He was born, we're excited, let's move on to the sermon.
So I have a question to start.
How many of you have ever met somebody famous?
I put that on there because famous is subjective, right?
Mike, who did you meet?
Lead singer of your favorite band, thanks for that
because everyone knows what you're talking about.
I'm gonna take it to Amberlynn, right?
And the front runner's name again is?
Steven Christian, all right.
Anybody else know Steven Christian?
Oh, one in the back, very good.
Up there, Jamie, you rose your hand.
Who did you meet?
Vanna White, may I buy a vowel, all right.
Very good.
I said that really awkwardly, I apologize for that.
Even though that's what you say on the show.
Let's move on, okay, others?
Yeah, Jess, okay, no Conan O'Brien, John Walsh, who's that?
All right, someone on America's Most Wanted, okay, great.
And Conan O'Brien, anyone else?
Yeah, Holly, Johnny Bench, who?
Who was that?
Catcher for the Reds, I'm a White Sox fan, I don't care.
Anybody else, in the back?
Yep, Lou Ferrigno, the Hulk, wow, that's phenomenal.
Yeah, did you shake his hand?
How massive was that hand?
It was massive, it was enormous, yeah.
So those, okay Ron, go ahead, Joe Lewis, okay, the boxer.
Very good, all right, were you polite?
Good, yeah, very, that makes sense.
So when we meet someone famous, right,
so Mike, you were the first one to bring it up
to people no one knew in here,
but what was that like to meet him?
Okay, really cool to see someone who wrote the songs
that mean so much to Mike, and Mike and I,
we have a love for Amberlynn, it's a great band,
if you wanna check them out.
Ron, when you met Joe Lewis, what was that feeling like?
In awe, thank you, okay, that's, yeah, in awe of what?
In what he's accomplished, right?
Famous boxer, famous people, right, Jess,
I could see that for Conan, right, all the stuff he did,
I don't know about the other guy, but that's okay,
you know, that there was, there's this kind of awe
that like, I watch you on TV, right,
and how many people know or remember the band DC Talk?
Okay, now how many people really remember the band DC Talk?
A lot more hands, if you are not raising your hand
for that, that's okay.
I got to meet them in tour when I was in junior high,
and I got Toby Mac's bucket hat,
he had signed the bucket hat, and he gave it to me,
and then I wore it thinking I could pull it off,
I couldn't, but it was still just very cool
because I kind of idealized DC Talk, I loved their music,
their music impacted my faith when I was in grammar school
and in junior high, even in high school,
and Toby Mac now, God, okay, we will stop talking
about famous people, I get it, we'll get to you,
but understand that when we meet famous people,
there's something that goes on in us,
but one of the things that I would probably venture
to guess, it's not relatability.
Like when I meet Toby Mac, I kind of know that I know
that I know I can't do what Toby Mac does.
My guess is Ron, brother, I love you, when you met,
I forgot his name already, Joe Lewis, my guess is
there's an understanding that he could do stuff
in the boxing realm that you couldn't do,
that there is, exactly, that there's an acknowledgement
of talent, there's an acknowledgement of almost greatness,
if you will, and even as I talk about it,
I feel uncomfortable because we automatically put
some of these people on pedestals that we know
we shouldn't do, and I'm not thinking that any of us
idealize them or have what would Conan O'Brien do
on a wristband or anything like that,
but when we meet someone famous, it can stir up a lot
in us, kind of awe and wonder, maybe you kind of
didn't know what to say and acted like a fool
in front of them, which I bet you weren't the only one
to ever do that, but as we go through this book of Hebrews,
here's the tie, it's one of the biggest things
that the writer of Hebrews, again, we don't know who it was,
written mid to two-thirds into the first century,
this is what they were talking about about Jesus,
that they wanted people to know, the writers of this book
and the readers of this book, excuse me, and us in 2023,
that Jesus is the highest, that Jesus is the greatest,
and that what he offers, as we talked about last week,
is and should be irresistible, that what Jesus offers us
in salvation and grace should be something irresistible
to us, yet we talked about, last week as we ended,
the way we live out our faith, do people see, experience,
acknowledge, or desire the same irresistibleness
of the faith, of Jesus, of the church, or whatever,
that we should be showing, or do we give people
a version of Christianity, of Jesus, or the church,
that people go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
I'm actually gonna resist that, because at times,
the greatness of Jesus can, not that his greatness
never gets skewed eternally, but our version of him
to the world may actually do a lot of damage,
and that's one thing that we're gonna walk through,
and the writer here in chapter two is gonna continue,
but I also wanna continue in one of our confessions,
we looked at a couple articles of the Canons of Dort
last week, we're gonna look at article two and three
of the section Christ's Death and Human Redemption
Through It, so let's throw this one up.
So the first one is article two, okay?
The satisfaction made by Christ, since however
we ourselves cannot give this satisfaction
or deliver ourselves from God's wrath,
God in boundless mercy has given us a guarantee,
his only begotten son, as a guarantee,
his only begotten son, who was made to be sin
and a curse for us in our place on the cross,
in order that he might give satisfaction for us.
So let's stay there for a minute, go back.
Actually no, we'll continue, because the rest, yeah.
No, that's article three, so go back to article two.
This satisfaction, what does that mean?
That means Jesus on the cross, his life, his death,
his resurrection made a satisfaction for something.
It fulfilled a covenant for us and for God,
and that, as we talked about last week,
imputed righteousness, salvation, atonement
for your sin and my sin, Jesus took that,
put him upon himself on the cross,
and made satisfaction that we can have a audience
and a relationship with God.
Ultimately, that's what Christ's death satisfies for us,
that we can stand before a holy and just and perfect God,
not of our own attempts to be good,
not at our own, the amount of cadet campouts we go on,
the amount of Bible studies we lead,
the amount of terms we have as elder and deacon,
the amount of years as a pastor or preacher, or whatever,
because we try to do that.
God, look at my resume, look at all the things I've done.
I really didn't even wanna do this one,
but Pastor made me do it.
All of these things, we try to show that to God,
say, can I get in now?
That's not how it works,
but a perfect sacrifice needed to be made,
and that was Jesus Christ.
Let's go to Article Three.
The infinite value of Christ's death,
this death of God's son, is the only
and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins.
Let's leave it there for a second.
The only and entirely complete sacrifice
and satisfaction for sin.
The sin atonement, the blood offering,
if you go back to old Jewish culture
around the time of Passover, they would slaughter,
they would send a perfectly white, kind of pure baby lamb
and send it out.
And then they would kill the kind of the spotless lamb
as the atoning sacrifice to God
back in the sacrificial system.
Jesus was that for us.
And a only and entirely complete sacrifice.
It is of infinite value and worth,
more than sufficient to atone
for the sins of the whole world.
Sit with that for a minute.
20 seconds.
That Jesus' death on the cross atones
for your sins that were, the sins that are,
and the sins that will be.
Now, a little rabbit trail.
Don't take this as, well then I can go ahead and sin
because I know Christ's death's going to make recompense for it.
He's gonna atone for it.
It's called cheap grace.
Paul talks about that in the epistles.
Should I continue to sin so grace may abound?
Surely not.
That a changed life, the irresistibleness
of the grace and love of Christ
is acknowledging that you are forgiven
and walking out forgiveness.
Which should really fly in the face of those times
when we don't want to forgive each other.
Whether it's maybe a brother saying mean things
to other brothers,
or when someone hurts us
and we go, no, I forgive you.
It's really hard to offer forgiveness through gritted teeth.
Knowing that, oh yeah, I forgive you now,
but I'm sure is not gonna forget.
And that's not forgetting, fair enough.
It's not holding them to that sin.
And then when they hurt you again,
bringing it up and going, now this is the second time.
So I'm doubly mad.
That's not how it works.
And one of the things we need to look at
in the book of Hebrews, not only is why,
but what Jesus went through for you and for me.
We talked about him being above the angels last week.
Jesus was not angelic.
Jesus was the son of God.
We talked about that there's a difference,
but as we're gonna talk about today,
Jesus is also attainable.
As I said in the beginning of service,
there is a relationship in intimacy that Jesus wants
with each and every one of us.
And you may be scared of that word, intimacy.
You may not trust that word, intimacy,
because you've been hurt, you currently are hurt,
or in the future you will be hurt.
But that intimacy doesn't stop.
So let's jump into the book of Hebrews.
We'll be in Hebrews chapter two.
We're gonna start with verse five.
And again, we're gonna talk a little bit about the angels
and then we're gonna, after this,
we're not gonna talk about angels too much.
We're gonna kinda move on from the angelic,
the holy, all of that, down to the real life
and then throughout history.
It's another, a little foreshadow
of where we're going to go.
For it was not made to angels
that God subjected the world to come,
for which we are speaking.
It has been testified somewhere.
What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
You have made him a little lower than the angels.
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection under his feet.
Friends, that's powerful.
That's a powerful statement.
And in there is one of the more confusing
verses of all of scripture.
And so we have to understand,
it kinda gives us the right perspective,
the right purview, the right perch, if you will,
to see the rest of the chapter.
So let me read again in verse six.
It has been testified somewhere.
What is man that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man that you care for him?
Both talking about us and Jesus.
You have made him a little lower than the angels.
Time out.
The last chapter said the exact opposite.
So now this is really confusing.
It shouldn't be, but this is the way Hebrews,
in some ways, builds and takes away
some of the high points of what the writer
was trying to get us to understand.
You made him a little lower than the angels.
It's confusing because the chapter before,
Jesus is supreme.
Jesus is the ultimate, and Jesus,
as Davidic son of God, right?
Perfectly holy, 100% God, absolutely.
Higher than the angels every day and twice on Sundays.
But let me ask, is that relatable?
For those of us that once wore the WW or still do,
the WWJD bracelet, is the deity of Jesus
what you're trying to attain?
Right, at the lunch table, let's use Rachel,
at the lunch table, it's okay, we'll get through this,
are you trying to create your five loaves and two fish
to feed all of Munster High School?
No, you don't even like fish, and that's fine,
but understand, the deity of God, the deity of Christ,
is not what we are, we're not actively trying to pursue.
For those that come into my office
and try to say, well, I'm gonna be like God
and I'm gonna try to be a God, eh, you're doing it wrong.
The deity side of Christ is what atoned for yours
and my sin, something that we cannot,
will not ever be able to match.
I love you all, but your death on the cross
or my death on the cross would have accomplished nothing.
Jesus is holy, a 100% perfect person
needed to die on the cross.
But as the writer now says, you've made him
a little lower than the angels.
So let me ask, how many of you have ever said
I wanna be like Gabriel or Michael the Archangel?
Now, they don't get a lot of play in our conversations,
we don't preach about them a lot
because it's hard to understand,
but we also have to understand who else was an angel?
Lucifer, I don't know anyone that's like,
I wanna be like him.
If you've ever said that, please, let's find a,
let's have a conversation
because I don't think you get it, right?
We don't try to be like angels, that's why it's confusing.
And the relatability, the understanding of the intimacy
that we have with Jesus really is found in that verse.
And for a time, right, you can read that into the Greek,
that this is a quantifiable amount of time,
that Jesus was made low, that Jesus, the humanity,
fully God, fully man, this is the part
that we can connect to.
Be holy as I am holy, absolutely.
Because what is the definition of holy in the Scriptures?
Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly.
We do our best not to sin in life,
but it's part of our DNA, it's who we are.
That's why there's grace and forgiveness.
If we were perfect, Jesus would never need to die.
If you were perfect, you'd never have to come to church.
If you all were perfect, I wouldn't have a job.
But that's never been the landscape.
That never will be the landscape
until we're with him in glory.
But until that time, we needed something to attain.
We needed something to not chase after,
that's the wrong way to look at it, but strive for.
And that's the humanity of Jesus.
For a time, Jesus was made lower than the angels.
And you have crowned him, it says,
with glory and honor, putting everything
in subjection under his feet.
This is the King Jesus.
This is the physical man that was mocked and lied about,
that stings were put out to capture him.
This is the Jesus that was spit upon,
that was mocked and beaten, flogged,
to the point of great agony and injury.
It's the same Jesus that carried that plank of the cross
to the top, through Golgotha to the top of Calvary,
whose hands and wrists and feet were nailed to the cross.
Who ultimately, the physical body died of suffocation,
that was crucifixion, we'll get to that later.
Who felt the pain of the nails.
Who I guarantee was discouraged.
How do we know?
He said it.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, before all of us,
before all of that, he said,
Father, if it be your will, let this cup of death
pass from me, but not my will, your will be done.
For I've made him a little lower than the angels.
Because if Jesus remained in that 100% God and not man,
that wouldn't have happened.
So you and I can relate.
You and I, you can understand if you're going through
something right now and it's painful,
you can understand that Jesus sits with you.
Because what if Jesus had never gone through any of that?
What if Jesus on the road to Calvary just said,
you know what, boom, done, and seen.
I don't want to go through this, I'm going back to the ranch.
There wouldn't be a whole lot to talk about.
But out of his love, his infinite and intimate love
for you and for me, he went to the cross
because as the king, everything was put under his feet
and he said, this is what makes Christianity
different than any other world religion
and I will back that with whatever I can.
Where the creator, the creation comes down,
lives amongst the creation and dies
so that the creation can be with the creator.
That was part of Jesus' glory.
And as a church, we do a good job of celebrating that
one week a year and we really love Easter.
Let's call spade a spade in the church.
We love Easter.
We love our Super Bowl.
But here we are in the middle of September
with the realization of what Jesus did, why Jesus did it,
and what it means for us.
And I don't know about you friends, but that's a lot.
So should that not come into mind when we live out our days?
And here's, this is going to be more than a week record.
A month record or maybe a series record.
Please come back.
The way we live out our faith, the things we do in our life,
we're putting out to the world that Jesus died for that.
And I don't know about you, but there are ways
that I live out my Christianity that it's the opposite
of what I'm conveying.
That when I live the life that I do, the thoughts I have
in my head, the things that come out of my mouth,
all of the things I do with my hands and feet,
knowing that sin is riddled in there in that friction.
But there are days that I just walk out that sin,
and that's what I'm showing the world.
Hey, Jesus died for this.
And a world could easily be asking,
then why are you doing it?
Then what are you doing?
As a young man, right, as kind of men grew up
in a very digital age, we can all agree that the Internet
is not something that is for everybody
or has just good things.
And any of us, boy, girl, doesn't matter.
The Internet can be a very dangerous place,
and we can bring harm to ourselves
with what the Internet can offer.
I remember I had a youth pastor once say,
before you go online, I'll be a little codeic today,
just so you don't have awkward conversations later.
I had a youth pastor once say,
pretend like Jesus is with you as you're surfing on the Web.
That he's sitting right next to you,
and you're going to show him everything
that you're about to look at.
Well, there were times growing up,
I probably should not have touched a computer then,
if that's how it really was going to be.
But take the Internet out and put something,
whatever else you struggle with, in there.
That if Jesus says, I am with you always
to the very end of the age, and he is right there with you
as you walk through the things you walk through,
as you say the things you say, as you think the things you think,
as you do the things that you do,
and if Jesus is with you through it,
what more that conversation would be like?
If all of a sudden he manifest himself right there,
that you could see him, speak to him, touch him,
what would he say?
There's a part of me that plays out that he would look at me
and go, Jim, really?
When really, because of what he went through for you and for me,
Jesus should be cheering us on in trying to live a sinless life.
Jesus died for the struggles that you're going through.
What Hebrews is telling us is that not only is he relatable
and intimate, but he is with you.
He went to the cross for you, for those moments,
so that if you do sin, right, there's a way of forgiveness,
but not cheap.
But every time we walk it out in a cheap way,
what are we saying about the cross?
And you all know whatever sin, you know the sin that you struggle with,
and you may know the habitual sin that you fall into time and time again.
And maybe for you it's, hey, I went a week without,
whatever it is, way to go, keep going.
But for all of us that set ourselves up to sin, say we're sorry,
sin, say we're sorry, sin, say we're sorry.
Is Jesus going to forgive you? Yeah, he is.
But what does that say about you?
What does that say about me?
That Jesus' death is really worth a half-hearted sorry.
But people live it out that way.
Lord, forgive me!
Forgive me for what I just did!
Forgive me for the thoughts that I thought!
And forgive me two days from now when I forget this situation and I go ahead and do it again.
That's one of the reasons why he went to the cross,
is so that we could have the mindset.
I'm not going to say the heart set, because that doesn't make any sense.
The heartbeat.
To keep Christ in the conversation and to shed those areas of our life.
To flee from them, as the writer of Hebrews is going to get to in a couple weeks.
Lay aside all of the things that trip us up.
We have that power, we have that right, and we have that responsibility to shed that sin.
The sin that so easily entangles us.
And how do we know it's for our good?
Because Jesus was crowned with honor and glory for it.
Fully God, fully man died on the cross for you and for me.
That Jesus came with a mission.
Jesus came to do what he said he was going to do.
What was prophesied about him from the very, very beginning.
As we continue this book of Hebrews, as we continue to walk through why Jesus is the awesomest of awesome.
Why Jesus is the highest of high.
Why Jesus is the most superior of the superiors.
There is a reason.
He backed it up.
He didn't just say like a lot of world religions, keep doing what you're doing and try to make it to me.
No.
But he was brought low for the times that you feel low.
He was raised in glory for the times that you're doing really well in your life.
Your accountability partner is working with you or whatever it is.
Your spouse, you're working through all of the muck in the mire.
You're working on restoration if trust has been broken.
You're working through hurt and pain to find healing and comfort.
Because Jesus accomplished that.
He was made low for that reason.
But he never lost his divinity.
The wrath of God was put on his shoulders.
All the things that maybe you have thought about if you've been paying attention today was put on Jesus' shoulders.
And he died for that so those would not be held against you on the last day.
Whether the last day or your last day.
Christ's righteousness is bathed all over you.
And we hear those words, well done good and faithful servants.
Friends, I struggle with that.
Because there are days and weeks I go, well done?
Jim, this is worth a well done?
This is worth a, eh, try again.
Jesus comes with and says, Jim I love you.
Let's work on this.
I am calling you to something greater than yourself.
And he can call you to that because he is it.
You're having rocky times in your marriage?
Be more like Christ.
You're having rocky times with your friends?
Be more like Christ.
You're having issues with your brothers saying hurtful things to you?
Be more like Christ.
You can't stand your boss and you want to quit?
Be more like Christ.
It's the easiest advice I can give.
It's some of the hardest to walk out.
But if we are more and more daily like Christ, like I only got to like three chapters or three verses,
the rest of chapter two says, you may find it's just a little bit easier.
Because the other thing we have, and this is where we're going to get to, not next week,
but the following week, is what happens if you say you're a believer,
and let's say your friend says that they're a believer.
There's a lot of non-believer stuff going on between you.
It's not just a them issue, it's an us issue.
And Christ walks out how we're supposed to handle it.
He gives us the opportunity to resolve conflict of whatever size, together.
Because that's also what's in his death and resurrection, the way to reconcile.
Colossians puts this at all of his blood, the death reconciled all of us to the cross,
and when he rose there was that new life in Christ.
So that should cut to the heart of all of our grudges.
That should cut to the heart of all of our arguments, of all of our hurt and pain.
Sit with each other and say, how can I be more like Christ?
What I didn't just say is tell them how they could be more like Christ.
We'd have way too much fun with that, and it probably wouldn't go well.
But the person you're in conflict with, what if you ask them,
how can I be more like Christ for you?
I guarantee that's going to change the conversation.
Now, if they get scared and flee, then maybe there wasn't a relationship to begin with.
But if you're in Christ, that is our responsibility to show the world that Christ.
And as we walk through next week, the following week, it's going to get very tangible.
It's going to get real hard.
Because if Jesus is the superior, if Jesus is the ultimate, and he shows us a way to do it,
then what does that mean for us?
What does that mean in the hurt and pain of life?
But more on that in a couple weeks.
Let's pray.
Father, the relationship that we get to have with you is unbelievable.
Show us what it looks like to invest more and more into that relationship.
Father, allow us to have the hurts and pains, physical, emotional, spiritual,
to not define the type of Christianity we walk out.
That our Christianity is not defined by hurt and pain, but by hope and peace and comfort and healing,
even if it's small.
As we walk that out this week, it may not get easier.
But as we're going to read, you persevered.
You kept walking so we can keep walking.
We love you.
In your holy son's name, amen.