Not Ashamed 1 - God is Not Ashamed of Us

Reading: Hebrews 2:10-18
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.  Hebrews 2:11 (NIV)

I.   Not Ashamed to reach Down

     A.  Too High for us to reach

           1.  The tower of babel was an attempt by humans of making a tower to heaven.

           2.  In the story of Jacob’s ladder, a stairway goes up to heaven. But is the purpose of the ladder so that we can go up, or that God can come down?

           3.  But we can’t build or buy a stairway to heaven.

                 a.  We can’t reach it by effort or cleverness or our own goodness, or moral fortitude. “You can’t get there from here.”

                 b.  For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom.3:23)

                 c.  No one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law. . . (Rom.3:20)

     B.  God reaches down

           1.  We can’t reach up high enough, but God can reach down low enough.

                 a.  It is not beneath God’s dignity to come to us where we are.

           2.  Jesus becomes human (vv.14-17)

                 a.  He didn’t have to do this!

                 b.  It is not beneath Jesus’ dignity to become human.

                 c.  God could have simply started over (except that he promised He wouldn’t do that again - at least not with a flood)

     C.  God joins our Struggle

           1.  When God comes to us in human form, he does not come as Superman or the Mighty Hulk.

           2.  He comes as a helpless baby, lives as an ordinary man. He suffers hunger, thirst, pain.

           3.  He suffers (v.10), he suffers death (v.14) he suffers temptation (v.18)

                 a.  He does it all not for angels (who are already holy, and much more deserving of God’s mercy) — but for us!

II.  Not Ashamed to make us Holy

     A.  God Lifts us up

           1.  God through Jesus reaches down and lifts us up to him.

           2.  God reconciles us to himself through Jesus through the sacrifice Jesus makes on the cross for us — atonement “at one ment”

           3.  “While we are still sinners” Christ dies for us. He is not only not ashamed of us, he goes to the most extreme lengths to fix our broken relationship.

     B.  Who’s work is it?

           1.  In v. 10 we read about “the one who makes us holy” Who is that?

           2.  So then, it’s not up to us. Is it.

           3.  On the other hand, since it is God’s work, we ought not resist it, but seek to promote it and join it in every way we can.

     C.  All it takes

           1.  Jesus does all it takes to fix our relationship with God and to fix our brokenness.

           2.  All it takes for us is trust that what Jesus has done is all it takes.

III. Not Ashamed to make us Family

     A.  Brothers and Sisters of Jesus

           1.  Jesus stands next to us before our Father in heaven, puts His arm around us, holds his head high and says “This is my sister.” and “This is my brother.”

                 a.  He knows who we really are since he is making us holy — bringing us to glory.

                 b.  He looks past our sin, our brokenness, our evil thoughts, our history of wrong doing, past all we’ve ever done to others or ourselves, past our rebellions against God, past the way we have taken His death as a hunting license for bigger and more exciting sin.

                 c.  He looks past everything that we have done and are that deserve our shame, because it no longer exists to Him. He has taken it all away.

           2.  He is not ashamed to call us brother or sister! Imagine that!

                 a.  I don’t know how much shame you carry around about yourself. But I do know that Jesus doesn’t carry any around when He thinks of you.

     B.  Children of God

           1.  To all who receive him

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God John 1:12 (NIV)

                 a.  Receive = accept, welcome, recognize the authority of someone.

           2.  Being Jesus brother/sister makes us God’s children. That’s just as true for us as it is for Jesus who calls himself the Son of God.

           3.  And God is not ashamed to be our God either.

                 a.  In as much as you long for more you with the great heroes of faith share a promise of better things.

                 b.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:16 (NIV)

     C.  Brothers and Sisters with Each Other

           1.  Since we have one Brother in common and since we all have the same Father, we are brothers and sisters with each other.

           2.  My big brother isn’t ashamed of a single one of his brothers and sisters. So I’m not either.

           3.  Even if a brother or sister acts shamefully, he or she is still part of the family. A forgiven part (like the rest of us).

The Bottom Line:

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