Pioneering Faith (2)

Introductions

Jab 1 people in your life and in your work place maybe talking about their new years resolution......Study showing people who make new years resolutions

Jab 2 when we want to accomplish these goals and these resolutions we often look or the experts who can help us get there, or we look for places where we can get the resources needed to accomplish these resolutions.

Jab3

Right Hook

Jesus blazed a trail of relationship to God that is filled with freedom, suffering, and perfect love that we all can follow.

Jesus blazed a trail of relationship to God that is filled with freedom, suffering, and perfect love that we all can follow.

Explanation

Hebrews 2:10-18

Hebrews 2:10–18 NLT

God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.” He also said, “I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.” Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

The question of what was appropriate or fitting for God to do, especially in regard to the problem of human suffering, was debated by both Jewish and secular thinkers in the first century A.D. The author opened verse 10 with the phrase, it was fitting or it was appropriate.

He did not use the word God, preferring to allude to God by the expression, for whom are all things and through whom are all things. These words remind us of God's intention that his human creation find meaning and fulfillment in covenant relationship with himself.

However, since humankind had fallen God, by means of Christ, became involved in leading many sons to glory. This phrase reminds us that the work of redemption is a process of returning our fallen human race to the glory of God. Since the words glory and image are often used together in the New Testament God, in Christ, was restoring his own image in us.

Neither the Old Testament nor the New describe how the image of God in which we were created was damaged (or lost) by sin. However, the New Testament clearly indicates that Christ came to restore us to the image of God we enjoyed at creation.

Perfect- -to be made complete, to finish......not dealing with a blemishless existence.

So the author IS NOT saying that Jesus had imperfections that had to be made right

The author of Hebrews also was aware of the way the Greek Old Testament sometimes used the verb, "to perfect," to indicate the act of sanctifying a priest for his priestly office. The Hebrew expression meant "to fill the hands." Thus the idea of consecration to his role as a Savior who is High Priest

The author of Hebrews also was aware of the way the Greek Old Testament sometimes used the verb, "to perfect," to indicate the act of sanctifying a priest for his priestly office. The Hebrew expression meant "to fill the hands." Thus the idea of consecration to his role as a Savior who is High Priest

Finally

the perfecting of Christ that is in view in verse 10 is to make him perfect as pioneer of our salvation.

This shifts attention from the idea of Christ's identification with God to his identification with us. The role of Christ is that of a pioneer, a pathfinder.

He will be the one who will mark the way to God for us.

The way to God from the right hand of God in heaven was not a difficult thing for Christ to accomplish. However, the path from the side of fallen humanity to the side of God in heaven was a new trail to be blazed.

he way to God from the right hand of God in heaven was not a difficult thing for Christ to accomplish. However, the path from the side of fallen humanity to the side of God in heaven was a new trail to be blazed.

Family

As pioneer on the perfection trail there is a true sense in which Jesus is also the one who perfects us.

Shifting to the language of priestly consecration, the author states in verse 11 that the one who sanctifies - that is Jesus - and those who are sanctified - that will be all of us who will follow Christ on the trail to fellowship and obedience to God - have one Father.

In other words, life on the trail between fallen humanity and a holy God is a family life, a community life. It is the family formed by shared obedience and being made perfect by suffering. Thus Jesus is not ashamed to call them [us] brothers and sisters.

This family of suffering relates to what Paul wrote in about the fellowship of Christ's sufferings.

The family concept leads the author to quote in verse 12. This psalm was another well-known and much used psalm in the earliest church.

The fact that Jesus quoted its opening words from the cross made it an especially forceful testimony to the work of God in Christ.

The family concept is clear in the quotation from , and the allusion to in verse 13 also reflects the sense of community and belonging between God and his people understood as family.

#Winning

Intertestamental Judaism had come to believe that the devil had the power of death. This was not by intrinsic right, but as a result of human choice to place ourselves in disobedience to God and thus to ally ourselves with all that opposed God.

Jesus described his ministry as the conflict between the strong man (Satan) and the stronger man (himself) in . The work of salvation was the task of setting people free from the bondage to Satan that we create for ourselves by our own sins. The writer of Hebrews appears to have the situation of his own readers in mind here.

They were in bondage through the fear of death by persecution. As a result they were "captives of an evil tyrant who possessed the power to intimidate them" (Lane, WBC, p. 62). But there was (and is) no need to be intimidated by the devil; Christ has won the victory through his resurrection.