Destiny

We will be like Jesus

That sounds real “churchy” doesn’t it?

But it’s really true.

In fact, it is the most amazing thing in the world.

So let me ask you, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Me - I told everyone I wanted to be a medical doctor.

In biology class, I was the only one who was able to find the earthworm’s brain.

Everyone else was too heavy handed, but I had the moves and I had that special touch.

In Chemistry, I was the guy everyone cheated off of.

Unbeknownst to me or the class, my teacher gave me a different test than anyone else so she could see just who was cheating.

It turned out a lot of people were.

We had a student transfer in who spoke no English.

They made him my lab partner.

We communicated by pointing at pictures of lab equipment.

And thank goodness, math is math no matter where it’s done.

So people believed I would be a doctor.

But when I went to college, I was asked what my major was going to be

And I said I was going to double major - pre-med and religion.

Because see, I knew I was called to be a pastor since I was 12.

But I wanted the glory of being a doctor too

Me bargaining with God.

Yeah, I’ve told you the rest of the story before.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

I suspect a few of us made it.

I suspect most of us became something else.

But let me make this prediction

For everyone who follows Jesus - if we realized right now what our potential was and how far we’ve fallen short

We’d be devastated.

But - now listen - but if we realized right now that one day each and every Christ follower will reach their absolute fullest potential

That we will be absolutely more than we could ever dream we could be

We’d be ecstatic and we couldn’t wait until it happens.

Open your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, we’ll be dealing with verses 4 - 9.

The people this is written to were disappointed.

Things had not turned out like they expected.

At that very moment, Jesus was a disappointment - He didn’t deliver.

The writer tells them about Jesus - That’s was 1:1-4

He’s told them why the angels and the law and the prophets they delivered was good but incomplete - That was 1:5-14.

He’s told them they need to pay a lot of attention to how the Lord has gotten them to where they are in the faith right this minute - That’s 2:1-4

Now he’s going to tell them why

This is the vision we want to see.

Kids, the older you get, the more people will ask you what you want to be when you grow up.

Blow their minds, tell them you want to be like Jesus.

You’ll figure out your career - pay attention to what you like to do that gives something to the world

Pay attention to what you are really good at

Pray a lot and see how the Lord puts things in your way that will guide you.

But more important than what you will do is who you will be.

You want to be like Jesus.

The three words you are listening for on your worship guide are Jesus, Glory and Everything.

Hear now the Word of the Lord from the book of Hebrews 2:5-9

Hebrews 2:5–9 ESV

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of 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 made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray: Dear Lord,

Through the ministry of your Holy Spirit, give your children a vision of the glory that is yet to come for them.

Burn in our heart a love and appreciation for Jesus we have never felt.

You have shown us your glory, please accept our adoration and praise.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Hebrews 2:5 “For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.”

To whom does the future belong?

This is a trick question.

Angels figure very big in this section of Hebrews.

We know from the Bible that the angels delivered the Law and the Prophets to us.

We know the angels are powerful, they sit in the presence of God, they worship Him

And they are sent by Him to, remember this: "... to protect his people, deliver them from danger, transmit divine messages, and encourage believers.”

Angels sound very cool - but the future doesn’t belong to angels.

They will be in the future just as they are now - but the future doesn’t belong to them.

“For it was not to angels God subjected the world to come....”

Now listen, I want you to get this, it’s important

God subjected

That means God made the future subordinate to something

He put the future under someone’s control - and it’s not the angels.

As to the future, this isn’t something that has to be said but I want to say it

The word translated to come has in it’s character a strong sense of certainty.

The writer is not daydreaming about what the future will look like.

This isn’t a wish

This isn’t Snow White singing, “Someday My Prince Will Come.”

This is a certainty, now listen to me

We talk about heaven and the new heaven and new earth all of the time

But if you are a Christ follower, I want us all this minute to really cement in our hearts that one day these things will come to be.

Listen, my dad passed away at 83.

If I live to be his age, I have 14 years.

God willing I will live beyond that

The point is, as someone near and dear to me says, you have an appointed number of heartbeats

When that last heartbeat ticks - what then?

Where I’m trying to get us to is here - I don’t want to just want to go to heaven when I die

I want to KNOW that I’m going somewhere and I want to KNOW some of what to expect.

And what’s crazy, the Lord has been telling us since He created us.

And we, I don’t think, have listened.

It all starts with a really big question:

What is man?

Hebrews 2:6 “It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?”

This is familiar right?

One of our Deacons just read it a few minutes ago, except he didn’t read it from Hebrews.

He read it from Psalms, chapter 8

Two weeks ago Kim Hice played “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name”

That song comes from right here - same place - Psalms 8.

How does the Psalmist answer the question, “What is man?”

He answers his question, in his question.

“What is man, that you are mindful of him

“What is man that you remember him...”

Listen, we’ve all worked to humble ourselves by recognizing that we are just a speck in the universe.

1/8,000,000,000th of the population of the earth.

Invisible from 35,000 feet.

And yet, God remembers us

And He cares - He looks after, He visits

Not just humanity, but us, individually.

Remember what the writer said about Jesus in 1:3?

He’s the exact imprint of His nature.

Meaning, what I’ve seen Jesus do, God does.

Like visit with me when I’m sick.

Like talk to me when no one else will

Like tell me the truth when I don’t understand what’s going on.

We are never forgotten

We are never ignored

Remember, remember Jesus was trying to get away - you can read it in Mark 7 - He was trying to get some rest

And this Syrophenician Woman found him and started on him about casting the unclean spirit out of her daughter.

She kept on and on and Jesus told her that it wasn’t time for him to work with Syrophenicians yet

But this woman who felt lower than a doormat anyway said to Jesus - All I’m asking for is a crumb.

Remember the story - remember what Jesus said, “Go your way; the demon has left your daughter.”

Why would the Lord Jesus do something that it really wasn’t time for yet

And He did it for this nondescript woman who wasn’t from around here?

Listen to verses 7 & 8 answer that.

Hebrews 2:7–8 “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.

Why would Jesus do this?

It’s because of

How we were created

“You made him...”

The book of Job was written around 2,000 BC

It’s the oldest book in the Bible.

In Job 10:8 we hear: “Your hands fashioned and made me...”

The writer of Psalm 119:73 “Your hands have made and fashioned me...”

Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

Think with me.

Yahweh God reached into the dust and formed a man.

He didn’t take a primate and mutate him.

He didn’t take some type of humanoid creature and develop him.

He reached into the dust and He created a brand new creature.

Who was God’s model?

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Yahweh’s model was Yahweh.

Maybe not on the outside - but on the inside - where it counts

He created us - formed us with His very hands - into His image.

He did this with no other creature.

And, as Yahweh did with no other creature, Yahweh breathed life into Him.

We reflect the family image of God that no other creature in all of the universe does.

When you look at us, we see a reflection of the one who created us.

8 billion little reflections scattered all over the globe.

That’s why God said, “Be fruitful and multiply”

The more of us there are, the more reflections of the glory of God exists.

The further people scatter across the earth, the more glory of God is seen.

And if Elon gets us to Mars - the first thing Mars will see when we step onto the dust of that planet

Is the reflection of the glory of God.

In fact, if we get to Mars, it will be because the Lord put “everything in subjection under his feet.”

I know every villain in a James Bond movie’s goal was to rule the world

But actually, that’s what we were designed to do.

Everything isn’t hard to understand.

Everything means everything.

We were designed to take care of everything that the Lord created.

There is nothing outside of our span of control.

He put “everything in subjection under” our feet.

Of course, sin, right?

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

And I’ve explained, that’s not saying we aren’t living up to God’s glory

That’s saying we aren’t living up to the glory the Lord created us to have.

We can’t be all that we can be.

That’s why we hear this Hebrews 2:8 “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”

That’s what causes us to doubt - we don’t see everything under our control.

We look at the world and it’s out of control and there is a 7 word cause

“The Problem In The World Is You.”

But - here’s the solution.

Hebrews 2:9 “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

Now listen to the similarities.

We were created a little lower than the angels.

Jesus was born a little lower than the angels.

We were crowned with glory and honor.

Jesus was crowned with glory and honor.

But we sinned and our glory was tarnished.

Jesus didn’t sin.

His glory and honor was never tarnished.

We didn’t exercise our dominion - that was Adam’s sin.

Had he exercised dominion - which God had granted him to do, he would have rebuked the devil

And protected his wife.

He didn’t do that.

But Jesus did.

Satan tempted Him three times - and Jesus’ bride the church was sitting right there holding it’s breath - what would Jesus do?

Satan tempted Jesus three times - not one like Eve but three times - and three times Jesus resisted.

He exercised dominion.

When Jesus was faced with death, He didn’t back down.

He exercised him dominion.

He suffered death - “so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

Jesus became what we were supposed to be.

He exercised the dominion over creation - all of creation - that we were supposed to do.

We failed them.

But we don’t have to fail now.

Jesus shows us the way.

That’s why we follow him - so we can do this thing right.

Listen to me, the first problem we all have is sin.

Sin is us choosing to live contrary to God’s design.

We massacre the 10 commandments on a steady basis.

God said this is the way to live so that you and all around you will have your best life.

But problem is in our minds - we think that it’s not about us and everybody else.

It’s about me and want what I want.

It’s hard for us to believe that one day we’ll run out of runway.

And I can tell you from one who has gray hair, the end of the runway comes up quick.

You need a Savior who will save you from a fiery ending.

You need to follow Jesus.

Ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins and follow Jesus.

But now listen - what this writer is telling us in these five verses is

By following Jesus, one day all things will be in subjection under our feet.

One day there will come a time - sooner rather than later - that we will measure up to the glory of God because of Jesus.

Romans 3:23 will pass away.

All have sinned - but those who are washed in Jesus’ blood - our sins are gone.

We’re restored and we will be restored.

And we will measure up to what God created us to be because of Jesus.

See, Jesus is the perfect us.

And we’ll never be God - that’s not the aim.

But we will be like Jesus

1 John 3:2 ESV

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We will be like Jesus.

That’s what we are working for, every day.

Follow Jesus.

Follow Jesus every day.

Through every trial, through every up and down, follow Jesus.

When it comes time to leave this world, follow Jesus.

Because you know that one day, the Lord will put everything in subjection under our feet.

And this time - we won’t mess it up

This is the Jesus follower’s destiny.

Let us pray.