in Hebrews chapter 2 this morning.
We've been in Matthew for such a long time and
today will be my last Sunday, actually this year, the next two Sundays my wife and children and I will be with her family
there in West Texas.
So I wanted to, I know Pastor Kyle will be preaching next Sunday morning and then Sunday night communion,
obviously on the Advent story as well, and I wanted to do the same this morning.
The text we have chosen is Hebrews chapter 2
verses 14 to 18.
I've said this before, I think Christmas and Easter sometimes as a pastor
it can be hard because
you are obviously expected to speak about in Christmas His birth and Easter His resurrection.
And that is a great topic, I mean both of those extremely important in our holy faith, and yet at the same time
there's only so many passages that will speak about these things and yet this morning
I believe that this will be a help to us as
we look to the Lord and just ask Him for His help. If you would join me in reading or looking at verses 14 through 18,
all the scripture references should be on the wall behind me this morning.
The writer
says, inasmuch or therefore as the children have partaken of flesh and blood,
He that is Christ himself likewise shared in the same,
that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil.
And He would release those who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage.
For indeed He does not give aid or help to the angels,
but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren,
that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
To make propitiation, some will say to make atonement for the sins of the people.
For in that He Himself has suffered being tempted,
He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer and as we first do,
would you take, let's have a moment of silence and ask the Lord to speak to you and to prepare our hearts
to receive His holy word. Let's go with a moment of silence please.
Father in Lord, Your word tells us to be still and know that You are God.
That we would quiet our hearts in the stillness of the moment Lord as Your people.
I pray Lord with rapt attention not to the words of man,
Lord Your people have not assembled to hear me Lord.
We desire to be fed from in heaven with the bread of life with Christ Himself.
Lord You offer us Him in the table, but Lord even now through the preaching of the word of God,
may we set forth Christ.
Lord our faith is a holy faith.
Lord help us to grow and understand Lord exactly what You have done.
May we appreciate more Your love and Your grace that has made our redemption possible.
Lord God we would ask for the aid of the Holy Spirit for His help.
God we beg of You Lord to meet with us this morning.
Praying that Christ would receive all the glory that is due unto His holy name
and we pray this in the name of our risen Lord Jesus.
Amen.
So we're in the third week of Advent and the theme actually is joy.
Joy because we are to recall the joyous angelic announcement that the shepherd,
the joyous angelic announcement that they made to the shepherds there in Luke chapter 2.
Do you remember Luke 2 10? It says do not be afraid the angel Gabriel says to the shepherds
do not be afraid the angel Gabriel says for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy
which shall be to all people for there unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior
who is Christ the Lord.
The angel is announcing to the shepherds that the darkness will soon be passed.
The light of the world has now been born.
So this is good tidings and it's good tidings of great joy.
And every week of Advent has a theme week one was hope week two last week peace and today the theme
is joy yet it is ironic that so many people in this time of year do not have joy.
There are many reasons for that.
I think of some the Christmas season just a reminder of loss.
They remember the former years that did seem so joyous.
But now at their table it's loneliness and it's sadness.
For them Christmas is a reminder of what used to be and no longer is.
And then for others there's no joy because of stress.
They have to have everything perfect.
They need the perfect house complete with the perfect tree perfect decorations perfect place
settings perfect gift wrapped in perfect paper.
Everything must be perfect and so it's just a self-imposed stress.
And for others for many in our culture it's the crushing debt that they assume to make sure the
Christmas is perfect that keeps them from joy.
The cost of gifts holiday expenses they just add financial pressure especially to those with
limited incomes. But what about conflict in families during this time of year family dynamic
and unresolved issues come to the fore and they seem to be more pronounced during the
holiday seasons and gatherings then can lead to tension.
It leads to conflict and people don't want it.
So admittedly there is stress and there's all these expectations that come upon us.
Some from without and some from within.
She have stress and loneliness isolation and all these combine to bring depression and anxiety to
many. Now you're saying well what does any of this have to do with the Christmas story then.
Well the story is a story of great joy.
The Savior has been born.
But it's not a story that is free of pain or free of struggle.
I sometimes wonder if we have not sanitized Christmas.
I mean for most of us the Christmas story is very familiar.
It's very cozy.
It's Norman Rockwell-ish if you will.
We see images of the child in paintings and you see that child lying in a manger completely clean
with a halo floating above his head.
We sing songs about his empathy.
The little Lord Jesus no crying he made.
I was telling the church Wednesday night I'm like are you kidding me no crying he made.
Have you ever ever heard of a newborn who did not cry.
A newborn who does not cry is not human.
And see the only way a baby has to communicate is through crying.
So the Christmas story may be familiar.
Yes it may be cozy but the circumstances are far from pristine.
Think with Joseph as he peers into the manger what did he see?
A baby more than likely still slightly bloody from birth.
He looked over his wife Mary.
No doubt she's exhausted from labor.
She's so tired.
And yet she still has to muster the strength to nurse her child.
Where are they?
They're far from home.
They're in Bethlehem.
They're not in Nazareth and they're staying in some pretty rough accommodations.
So why did God allow his son to be born into these circumstances?
Now I think it's always probably very dangerous when we start saying why did God
to things he has not revealed.
Author Gavin Adams says why didn't God clean up the story to match our he calls it petting zoo nativity.
Which I agree with him.
He said here's what I think.
I believe God allowed Jesus to be born into a mess because it represents his willingness to enter our mess.
Our lives are a mess outside of Jesus.
They look nothing like the polished marble manger seen on our mantle.
Rather our life is pretty filthy.
Excuse me pretty filthy.
Gross and smelly.
It looks ironically similar to the manger scene in which the savior of the world was born.
The manger puts Jesus at the center of a mess not a masterpiece.
Jesus came to the manger because humanity needed to be rescued.
Not rescued from a sanitized petting zoo but from a filthy dirty stable.
It was a mess just like us.
And yet in this mess we're to rejoice.
We rejoice because the light of the world has entered our darkness.
The rich one assumed our poverty.
The holy one assumed our sinfulness.
And God became a man and lived among us.
We're to rejoice in all those things.
But what does it mean?
What bearing does it have on our lives this morning?
We'll turn back to the text of Hebrews 2.
And you're going to see about identification.
I personally like it when people have gone through something before me and they can kind of give me a heads up.
You want to know what you're getting into.
I appreciate being able to speak to someone who can relate to me because they also have experienced it.
If you've ever gone through a trial, is there something uniquely comforting about someone who's gone through that trial or is going through that trial right now as well?
Because there's something about our human experience.
We want to be able to talk to someone who just naturally gets us.
But I think that's why so many people are reluctant to turn to God in times of suffering.
They think or they reason certainly God could never understand our pain.
I mean he can't understand suffering or our plight.
I mean after all he's God.
He's absolutely perfect.
But what about God?
Can and does he sympathize with us?
You're like well I know he created us.
But does he get us?
And the writer of Hebrews comes along and with an emphatic declaration says yes God does.
And this is one of the many blessings of the incarnation of God's son.
God gets us.
The very fact that God took on flesh.
Church it means that God knows everything about you.
God cares about you.
God understands you because he's been there.
I love what J.C. Ryle said.
He's a great author that I'd like to read after.
He said Jesus Christ is not only the son of God mighty to save, amen, but he's the son of man able to feel.
And that is helpful.
In other words God understands us because he became one of us.
Look at verse 14 of the text.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same.
Now friends this is what's absolutely mysterious.
God became a man.
The son of God.
The eternal son.
Eternally proceeding from the father.
Took on flesh and blood.
Why?
You and I are flesh and blood.
Now he became a man and although he became a real man, he did not cease being divine.
There's an ancient saying that says what he was he remained and what he was not he assumed.
What he was he remained.
Well what was he?
Christ was God.
And he remained God.
What he was not was flesh and blood.
He was not a man.
And he assumed humanity.
But he assumed humanity without ever giving up deity.
The Nicene Creed says for us men and for our salvation he Christ came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
It's Gregory of Nazanthius who said that which is not assumed cannot be healed.
So Christ assumed our humanity in order to heal us.
Now how would he heal us?
By his stripes you were healed.
He would heal us by defeating the greatest enemy that ever lay before the people of God which is death itself.
British author Tim Chester he said we owe God everything.
I think that we understand that.
The whole world belongs to him.
So what could we give?
The only thing greater than the world is God himself.
Only God can make satisfaction.
This creates an apparent dilemma.
It is humanity who must repay the debt.
But only God has the resources to pay it.
God's radical solution is Jesus.
The God man.
Anselm in the 11th century said the same thing.
None but God can make satisfaction for sin and none but man ought to make it.
So it is necessary for the God man to make it.
Friends this is the mystery.
This is not about gifts.
It is not about family celebrations.
It is not about love with Mariah Carey song on repeat all the time.
It is about the incarnation of God.
Jesus one person.
Two distinct natures.
Human and divine.
They come together.
They never mix but they are not separated.
It is called the hypostatic union.
Christ the God man.
The God became a man.
Now what this means.
When Jesus was an infant in the arms of his mother Mary.
He is God.
But he had the mind of an infant.
It is not as though Jesus was there as he is being held in the arms of his mother.
Saying oh wow you are holding me but I am the actual creator of all that you see.
He was a baby.
He thought like a baby.
He was helpless as a baby.
Do you start to see the condescension of God here?
He subjected himself to all that human nature entails with the exception of sin.
That means he subjected himself to human development and human expression.
When he was a baby he thought like a baby.
When he was a toddler he thought like a toddler.
An adolescent like an adolescent.
I will use a big term here.
Jesus remained ontologically God.
Ontology is being.
Ontologically God.
Ontology is being.
Ontologically he is God.
He has always been God.
At the very same time, this is the mystery we confess.
He was ontologically man.
He was God.
Truly God.
He was man.
Truly man.
Not half God half man.
Not a demigod.
True God.
True man.
Tim Chester.
Jesus is God just as the Father is God.
Yet you would not think so to look in that manger.
What you see in the manger is a fragile baby.
Totally dependent on his parents.
Wait long enough and it won't be long and you'll see Mary dabbing away some sick.
That's spit up in England.
You'll see her dabbing away some spit up.
Or changing the first century equivalent of a diaper.
This is the miracle of Christmas.
True God became true man.
But why?
He took on flesh in order to save us.
Look at verse 14 again.
That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death.
That is the devil.
And he would release those who through fear of death all their lifetime were subject to bondage.
Alright.
Death.
It is a universal fear known by all men.
There are many reasons why people fear death.
First of all, we fear death because it is an intruder.
Death was not a part of God's good creation at the beginning.
At every funeral I preside at I tangibly feel that.
Death is an intruder.
This is not the way that God desires.
Death is also inescapable.
Try as you might.
You will not avoid it.
It's no respecter of persons, right?
Every man, woman, boy, girl, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, in all countries of the world, in all time, will die.
It's universal.
And the scriptures tell us that Christ, the eternal son,
He comes as a man to destroy the one who had the power of death and to release us from our fear and our bondage.
Because the incarnate son died in our place and rose again, you and I need not fear death any longer.
Why?
Satan and his demonic hordes have been stripped of their power to hold us in our bondage to the fear of death.
Why don't we fear death any longer?
We're still going to die.
Because death is a conquered enemy that wields no eternal power or control over us.
Yes, one day this mortal will give up.
We will die physically.
But we will rise again to new life because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.
See, the God man destroyed the devil who had the power of death.
And notice the word destroyed there.
It says he destroyed Satan.
Doesn't mean annihilated as though Satan doesn't exist.
To destroy means to counter him, to negate, to abolish.
It can also mean to deactivate, if you will.
Christ deactivated, he disarmed the power of Satan by destroying the only weapon that Satan had in his arsenal.
And that's what we feared so much, which was death.
You're saying, why thought God had the power of death?
He does, ultimately.
But here we're told Satan had the power of death.
What's the writer of Hebrews referring to?
Satan was the instrument used to bring death into the world by tempting our parents in the garden.
He was the instrument.
He was the immediate cause.
He's the one who accuses mankind before God, demanding death as the payment for our sin.
His domain is a domain of darkness, and death was a part of that.
So you're saying, well, then how did Christ destroy it then?
Now, I want you to notice something.
This is the wisdom of God.
This is great irony, but it's paradoxical.
Christ destroyed Satan and the principal weapon that Satan had, which is death, by his own death and resurrection.
So in other words, death was destroyed by a death.
That's the wisdom of God.
Sin led to death, and death led to our condemnation.
But the Lord Jesus, he paid the payment of sin, which means then he took the condemnation away.
You and I, united to Christ, don't have to fear death anymore, because we now know there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Why?
Our sins have been remitted.
They're gone.
They've been taken away.
Satisfaction to God has been rendered by Christ, and God the Father is satisfied with what Christ has done for his people.
Therefore, the people of God are acquitted in the courtroom of heaven.
So we don't have to fear anymore.
The Lord Jesus came to destroy the kingdom of Satan and to set up another kingdom in its place, and he's done just that.
Satan and his kingdom were disarmed, effectively destroyed at the cross.
The keys that Satan had were taken away, snatched out of his hand, and Christ now holds them in his hand.
Revelation 1, 18.
Listen to the words of Jesus.
I am he who lives and was dead, not anymore, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen?
And I have the keys of hell and death.
See, the Lord Jesus not only defeated Satan, he inaugurated a kingdom where death will no longer rule.
It's a kingdom of life, a kingdom of light, and by his resurrection, victory over death, he established this kingdom of life.
Jesus, the God-man, has risen victorious over death, removed its sting for all those who are united to him by faith.
Which means now for the people of God, there is a rest.
You and I can rest in victory knowing what Satan has been disarmed and death has been defeated.
That's what Paul wrote about in that great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.
He says, oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?
Verse 57.
But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what Christmas is about.
Now look at verse 16, if you would, of Hebrews 2.
For indeed, he does not give aid or help to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
Now the scriptures tell us clearly Christ did not come to redeem angels.
But I want to remind you, there were angels who had fallen into sin, and they are eternally lost.
They're shackled, waiting judgment.
Christ did not come to save them.
In fact, he made himself lower than the angels, and he became a man.
He was a man who sinned.
He was a man who owed the debt to God.
He was a man who could not repay that debt.
And in love, Christ our Lord took on flesh.
He became a man to satisfy the debt we owed.
And then these precious words, give aid to the seed of Abraham.
That seed of Abraham is very significant.
Now Christ came in the physical lineage of Abraham, the physical descent of Abraham.
He came as a Jew to fulfill the law.
We know that.
He came to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant.
What is the Abrahamic covenant?
Genesis 12.3 is a summary.
And in you, Abraham, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
So how are all the families of the earth going to be blessed in one man, Abraham, and his descendants?
Well, this is the story.
This is what I'm sure Pastor Kyle will trace out next Sunday night.
From Abraham came Isaac.
From Isaac came Jacob.
From Jacob came Judah, and I'm skipping some.
From Judah comes David.
From David comes Christ.
And in Christ, sinners around the world find life and salvation.
All the world has been blessed in this one seed of Abraham.
But the scriptures tell us Christ came to offer aid, to help the seed of Abraham.
Now listen, I want Jesus' help.
So I want to know, who did he come to help?
He said he came to give aid to the offspring of Abraham.
Who are they?
Does this mean just for the Jew?
Galatians 3.
Paul clearly answers us.
Verse 7, Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
Look at verse 29.
If you are Christ, and he's speaking to us today, if you are Christ, meaning you belong to him,
then you are Abraham's seed, and you're part of those heirs.
You're heirs according to the promise.
Do you see what Paul's saying?
The New Testament is clearly teaching the true descendants of Abraham are not the physical lineage.
It's not merely physical descendants, but rather the men and women who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
are the true sons and daughters of Abraham.
Now that's great because you're saying, for whom did Christ come?
He says, well, he came, I'm not making it up, look at verse 16, he came to offer aid to the seed of Abraham.
That's what the verse says.
Who are they?
They are the spiritual descendants who walk in the same path of faith as Abraham once walked as well.
Galatians 3.14.
That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles.
How?
Listen, in Christ Jesus.
That you and I might receive the promise of the Spirit through him.
Christ, what he's saying, so Christ came for the seed of Abraham.
Who is the seed of Abraham?
Those who have faith in Christ.
So Christ came to help his people.
Do you remember what the angel said in Matthew 1?
You shall call his name Jesus. Why?
For he will save whom?
He will save his people from their sin.
Who are his people?
The seed of Abraham.
Christ came for his own.
Who are they?
They are those who are united to him by faith.
And friends, this is what makes the incarnation so important.
Because it was through God, the son, becoming a man that the devil was disarmed.
Death was defeated.
And you and I were released from our fear of death.
And the promise made to Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant was fulfilled.
I mean, that's incredible.
You and I are brought into this wonderful covenant of grace because of what Christ has done.
But there's also another very important aspect of the Incarnation found in verses 17 and 18.
Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brothers,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Now here's where we start to see the tender mercy of God.
Why did Christ come?
Why would he leave the comforts of heaven and take upon himself human flesh?
The Bible tells us so that he could be our merciful and faithful high priest.
You have to understand the background here.
Jewish law established an elaborate sacrificial system to atone for the sins of the people.
It was the duty of the high priest to oversee the administration of those sacrifices.
In fact, the high priest alone was permitted into the Holy of Holies,
which was the dwelling place of God, but only one time of year, only one day of the year,
Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.
The high priest before the exile would serve in that capacity until death.
Now go to Hebrews 2.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he came, he assumed the role of a merciful and faithful high priest.
He is the ultimate high priest.
Christ, our high priest, also entered into the dwelling place of God.
There he advocates for his people, and there will never ever be a need for another high priest
because Christ is alive forevermore.
So we have someone standing in God's presence eternally advocating for us.
And it is his name, the Lord Jesus, who's functioning as a high priest of his people.
And the Bible says he's merciful.
It's not an emotion. You can feel pity.
You can have the emotion of pity and do nothing to help someone.
Mercy is when you actively seek to relieve the suffering of another.
Jesus was merciful. Look throughout the New Testament.
You see him, what, healing sickness, casting out demons.
He's ministering to outcasts. He even raises the dead.
He gives food to the poor, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute.
He's merciful.
This merciful flows from who God is.
He sees our suffering. He sees our plight.
And he's motivated to do something about it because he's merciful.
He came to give aid to his people, but he's faithful.
Merciful is how he relates to you and me, his weak, sinful people.
Faithful is how he relates to God, his Father.
He was faithful in every way. He completely finished the job.
Remember that bitter cup of suffering that the Father handed him?
He drank the last bitter dregs.
He was faithful to his calling to be the sin bearer of his people.
Right now, he faithfully executes the office of high priest,
and we know from John 17 that he is interceding for us even now.
But he's praying for us from a place of experience.
He has walked this earth as a true man.
He knows what it's like to be you.
And as a high priest, it says he came to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
What does it mean to propitiate?
It's a word we don't use much. It's kind of gone out of usage.
It's a turn away wrath. Satisfy wrath.
Satisfaction is also a good word.
Because God is holy, he required a sacrifice to satisfy his wrath and justice that burnt hot against our sin.
Because God is love, instead of causing us to be sacrificed,
he sent his Son and satisfied his wrath at the high cost of the sacrifice of his Son,
who took on our sin and nailed it to the cross.
What's it mean?
Jesus has forever turned away God's wrath from his people,
and he's given eternal life to all who belong to him.
Let me say this, friends.
Things may be bad. Christmas may be just a colossal disappointment.
And I don't want to be just pessimistic, because I'm not.
The health you have may fail.
Relationships you enjoy may turn sour.
Who knows what the economy will do?
Christmas may be a disaster.
But in this, be confident.
Because of God's grace, you have passed from death to life,
and you will never face the unrelenting wrath of God, because Jesus has made reconciliation for you.
Friends, this is what motivates us to persevere.
There's an encouragement. Look at verse 18, the last verse there.
For in that he himself has suffered, being tempted, is able to aid those who are tempted.
Tempted doesn't just mean tempted with sin. It can, but it can mean those who are facing trials.
In the context, the Hebrews were facing a lot of trials at the time.
Some were losing their lives because of their faith.
So I'm wondering, do you ever think that God does not understand, or he couldn't imagine possibly how you feel?
The author of Hebrews has considered Jesus, then.
Did he face trials?
Yeah. Did he face temptation?
Yes. And he overstood it. He overcame it as a man.
Because he overcame it, he is able to help his people overcome as well.
It says he came to give aid. Literally, that means literally to run to the cry of a child.
To bring help when it is needed.
When I'm in my children, I wake up all night and hear them cry, and I don't wait in bed.
I don't wake Sandy up. Some of you probably thought I did, but I don't.
I go see what the child is crying about.
I love those children.
I'm going to go run to their aid. They're mine.
And this is the message. Christ runs to the cry of his people.
He understands temptation, folks. He was tempted.
Except he experienced the full power of temptation and never gave in. He effectively resisted.
So that means when you are going through a difficulty or trial, you will.
You're going to go through one.
You can fall on your knees and pray to the one who understands you and has the power to help you.
He gives aid. He knows what it's like to suffer. He knows what it's like to endure.
So this means, yes, God is transcendent, majestically transcendent, but he's not aloof.
He will come to you in your need. He's been there.
And one of my favorite things about the Christmas season is that it's a reminder that he offers aid to the hurting,
to the tempted, to the tested, to the weary, the downcast, the mourning, the afflicted.
I'll say, friends, Christ is not like all, don't bother me. He runs to us.
This is what then the incarnation signifies.
God came near.
Listen, Ryan coming near is not going to do you a lot of good.
God coming near, that's fantastic.
Because he is near, you can rest, friends.
It's a gift. Even when things go differently than what you had planned
or when things go differently than all the expectations you may have,
regardless of what next week will hold, regardless of the trial that awaits you,
you are victorious, not because of you.
You're victorious because Christ came.
You're victorious because you're in Christ.
So my thing is to let the love of God and the implications of the incarnation grip your heart.
I do pray, and I really, I fervently pray, Lord, help them to see what exactly you have done for us
by sending your son and let that absolutely grip us, that we be mesmerized by it.
And I close with one author saying this.
The incarnate, crucified, and glorified Jesus is with us.
And he can help us in everything that we go through, even, and I would say especially,
when it makes no sense to us. Amen.
God has sent his son to be the savior of the world, and he's interceding and advocating for you.
Friends, you have a merciful and a faithful high priest who stands ready to help you in your time of need.
Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Let us pray.
Lord, these are holy wonders and mysteries.