking of the father here, it was fitting for him. For whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect. The author of their salvation through sufferings, and I told you last week that word sufferings every time you see it in the book of Hebrews, the actual word is passion.

And it always refers to the crucifixion. It always refers to the death of Christ. Christ's mission was completed. It was fulfilled. It was perfected in his death on the cross. Verse 11, for both. He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

And we saw last week that the author of Hebrews uses this word sanctification in a slightly different way than Paul typically does. And here in the book of Hebrews, this word sanctification, typically refers to the entirety of your Christian life from regeneration being born again to glorification.

It's kind of a snapshot word. And that brings us to where we are in the text, chapter two, verse 12. So number two on your outline is Jesus, our high priest, Jesus, our high priest.

And I want this to be ringing in your ears because the topic matter is still the incarnation. So what have we learned so far about the incarnation? Jesus became a man to die. Jesus became a man to secure our sanctification, which is used parallel with the word salvation. Jesus came to secure our salvation, and because Jesus is incarnate, he is not ashamed to call us brethren.

I mean, think about that for a minute. Almighty God became a man, and if your faith is in Christ Jesus, he considers you a brother. He considers you a family member. That should blow our minds that Jesus would call us brother. Look at verse 12 saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren. In the midst of the congregation.

I will sing your praise. Verse 13. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me, and I've read the book of Hebrews, I don't know how many times, but it wasn't until this week that all of a sudden it jumped out at me. Why does he turn to the Old Testament to prove this?

I mean, if you think about it, I don't know that anyone Jew or believing Gentile would've questioned the fact that the Messiah would praise God, that the Messiah would talk about God, that the Messiah, whoever the Messiah saved, whoever followed the Messiah, they would trust in God. So why the appeal to the Old Testament?

And I think there's at least two reasons. Number one, I've already said this, but I'm going to repeat myself because he's setting up a comparison. He's setting up a comparison between two covenants, the old covenant, which was transitory and was supposed to go away, and the new covenant that we're supposed to pay more attention to.

And what he's attempting to show by appealing to the Old Testament is throughout and we'll see it 'cause he's gonna do it over and over throughout the Old Testament. It speaks of Jesus throughout the Old Testament. It speaks of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament, it speaks of this new coming new covenant.

Something better, something richer. And we read Psalm 22, and you all probably recognize, you probably recognize the first words of the Psalm because Jesus cried out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me far for my deliverance are the words of my groaning. And the thing to keep in mind with Psalm 22, because remember, and again, I'll remind you again and again.

Whenever the New Testament authors cite an Old Testament verse, they are not proof texting. Think of it as a hyperlink, and if we're going to understand what Jesus is talking about here, we need to go back and we need to read the entirety of Psalm 22. Amen. He's gonna cite Isaiah here in just a another verse, and we need to go back and we actually need to read four chapters of Isaiah to understand what Jesus is talking about to get the context in the context of Psalm 22.

It's a Psalm of lament. It's a psalm where the writer originally David, but David did not fulfill those words. Only Christ can fulfill the words of Psalm 22, and David and Christ are pouring their heart out to God. Because of the upcoming cross, and then the crucifixion is described in this psalm. But the interesting thing about this psalm, if you go and read it, it, it goes back and forth from lament to trust, to lament, to trust, to lament to the longest section of the Psalm is praise.

And what Jesus is reminding his readers, yes, the Messiah trusts in his father. Yes, the Messiah will save people and those people will trust in the Messiah. And yes, the Messiah will talk about God and sing praises to God. And the Old Testament talks about it throughout this entire Psalm that I'm referring to is a Messianic psalm.

This was all predicted. This should be nothing new to you Hebrew readers. And I wanna point something else out before we go because I wanna challenge you with this and I think we do a pretty good job here, but I, I'll, we still need to be challenged. Jesus himself says, I will sing your praise. And literally the word there is hymns.

I will sing hymns. And that doesn't relegate us to only hymns or you know, there's all kinds of songs we can sing, but do you sing when we stand and sing? Do you sing? Do you belt it out or do you hold back? Do you sing? And this is more of a problem with men than it is with women. Men tend to hold it back for whatever reason, and somebody suggested, and I think we're gonna do it one day.

One one day we're gonna do a song. One of our songs is just gonna be all the men come up front and we're gonna sing because of all people, the heads of households should praise God. If Jesus the incarnate Christ is gonna praise his father, how much more should we praise God. Look at verse 13, and again, I will put my trust in him and again, behold I in the children whom God has given me, and both verses come from Isaiah chapter eight verses 17 and 18.

And I don't have the time to develop the whole context because in order to understand the whole thing, you really need to go back and you need to read Isaiah chapter six through nine. But the fascinating, fascinating thing about Isaiah Chapter eight is it too is a messianic part of the Old Testament.

It too speaks of Christ. In fact, that whole section speaks of Christ, and you'll recognize this verse. This comes out of Isaiah chapter seven. Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel God with us.

And the fascinating thing about this is that's the prediction. It was the prediction given to King Ahaz. And it, the, it, it is initially fulfilled in chapter eight of Isaiah. Isaiah's wife has a child. She has a little boy, and the little boy is, is born at a, a certain time that the prophet points out to King A has.

But when you read the whole section, when you start at chapter six and you read through chapter nine, that child cannot fulfill everything that Isaiah has predicted. That child did not have the government placed on his shoulders. That child was not described literally as the father of eternity, sovereign over eternal affairs.

You see, only Jesus can fulfill Chapter six through nine of Isaiah, and so the author cites it and he cites it to remind. His readers that the entirety of the Old Testament speaks of Christ. The other fascinating thing about this citation is the author has already cited from the law of Moses. He's already cited from the Psalms, and now he cites from the prophets.

And if you read your New Testaments and you study some history in this day, during the days of Jesus, the Old Testament was divided into the law, the prophets and the Psalms. And the Psalms sometimes were called the writings 'cause it would've included all the poetry of the Old Testament. So it's the author's way of indicating that the entirety of the Old Testament speaks of this Christ.

The entirety of the Old Testament predic predicts this coming new covenant predicts something better. Verse 14. Yeah. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise, partook of the same that he might render powerless him who had the power of death. That is the devil. Verse 15, and might free.

Those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. And that last phrase, those who through fear of death were subject through to slavery all their lives. That is covenant language that describes the old covenant people. Because later in the book, he's gonna emphasize and bring this out even clearer daily to sacrifices every day.

There was a burn offering in the morning, a burn offering in the evening on the Sabbath. There were additional sacrifices, and then you had all the different fest festivals and and feast days. And then you had people bringing free will offerings. The temple flowed with blood. The priests never had a break, and the people lived in fear.

Because they knew if they did something, if they sinned in a certain way, they had to bring a, an animal and they had to go to the temple. And even if they didn't think they sinned that way four times a year, or three times a year, four times, depending on how you, you count it, they had to go to the temple.

The men were required, the families could come and they had to go to the temple and they had to experience sacrifice.

All of that ends with Jesus. Let me summarize what's been said so far. What was the intent of the incarnation? And we read that in verse nine. By the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. We looked at that last week. What was the effect of the incarnation? Bringing many sons to glory. What was another purpose of the incarnation?

Through death he might render perilous him who had the power of death. And we see that in verse 14, that he might render power as him who had the power of death. That is the devil. And I wanna stop, and I wanna talk about this because so many Christians get this wrong. So many Christians give Satan the devil, whatever name you want to use, way too much credit.

And they still, they, they read this verse and they read him who had the power of death, and they seem to forget the other half of the verse. He was rendered powerless. And we speak of Satan as if he has so much power, as if he should be so frightening. And don't get me wrong, you don't wanna mess with demons.

Demons are real and you wanna deal with them biblically. But any and everything that Satan ever did was by permission. And we see that in the book of job. We see that in the garden. We see that throughout the Old Testament, God is the one who is sovereign over life and death. God is the one who has numbered George days, not the devil.

The devil acted via permission and he has been rendered powerless in this area, in the area of spiritual death. He can no longer deceive the nations. He's powerless. He can't do anything in this respect, and we give him way too much credit.

Verse 16, and this is an interesting verse for assuredly, he speaking of the son, speaking of the Messiah, for assuredly, he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the seed of Abraham. And what's fascinating about this is that word translated help. It's a difficult word to translate. It really doesn't mean help technically.

And basically what the translators are doing is they're trying to make sense of the word that's being used. Now, what this verse says is true, okay? There is no salvation for angels. We've talked about angels the last couple weeks. It came up again in Bible study, okay? All the angels were created good, but the angels fell.

There was a fall in heaven. Okay, the, our best guess the best number that scripture gives is about a third of the heavenly beings fell with Satan. Okay? There is no redemption. They will end up in the lake of fire. There is no redemption. Jesus did not come to redeem angels. He came to redeem the seed of Abraham.

So there is no help for angels, but remember the context. The context is the incarnation. And what's fascinating about this verse is literally what it says is he did not take on angels. He did not take a hold of angels, but instead he took on the seed of Abraham and what scholars all the way back to the early church to modern day.

The way they've understand this passage is Jesus became incarnate as a man, not an angel. Jesus took on the nature of man, not angels. Again, your minds. Your mind should be exploding. The God of the universe loved us enough to become one of us, to take on our nature. He didn't change the fact that he was God.

It didn't change anything about him being God, but he is the God man, and he took on our nature. He took on a humiliation so that we could be saved. And angels, according to Psalm eight, and the, the writer of Hebrews were actually under the angels for a temporary period of time. He did nothing for angels, but instead he came to Earth.

He came for our sake. And then the word de seed of Abraham. Again, your mind should be jumping at things that we've talked about in the past. You should be reminded of God's covenant with Abraham. I've said this before, I'll probably say it a number of times as we look at this book. If you don't understand the covenant, if you don't understand how the covenant worked throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament, you will miss the meaning of this book.

It is all about the better covenant. It is all about the new covenant and what Christ accomplishes in his new covenant work. And it was all set up with these old covenants. And we should be thinking of the covenant when he speaks of the seed of Abraham. And we read in Galatians chapter three, verse 29, Paul writes, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed heirs according to promise.

So how do we become the seed of Abraham by faith? Sola fide by faith alone. It is faith alone that makes this the seed of Abraham. It is faith alone that saves us and justifies us. Yes, works come with faith and works are important in terms of sanctification and works are evidence and proof that your life has been changed.

You see, the gospel is powerful and if the gospel doesn't change your life, then you don't understand the gospel and you need to talk to somebody. The gospel says that if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are a new creature. You are a new creation. You have been born again. You have been restored to righteousness and knowledge.

The gospel changes you and it is received by faith and by faith alone, sola fide.

And then he repeats himself in a sense in verse 17, he had to be made like his brethren in all things. There's only one difference between Jesus and us, and the writer of Hebrews spells that out in chapter four, verse 15. Jesus had no sin. We are sinful, but Jesus had no sin. That is the only difference.

Other than that, he's a human being. He got cold. He got tired.

He had to be made like his brethren in all things that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. And I just, I wanna take a minute and think about those words, merciful and literally what this word means in the original is sympathetic. Jesus is sympathetic to our plight.

Jesus is compassionate and we struggle with this. I mean, if we're honest. Most of us, myself included, are angry with where the world's going. We're angry with unbelief. We're angry with what unbelievers do. Jesus was compassionate, and I know we've talked about this. I preach the sermon on it. There's a place for righteous anger.

But if I'm gonna err, I want to err on the side of caution. Am I compassionate to my unbelieving neighbor? Do I love my unbelieving neighbor? When I look at my unbelieving neighbor, do I say something along the, the eyes of that is me. If it wasn't for Christ, the things that our unbelieving neighbors do, they're acting naturally because they're old creatures.

We've been born again, but Jesus is a merciful, a compassionate high priest, and he's faithful. He's trustworthy. This word means trustworthy. And I want you to think about these words. We learned so much about Christ in this book, and the reason I want you to think about these words is because I know you and I know myself, and there's not a single person sitting here today that isn't hurting over something, whether it's health, whether it's a family member, a broken relationship, a child who you don't know if they're walking with Christ.

A loved one that you've shared the gospel with over and over and over again and they don't seem to be interested. Or, like I said, health, I know many of you are struggling with various health issues. I know that there are some in this congregation that are struggling with a crisis of faith. What should I believe?

Why should I believe it?

Set your mind on Jesus. Remember that Jesus is a merciful and a faithful high priest. The most important thing you can do as a struggling human being is get to know Jesus. Go to the scriptures, read everything there is, and it's the whole book 'cause it's all about him. But start making a list. Start, you know, writing a diary, start journaling, whatever you wanna call it.

Who is this? Jesus. What has this Jesus done for me? What does it mean that he's a merciful high priest? I mean, the very fact that Jesus became a man is enough to blow your mind. We're all hurting over something. Do we trust Jesus? Do we believe that he's faithful? Do we have the same attitude that Jesus has?

And the writer of Hebrews will talk about this later. For the joy set before him, he went to the cross. I know people whose lives, quite frankly suck. I don't know if that's an appropriate word for the pulpit. But they're miserable. They're hurting on a daily basis. Why God, why did you let this happen? Why me?

And yet we learn that Jesus is a merciful in a trustworthy high priest, Jesus is one we can turn to remember the words of Psalm 22. Listen to go back and read Psalm 22 this week. Listen to the passion. In his voice, listen to the passion of his words he took on, according to Isaiah, our hurts, our pains, our infirmities, our sin.

He's a merciful and compassionate and trustworthy high priest in things pertaining to God. And what specifically is the author talking about things pertaining to God? Well, the last part of the verse spells it out, and we talked about this ever so briefly last week, but I, it it's, it is so important. We need to talk about it again this week to make propitiation for the sins of the people You see, this is at the heart of the atonement.

This is at the heart of the crucifixion. What did Jesus accomplish on the cross according to these words? And it comes out in the English, it comes out even clearer in the original, according to these words, he made propitiation, whatever that word means. He accomplished that on the cross. So what does that word mean in your bulletin?

There's a couple of handouts, and one of them is the extra handout that I always give you. There's a sermon note handout. There's one with an outline of Hebrews where we're at. So far. I've outlined Psalm two for you. I've outlined Isaiah eight for you. There's a bunch of bible verses that I'll refer to, and then at the bottom of the first page, you'll see at the very bottom, expiation and propitiation, that was a printing error because when you, uh, line up a document on one printer and you go to a second printer, sometimes it doesn't line up the same.

That actually goes with the chart on the back of it. And what I'm comparing on that chart is what's known as expiation and propitiation. And I don't wanna make, I don't wanna turn this into a seminary lesson. I don't wanna turn this into something technical. So by all means, see me if you want something more beefy.

Beefy. But here's the point. The word translated propitiation in Hebrews chapter two, verse 17, is debated among scholars. What does this word really mean? If you have an NIV Bible, it translates it atonement. Most bibles translate it propitiation. Other bibles simply translate it. Sin removing sacrifice, and other bibles translate it expiation.

Now again, without the seminary lesson, I believe the word means propitiation. Now remember, whatever it means, it was accomplished. That's the grammar. That's what the text is saying. He accomplishes it on the cross. Now I believe the best understanding is propitiation, and what that means is he removed the wrath of God.

God is angry at sin. Old and New Testament speak of the anger of God. Speak of God, punishing the wicked. Speak of God, punishing sin. He is holy. He is righteous. He has to punish sin. And remember, Jesus is as much God as the Father and the Spirit. Jesus'. Divine nature must consume sin. The divine nature of the spirit must consume sin.

God is angry with sinners. We love to make the distinction. God hates the sin, not the sinner. He hates the sinner. The Bible is crystal clear on that. There is no separation. Now, we're not supposed to hate the sinner. But God, because he's holy, because he's just, he hates the sinner. And when Jesus went to the cross and when Jesus died on the cross, he propitiated God, those for whom Jesus died.

The sin that Jesus took to the cross, God is no longer angry with, but let's say I'm wrong. Let's say that one of the other translations, atonement, sin, removing sacrifice. Expiation is better. Here's. What it boils down to, and here's the point of the author of Hebrews. As he progresses through his book, Jesus fulfills the entire Levitical system.

And the Levitical system had different sacrifices, signifying different things. The sin offering, pictured atonement, the SIN offering that was, that was offered on a regular basis pictured the removal of sin. Okay, the burnt offering, this is fascinating, the burnt offering, and every single day of the week there was a morning burnt offering and an evening burnt offering.

It pictured propitiation. It pictured soo, the soothing of God, the removal of his anger. So even if I'm wrong, and the word means something slightly different again, I don't think I'm wrong, but we can debate. He accomplished everything. He accomplished the entire Levitical system. He removed your sin. He covered your sin.

He satisfied the wrath of God in terms of your sin, and it is a completed action. If Christ went to the cross for you, your sins are gone in terms of the guilt they bring in terms of the punishment and the penalty that they bring. And this done by a merciful, a loving, a kind, a compassionate. High priest.

And then we get to verse 18. And verse 18 is another one of those verses that is often misunderstood. And verse 18 says this, for, since he himself was tempted and that which he has suffered, he's able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. And the reason this verse gives us a problem is so often when we think of temptation, we think of sin.

And let's be honest, most of the time when we talk about being tempted, it's because we've sinned. It all right. But I, I wanna give you a, a, maybe a better handle on this word, because this word can certainly be translated temptation, but at the core, at its basic meaning, it literally means tested. And it's really a better way of looking at this passage and at this word.

So literally, you could read this passage for, since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he's able to, I'm sorry for, since he himself was tested. In that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tested. You see, we're all tested, and being tested is a good thing because this Greek word at the core of its meaning is not just being tested, but it's being refined.

It's the same word that would be used of gold or silver. When you boil, you heat up gold and silver and you boil all the impurities out. When we're tested, when God brings trials, and James says, considerate joy when you walk into a trial, when God brings trials into our life, they're tests. And yes, they can turn into a temptation in sin, or they can turn into a refined Christian life.

They can turn into a strengthening of your faith. So it's better to understand this, that Jesus was tested because Jesus never sinned and we are constantly tested. And again, Jesus has compassion. Jesus is trustworthy, and testing and refinement is a good thing, and it is a necessary thing in our lives. We are a fallen people and we need it.

God knows exactly what each of us need. That's why our lives are different because a sovereign God knows exactly what I need. A sovereign God knows exactly what you need to transform you more into the image of his son to transform you more into what Jesus is. To bring about holiness in your life.

Number three on your outline, Jesus is superior to Moses, and this is an introduction, and this is gonna last longer than the first six verses. We're only gonna look at the first six verses today, but Jesus is superior to Moses, and what's fascinating is he starts with an encouragement. He starts with an encouragement, but then when we get to verse six.

He's back to a warning, and one of the things that I want you to recognize in this book is he goes the, the author goes back and forth between encouraging and warning, encouraging and wondering, warning, and we'll come back to this illustration, much like parenting, he's behaving much like a parent, behaves with their children.

Here's the encouragement. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling. He speaks to them as covenant members in good standing. He speaks to them as believers. He refers to them as holy brethren, brothers, sisters, who have been set apart to Christ, who have been set apart to God. Those who have partaken of a heavenly calling.

They've experienced the covenant blessings. We'll see it again in chapter six. And he encourages them with these words. I haven't given up on you. I know you're on the precipice. I know you're thinking about going to the old, old covenant system. Don't do it. Consider closely Christ. Consider that message at a deeper and a closer level.

Consider what the incarnation brought about. Consider that he's superior to angels and he's even superior to what many thought was the head of the old covenant Moses. Moses was never the head of the old covenant. Jesus was the head of that covenant as well. Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.

Consider Jesus the apostle and the high priest of our confession. And this word consider should make you think of the warning in chapter two verse one. Think more about the new covenant. It's, it's another word that has to do with critical evaluation. Do you critically evaluate the gospel? Are you striving to learn the gospel more and more?

Are you striving to understand the work of Christ more and more, the work of the Father, more and more, the work of the spirit more and more? Are you working? Are you striving at understanding the Bible more and more? How does the Bible fit together? That's what this word means. It means to think about, and it means to apply one's mind diligently to Jesus.

The apostle and high priest of our confession, and this is the only place in all of scripture that Jesus is called an apostle. But you have to understand, Jesus was the apostle capital THE. Apostle simply means one who is sent by another and one who is sent with the full authority of the sender. Jesus is God.

Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament, and the New Testament is described as the sent one, the one whom the Father sends. Jesus says, the Father sends me and I do his work and he brings with him the full might and authority of God because he is God. So he is the apostle. Of our faith, and he's also the high priest of our confession.

And this idea that Jesus is the high priest, the author is going to start expanding no less than five chapters. He's gonna talk about what Jesus does as high priest, how Jesus' job has been done. So again, we go back and forth between warning and encouragement. Verse two, he speaking of Jesus, he was faithful to him, who appointed him as Moses was in all his house.

Now you gotta pay attention to the prepositions. Every time it speaks of Christ, it's gonna speak of Christ as being over the house. And every time this passage speaks of Moses, Moses is in the house, Moses is part of the house. And if Jesus is the builder of the house, if Jesus is over the house, then certainly he's superior to Moses, which is what the author says in CH or verse three, for he has been counted worthy of more glory.

And hopefully you remember the meaning of that word because it comes up a lot in the Old Testament. He is weightier than Moses. He is more significant than Moses. He should capture your mind in a deeper way than Moses. And I'm not saying ignore Moses. I've multiple times from this pulpit I've said We need to know the law better.

We need to know the Pentateuch better. But Moses is nothing in comparison to Christ. Because Christ is worthy of much greater glory, much greater weightiness fame, honor, devotion than Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. Couple of things about this word House.

Number one, contextually, it refers to Israel, okay? Contextually what the author's talking about, it refers to Old Testament Israel, Moses. Was within the house, and Moses was a faithful servant in the house, but Jesus is the builder of a house. Okay. Secondly, it has a greater meaning, and we'll see. It refers to the church.

This house that he's talking about is ultimately the Church of the New Testament. And again, I just wanna remind you, the church didn't begin with Jesus. And sometimes we think it, it does, but I'll show you from a quotation here in just a minute. The church existed in the Old Testament. What Jesus did is he reconstituted the church.

Jesus is the new head of the church, but the church existed all the way back to Adam and Seth. Those people who worshiped God, they were always referred to as the congregation. The people of Israel, when they left, uh, Egypt, they were considered the congregation in the wilderness, the exact same word that is consistently translated by the Greek word church.

The church has always existed, but Jesus reconstituted it, and this house is the church. So number one, Israel. Number two, the church. Thirdly. It ought to remind you of the Davidic Covenant, and the author has already referred to it. It ought to remind you of two Samuel chapter seven, where in two Samuel chapter seven, verse 11, God promises to build a house for David.

And we've already looked at that passage, and you remember when we looked at that passage that neither David nor Solomon nor any other son of David could fulfill the words of that prophecy. Only Christ could. And the house that God promises to build is his church is a church that consists of Jew, and Gentile is a church that will gather from every nation.

So House ought to remind you of the Davidic covenant. And then verse four is a bit of a parentheses in verse four, he simply says, for every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. And the the point there is not all builders are equal. Some builders are more significant than other builders.

Moses was a builder in the house. Jesus is the builder of the house. Verse five. Now, Moses was faithful. There's that preposition in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later. So again, this is interesting. Three things about this. Verse. Number one, the word servant.

It is a unique word. Yes. Nine times out of 10, when you see the word servant in the New Testament, it's the Greek word for slave. That's not the word that's used here. In fact, this is a unique word. It means a devoted servant, and it is only used of Moses. In other words, the author is giving Moses high honor.

And it is only used of Moses in the New Testament and in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, only used of Moses. Moses was a unique servant in the history of Israel, but he was part of the house and what was his job to give a testimony of those things, which were to be spoken later. Remember Moses' words in Deuteronomy 18, Yahweh, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your countrymen.

Listen to him. He was predicting Christ. Remember what the author said? Remember, Moses gives a testimony. Moses is a witness. Literally that word translated testimony is where we get the word martyr. Moses is a martyr for God. A witness one who testifies, and what does the author of Hebrews say in the second verse?

In these last days, the father has spoken to us in his son. You see over and over and over again, the author is trying to explain. The entirety of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. Don't go back, don't walk away from Christ and kids. This is in your handout. There's, there's a fill in the blank in your handout.

Jesus is superior to Moses because he is God's son, because he is God's son and builder of God's house. And we'll see in verse six. The church is that house, the New Testament Church of Jesus Christ is that house. So Jesus is superior to Moses because he is God's son and builder of God's house, the church.

And that brings us to verse six, but Christ was faithful as a son over, over and above his house, whose house we are. We are the house of Christ. And this is temple language. It was temple language all the way back in two Samuel seven. It's temple language. Here. Jesus is the new temple. We saw that in the New Testament.

We've seen it multiple times, and we are part of that temple because we're in Christ. What does that image, what does that image bring to mind? It ought to bring to mind worship. The temple was the place of worship. Are you worshipful? When we come to church, do you sing because you're part of the temple or do you gladly fall to your knees if you're able?

Do you gladly fall to your knees during times of confession? Because Jesus deserves our worship because we are the temple. The temple indicates that we worship him. Do you raise your hands at the end of service when we sing the doxology in worship to Christ because he is the temple. Because we are the temple, and the temple is the place where worship took place.

And then he ends. This passage ends with a warning, but Christ was faithful as his son over his house. Who you are is what he's saying. You are the house. If if, if we hold fast, our confidence and boast of hope. If we hold fast, our faith, if we hold fast, our faith, if we hold fast, our belief in Jesus. You see, becoming a Christian, I've said this before, but becoming a Christian has nothing to do with praying a prayer.

Becoming a Christian has to do with living your life every day with your knees bowed to Jesus Christ. Becoming a Christian has nothing to do with throwing an acorn in the fire at a church camp. It might be the beginning of your walk, but being a Christian is an everyday event. If we hold fast, our hope, the gospel is our hope.

If we hold fast, the boast of our hope, the gospel is the only thing we should be boasting in. But I wanna say something about these warning passages. Because I've heard all kinds of oddities and weird things about these warnings. I've, I've heard pastors, they'll get up and they'll say something like, these warnings really aren't real, or These warnings apply to the unbeliever.

They don't really apply to the believer. So I wanna give you four handles on these warnings and how we should understand these warnings. Number one, in kids. This is on your outline as well. So you, the last question you have for fill in the blank, uh, the first, uh, couple things are on that outline. Number one.

Warnings are real. Warnings are real, okay? They're not pretend, they're not fake, they're not platitudes, and they're not only for unbelievers. The author is addressing a covenant Community. Warnings are real. The threats are real. The if then clauses are real. And if you're here today and you claim faith in Christ Jesus and you walk away from him.

It illustrates you never had faith. These warnings are real. Number two, they are covenantal. In fact, because they're covenantal, they should be expected. The people of Israel were warned throughout the Old Testament because as I've told you before, the covenant comes with blessings and curses. So the covenant comes with built in warnings.

Warnings are gracious. Listen to the words of Paul in two Corinthians 13 verse five. Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith. That's a warning. And the interesting there is the word translated test is the same word, translated temptation in our text. Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith.

Examine yourselves or do you not recognize this about yourself, that Jesus Christ is in you unless you fail the test. Jesus himself warns his followers. In John chapter eight, verse 31, Jesus is speaking to the Jews who had believed in him, and this is what he says. If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples.

The New Testament is full of warning passages because it is a covenant document and we are a covenant people, and the covenant comes with curses and blessings. Kids, this is the last one on your outline. And this is still part of number two. They're covenantal, they're helpful, practical reminders. And I wanna give you an illustration before I give you the last two examples.

Um, it's like parenting. You see, we typically warn our kids and we expect them to heed the warning. And there's a couple of ways we warn our kids. Some are good, some are bad. Sometimes we warn 'em with a bribe and that's sinful. Shouldn't bribe your kids. But other times we more, we, we warn them with encouragement or motivation, and we expect them to heed the warnings.

We, we don't warn them knowing they're gonna fail. We warn them, expecting them to heed the warning. Warnings are gracious, they're helpful, they're practical reminders. They're covenantal. Number three, and I think this is really important. Warnings demonstrate both sides of the sovereignty. Human responsibility coin.

I have said this over and over and over again, and I will never tire of saying this, God, the Bible presents God, father, son, and Holy Spirit as absolutely sovereign over all things. God has predetermined and predestined all things, everything. He is 100% sovereign. There is nothing that happens that is outside of his sovereign predetermined plan, and that does not change the fact that we are also responsible.

We are morally responsible. We have what I like to call human creaturely freedom. We make real decisions. We make real decisions that affect our lives. If you don't pray about certain things, the Bible says it won't happen. Now, I don't know how God does that. I don't know how God can be sovereign and we can be responsible, but the fact that we're warned in scripture demonstrates the reality of both.

And last but not least, and I know I'm out of time. Last but not least, warnings do not contradict security. They strengthen our security. They strengthen our security because they show us what to look for. Where am I failing? Where am I coming Short? They show us what to work on and they show us what to be thankful for.

And I just, I wanna wrap it up. I just wanna read one passage, Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 35. I'm gonna read to the end of the chapter, then we're gonna pray. If you wanna turn there, please do. But again, number four is warnings. Do not contradict our security. Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 35.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, just as is written for your sake. We are being put to death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer. Through him who loved us for, I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor any other created thing that includes you.

If you belong to Christ Jesus, you can't even mess it up.

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this passage. Thank you for what it teaches us about Jesus, his love, his compassion, his kindness, his death on the cross, what it accomplished.

Father, I pray, I pray for every single person in this room, man, woman, child. That we would understand these words and if we don't understand them, Lord, that we would go back and we would read the text, that we would work on them. We would grapple with them. We would find someone to talk to so that we can understand this atonement.

We can understand, Lord, there needs to be unity in the church. And it seems like this is one topic where we ought to agree on what Jesus accomplished on the cross. So Father, I pray for that unity. May it begin here. As we allow the text to speak for itself, as we listen to your words as submissive slaves, as students of the text, as servants who bow the need of Christ Jesus.

Father, thank you for teaching us. Thank you for opening up our hearts and our minds for we ask all this in Christ's name, and all of God's people said if you turn.

Ashley McKernan

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Jesus and His Angels - Part Two