Hebrews 2:10-18
Does anybody know what I suffer? Has that ever been a question
on your mind? Does anybody know what I suffer?
Do they know what I’m going through? Do they know the trouble that
plagues me? Or maybe you’ve asked it this
way, does Jesus understand my sorrows? Does he, the God of
the universe, does he understand little old me and all the things
that I deal with? My day-to-day struggles, my sickness,
my hardship, my sorrows. Those are real questions. Those
are real struggles that we think on during the darkness of the
night, during the struggles of the daytime. We have a constant
human situation that is difficult. We live in a world that is full
of sin. We live in a world that is cursed. There’s sickness around us. There
are relationships that are busted apart. We have financial struggles. We have all these Hardships,
and we want to know, does somebody understand what I deal with? Does Jesus, does he understand
my sorrows and my hurts? Let me encourage you with these
words today. Jesus knows because he has experienced
far worse than you can imagine in this life. He knows your hardship,
your sorrows, your struggles. and He knows them more than you
will ever know. And so as our passage tells us,
yes, we have a high priest. who is merciful and he can sympathize
with us. He knows what’s wrong with the
world. He knows what’s wrong with mankind. He knows what’s
wrong with you. He knows your struggles and your
hardships. And this passage teaches us that God brings many sons
and daughters to glory through Jesus Christ who became like
one of us that we might, as C.S. Lewis says, become like one of
Him. He became one of us that we might
become like one of Him. Look at this passage with me.
This is a glorious passage. You may even think to yourselves,
as I have, that we’re starting Christmas early. We’re preaching
the incarnation of Jesus Christ long before any other churches
are, if they were to follow the traditions of Advent and Christmas.
But understand three things with me. First, the goal of salvation. What is the purpose of history?
Maybe a more biblical or Christian way to ask that is not what is
the goal of history, but what is the purpose of redemptive
history? What is God doing in the world? We know what men and women are
doing. We’ve all had our history lessons. We know of the various
periods of history. We know of the Greeks and the
Romans. We know of the rise and fall of monarchies. We know of
our European history, our Russian history, our history of America. We can sing the little songs
about Christopher Columbus. We know what men and women have
been doing in history, but do we know what God has been doing
in history? We read the Bible and we see
that from Genesis to Revelation, God is active in human history.
For He is the God of history and in fact He is the God of
redemptive history. But what is the purpose of all
this? Well, our passage tells us. It
tells us the One who created the world and everything in it,
that everything was by Him and for Him. He created a theater,
you might say, the creation, and He put Himself on center
stage as the chief actor, redeeming men and women and boys and girls.
His goal is this. It says it very clearly in our
passage. His goal is to bring many sons to glory. His goal
is to bring men and women and boys and girls from an estate
of disobedience, of sin and misery and the pains and misery of hell
forever into an estate of salvation. To bring sons and daughters into
glory through Christ and to create a family of God and to create
in each of you who are new creations in Christ Jesus a new humanity
doing what Adam failed to do but following after Christ, the
second Adam, the last Adam, and doing what mankind was created
to be and do. Remember last week we considered
the quotation from Psalm 8. What is man that you are mindful
of him, the son of man that you have given him a look, a glimpse. God made men and women and boys
and girls to bear his image and to rule over the earth. And so God, in and through Christ,
is making you into what you should have been. But Adam broke and
bent and cursed and destroyed nearly by the fall into sin.
God is making a new humanity, a new family. Now notice what
he’s not saying. If we’re saying in these passages
that Jesus is greater than angels, notice that we’re not saying
the goal of salvation is not to save angels. In fact, Satan
is one of the great angels and he will not, brothers and sisters,
He will not be saved. He will be cast into outer darkness. But God’s goal is not to save
angels. No, what does our passage tell
us? He tells us that he helps the
offspring of Abraham. And Galatians tells us very clearly
that we who by faith trust in Christ alone for our salvation,
we are the offspring of Abraham. So from Genesis to Revelation,
we read that the goal of human history is God is saving men
and women and boys and girls. He’s bringing many sons and daughters
to glory out of darkness into light, out of sin and bondage
into freedom and a rich life. And so let me answer the question
we asked at the outset. Does somebody know your suffering?
Does somebody know your hardships? Yes, someone knows. And that
is Jesus. And He is actively at work. He
is actively at work to fix what has been broken. So there’s the
goal of salvation. It’s to bring many sons to glory.
Now secondly, we want to consider the founder of salvation. That
is what this passage centrally teaches us. That Jesus is the
founder of salvation. There is no other way by which
or through whom man can be saved. God saves sinners alone through
Jesus. There is no other way. There
is no other religion. There is no other Savior. You
can’t do it yourself. It is through Jesus Christ. And
so this passage tells us why Jesus is suitable to be the office
or to bear the office of Redeemer. I’m sure all of you are worn
out now with the election cycle. We’re a year away from presidential
elections, and we have, what, 19 more debates to go. We have
signs to pass. We have Donald Trump’s hair to
look at. We have all these things that
are before us over the next year, but this issue of who is fit,
Who is elected? Who is able to bear the office
of Redeemer? That is settled. It was settled
long ago in eternity past when God the Father and God the Son
said, our people that we create will sin and they will need a
Redeemer. And Jesus said, I will be that Redeemer. I will leave
the riches of heaven. I will go to earth. And I will
suffer and die for their sake. And so this passage teaches us
that it was fitting. It was right. It was necessary,
as our catechism said earlier, that fancy word. And Jay, you’ll
have to you have to look that one up, right? He has to look
up a word a week when he gets around me. But it was it was
required. that Jesus be man to bear the
office. Now, you think God could do salvation
any way he wanted? He could snap his fingers. He
could speak a word. He could send an angel. He could do whatever he wanted
in order to save his people. But he did it the right way.
He let a man come and pay the penalty for the sins of man.
He let divine justice be satisfied and let the penalty be paid,
really paid for sins. It wasn’t the blood of bulls
and goats. It wasn’t that sin was covered over. No, sin really
got paid for. And in this passage, we see that
it was fitting for the one who would save a people, the one
who would open up a way of salvation, the one who would be the pioneer
of salvation, that he would be truly qualified for the office.
And what does this scripture tell us? It tells us that he
was made perfect or made fitting for the office through his suffering. Now, that’s a strange way. The
way to the top is not a way of suffering often, is it? Now we
want to look at someone’s resume and say they’ve been a governor,
they’ve been a senator, they’ve been a judge, they’ve been to
law school, they’ve been shown that they can raise money and
garner the trust of the people. But here we have a Savior who
can save us, who suffered. He left the riches of heaven.
He gave it up. He came to earth. He lived under the law. He was
born in a stable. He was a poor man. He was a mistreated
man. And we would say to ourselves,
that’s no savior. That’s not someone I would elect
to office. But the one who would bear the
wrath of God’s curse for our sin, the one who would be our
sacrifice and the offerer of that sacrifice must be made perfect
or fit through suffering. He must partake of a divine nature,
this passage teaches us. He must become flesh and blood
as you are. And he must die. Now, why must
he die? This passage gives us, it gives
us two reasons. One is to destroy death and the
devil himself. Now, remember the context of
our passage here. Jesus better than angels. Who
is an angel? Angel, angel, the devil, the
fallen angel, Lucifer, the angel of light. And he destroys the
devil and the one who controlled death. Does God know my sorrows? Does He know my struggles? Does
He know even that I fear death? What does Jesus say when He writes
the letter of Revelation through John? I am He who lives, and
I am alive, and I hold the keys to death. He holds the keys to
your death, brothers and sisters, when you die. It will not be
because of Satan, but because of God, because of Jesus. He
controls the keys to death and Hades. Not only does He destroy
Satan, does He take away the curse of death, He delivers those
who feared death and who were slaves. Why the God-man? Why did Jesus have to become
God? To deliver you and to destroy Satan. To deliver you from slavery
and to destroy your slave master. And so he is able also to help
those who are in crisis. Now the context of some of these
verses that are quoted, particularly the ones from Isaiah, you remember
that the Assyrians, because of God’s judgment on Israel, they
surrounded the people. And so they looked out of Jerusalem.
They peeked out their windows of the northern kingdoms of Israel,
and they saw their enemies. There they are. They’re camping.
I see their fires. They’re mean, nasty brutes. They’re
sharpening their swords. They’re feeding their horses.
They’re going to come kill us. And so when God says here in
Hebrews, He is able to help the offspring of Abraham, it’s a
word that reminds them over and over that when the enemy surrounded
the people of God, their help was in God. Their help was in
the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. They’re in
crisis. The Hebrews are facing the sword
and the lion and the arena because Nero is the wicked ruler of Rome.
And this second generation of Hebrew Christians is crying out
for help. And the writer of Hebrews sends
this epistle, this sermon, and says, he’s able to help. the
offspring of Abraham. You got Assyrians surrounding
you, or Romans, or Nero and his wicked army? God can help you. Friend, if you’re in crisis,
whatever that crisis can be, He helps the offspring of Abraham. We’re hearing of this founder
of salvation, this pioneer of salvation. He is qualified as
a high priest. because he became like you, took
on flesh and blood. And this passage goes on to say,
yes, he is the perfect candidate. He is the consecrated high priest.
He is like you in every way. He can lead you up and out and
through distress. It goes on to say he’s a merciful
high priest. He’s a faithful high priest.
He’s merciful to you. He’s sympathetic to you. He knows
your infirmities, your hardships, your struggles. He knows the
hardships of living in this world and being tempted by the devil.
He knows of the sin within you and how it attempts to rear its
ugly head and destroy you. He’s a merciful high priest.
He’s one you can run to, pray to, cry out to. But he is a faithful
high priest. He’s merciful to you, but faithful
to God. God relies upon him. This is
not Aaron or one of his sons. This is the great high priest
who does not fail. And he delivers the ultimate
sacrifice, his own flesh and blood, to pay the penalty for
sins. Friends, this Jesus, this founder,
this author, this pioneer of our salvation who has opened
up a way to God, was tempted. He was tried and He has been
found true and faithful. And He can represent you like
no other. He can avert God’s wrath like
no one. He can heal you. He can lift
you up. And He can help you through life and minister to you in this
world. But you must have faith in Him.
You must trust in Him alone for your salvation. As our new members
were asked, do you recognize yourself to be a sinner in God’s
sight? And that without His mercy and love, that you would be lost
and without hope in this world and the world to come? And do
you acknowledge that Jesus is our faithful Savior and it is
in Him alone and through Him alone that we can have salvation?
Is that your position today? Do you have faith in Christ?
The goal of salvation is to bring many sons to glory, but you must
be found in Christ. The founder of salvation is none
other than Jesus and you must put your faith and trust in Him. There’s a third thing we must
notice from this passage, and it is the fullness of salvation.
For those of you who trust in Jesus, who put your faith and
hope and rest in Him alone to save you, there is a fullness
of salvation that is spoken of in these passages. We sometimes,
or maybe I should say very often, we crassly equate the gospel
with fire insurance. or with life insurance, and you
hear these gospel songs, or you hear these gospel presentations
of, do you want to burn? Well, nobody wants to burn. Well,
you better get fire insurance. And what is that fire insurance?
It’s Jesus. Or do you wanna lose all your
possessions? and be bankrupt and have nothing
left. Well, no. Then you need Jesus. And that
is a crass presentation of the gospel. For our condition is
far worse than what Allstate or Nationwide or State Farm can
take care of. You see the ridiculous nature
of these comparisons. Our condition is far worse. We
are lost. We are without hope in this world.
We are separated from God. In fact, we are alienated from
God and the arrow of His wrath is aimed at you. And if it were
not for Christ standing in the gap, we would be done. We would be lost. We would be
dead forever. And so friends, I want us to
understand from this passage not just the goal of salvation
or the founder of salvation, but the fullness of salvation.
It is fuller, it is richer, it is freer than we can ever imagine.
That is one of the reasons why on Sunday nights we are going
through the order of salvation. We’re looking at our salvation
as the Bible teaches it from predestination and God’s election
all the way to glorification and all that is in between because
this life is too hard. It’s too hard to live not knowing
that we have the riches of heaven at our disposal. It is too hard
to live like paupers. I mean, which of you would live
not knowing what’s in your bank account? I’m sure if you’re like
me, you’re acutely aware of what is coming in and what is going
out. But which of us lives like, who cares? There’s something
in there. No, we’re aware of these things and so it is great
for us to be aware of our salvation. It’s full, it’s rich, it’s free,
it is amazing. What does this passage tell us
about our salvation? Well, it tells us that we are
part of the family of God. It tells us that God has brought
us into his family. We are the offspring of Abraham.
We are his sons and his daughters. And he is leading us to glory.
And that the one who sanctifies us, Jesus, is our big brother.
He is the one who destroys our enemies. He delivers us from
slavery. We fear death no more because
he has conquered it and he has already gone before us and passed
through it. If we need help in this life,
we have it. We have a high priest who is
merciful, who can sympathize with us and he is trusted and
relied upon and faithful to our God. And he is here to help Abraham’s
offspring, not angels. not those who do not possess
faith in him. He is here to help those who
truly rest in him alone for salvation, and he is yours. But there’s
an important thing this passage teaches us, and it’s a very final
thing that has ongoing blessings and benefits, and that is this.
He has made propitiation for your sins. There’s another big
word for you, but it is one of the big words. In fact, it is
the big word of the Bible that we ought to understand. God through
Jesus Christ has made propitiation for our sins. In the Old Testament,
sins were expiated. They were covered over for a
time. The blood of bulls and goats kept God’s wrath back until
such a time as one, namely Jesus, would come and fully and finally
pay for sins. The scapegoat whose The hands of the high priest
were placed on his head, the sins of the people put on him,
sent outside the camp into the wilderness. That, friends, did
not satisfy God’s wrath. It appeased it. It temporarily
held it back. But it was only when Jesus came
and died on the cross that our sins were paid for. They were
propitiated. They were not expiated, covered
over. They were propitiated. They were fully and finally paid
for. God’s divine justice was satisfied
by the death of our Lord Jesus. We were brought into a peaceful
relationship with God, no longer at odds with God. Our sin was
not covered. No, it was paid for. And so God,
when He justifies you, He sees you as if you’ve never sinned.
And He sees you as if you have always obeyed. Romans 5, 1 tells
us so well. There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, why does the writer of Hebrews
use these two Old Testament passages? to bolster the fact, to strengthen
that Jesus is like us. Jesus is our brother. Jesus took
on human flesh and blood. Well, Psalm 22, which we read
earlier and is quoted briefly in this passage, speaks of the
suffering Messiah. It speaks of Jesus fulfilling
the office of the great high priest, who not only offered
the sin offering, but was the sin offering. And he says that
Jesus, when he is in the great sanctuary of heaven, offering
worship to God, he acknowledges you and I as his brothers and
sisters. He says, in a sense, there they are. They’re worshiping
down in the world, and these are my brothers, these are my
sisters. And so he acknowledges you. who have faith in Him and
who worship Him. And then this passage from Isaiah
8, where this major prophet of the Bible, who was just a chapter
before, said, Unto us a Son is born. Unto us a Son is given.
And His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He’s saying in this messianic
passage, this prophecy of Jesus, We trust in Jesus, your son,
who is also our brother. God, you’re trustworthy. You
have a remnant. You will bring many sons and daughters out of
this world into glory. Friends, our salvation is better
than fire insurance. It’s better than life insurance.
It is deep, it is wide, it is costly, it is heavenly, it is
full, and it is rich, and it is free, and it is yours. It
is yours if you know of your sin, and you know of a need of
a Savior, and you recognize Jesus as that only Savior, and you
know that He can offer and grant you forgiveness if you’ll but
ask and rest in Him alone for your salvation. So, does anyone
know I suffer? Jesus does. Because he became
flesh and blood like you. He suffered and died. He is like
you in every way. We read of Jesus in the Gospels.
He was anxious. Anxious even to the point of
sweating droplets of blood. But he was at prayer. He was
sad. In fact, he wept at Lazarus’
tomb. He was weary. And so we find
him in the fishing boat asleep. He had enemies. The serpent. Herod, the Pharisees, the rulers,
the Sanhedrin. They hated his guts. In fact,
they hated the kingdom and they wanted to stop salvation. Friends,
he knows your sorrows and your hardships and your sufferings.
He is like you in every way. No, there’s one way where he’s
not like you. He’s sinless. He’s perfect. He perfectly obeyed God. And
think of the comparison. Think of Adam and Eve in the
garden. Everything they needed, beauty, Fellowship with God,
God speaking His Word to them, the fruit of the garden, the
beauty and the rain, and all the perfection of God’s new creation.
They had it all, and one day Satan came and tempted. And what
did Adam and Eve do? They took what he had forbidden,
because it was a delight to their eyes. And they took it and they
ate it. And it brought them sin and shame and nakedness. It brought
them alienation from God. But Jesus, 40 days in the wilderness,
not a drop to drink, not a morsel to eat, a dry and desolate, lonely
place. And Satan comes to him, and three
times he tempts him, and three times he speaks the Word of God
back and says, no. In paradise, Adam failed. But
out in the wilderness, Jesus succeeded. He passed the test.
He took himself to the cross. His sacrifice was accepted. And
friends, he comes to make his blessings known as far as the
curse is found, that curse which he lifts us from, he rescues
us out of, and we have no fear. But friends, you must have faith.
You must have faith in Jesus, who became one of us, that you
might, by his grace and mercy, and through his word and spirit
and salvation, become like him. Let us pray together. Our God,
we thank you that Jesus is truly, and really, and fully, and completely,
even perfectly qualified to bear the office of Redeemer. We praise
you for the God-man, for the one who is able to save us, and
not only save us fully and finally, but to give us and grant us all
the riches that are ours in between. We thank you and praise you for
him. Help us to live out of this grace, to live out of these riches,
And may we not be spiritual paupers, but be spiritually rich because
what is real and true of us and about us and from heaven. This
we pray in Jesus name. Amen.