This Isn't It - Hebrews 2:5-9
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Good Morning. Can you believe it? It seems like just the other day it was Christmas! I mean, it was snowing here Thursday morning - and yesterday it became officially Spring! And Easter or Resurrection Sunday is just 2 weeks away, so I hope you’ve been inviting people already to our breakfast, service, and egg hunt but if not there’s still time so make sure you grab some invite cards on your way out and invite people to church. Invite the barista at starbucks when you grab your coffee, your neighbors, your friends or relatives, wherever you go let’s share the message of the hope of Jesus with the world.
Let’s pray.
John Milton composed one of the greatest pieces of literature in the English language entitled Paradise Lost. He depicted the creation of man, the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, and the effects of that fall in Heaven, on earth, and in Hell. He describes the efforts of God to redeem man from the fall by sending Jesus into the world.
Then, four years later he composed another poem entitled Paradise Regained. Here he captured the essence of the Gospel.
The Bible is the story of how we as humans by sin lost paradise and how, by the sacrificial death of Christ, paradise can be regained.
God created man in innocence and gave him dominion over the whole earth. Man sinned, and immediately lost his dominion. Jesus came to die to remove the curse so that man could regain the dominion. As a result, His death was the most purposeful in all history. No wonder the Friday before resurrection Sunday aka Easter is known as Good Friday.
The title of today’s message is This isn’t it, and it’s titled this way because what we really need to consider and pay attention to today is the fact that this world is not our final home. We’ve discussed the fact that Hebrews is about Jesus is better, how Hebrews is about exhortation, and today we’re going to see another theme in Hebrews - Jesus has come to bring us home. In Hebrews 2:11 the Bible tells us of the complete identification of the Holy One with a people He is making holy.
For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
We all have one source, we all are sanctified by Jesus, and He is not ashamed to call us brothers. So today let’s look at how God intended, what happened, and what God is doing with it starting with:
1. MAN AS GOD HAS MADE HIM.
The writer of Hebrews has turned back to the angels as we had discussed in chapter one - but this time it’s to do a little proving. See, the Jews would have had a hard time with Jesus in His lowly status while here being for a little while lower than the angels. And we know that he had to endure all of that humanness for the sake of our salvation, but the Jews weren’t there yet. So the author here begins to prove their cause - by showing that man originally had such dominion.
So here begins in the next few verses the author showing with Old Testament information the dominion of man - as it was intended.
And what we see in verse 5 is what God intended
For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.
Man’s dominion is the inhabited earth in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
Man had dominion in the beginning before the Fall, man will once again have dominion with Christ as King. This current world is not our home.
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
We’ll see in a little bit in verse 7 that man was made little lower than the angels for a little while, but the key thing to see here is that man was given privileges far higher than the angels. God never promised the angels that they would reign in the world to come. One day those that are in a relationship with Jesus will again be above the angels and will even judge the angels who are fallen:
Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
Now an interesting thought came to mind here. I don’t know if this just never caught me or what, but think about this, when all is said and done, we are going to be right there alongside Christ judging the angels.
And really, I mean, we don’t see many angels, even in the Old Testament. Sure, they were there for some important events, but often it was God speaking to a man, and that man sharing a message with other people.
And look at the very first part of verse 6 - It has been testified somewhere - it doesn’t say that an angel told someone, but a man somewhere testified something.
And I hear it - if only God would send so-and-so an angel so that they would believe - the most powerful reactions to the Gospel that have multiplied the saints has not been angels folks - it’s been through people, telling other people, by the power of Jesus Christ - so maybe the most powerful messenger God has is you!
The other thing we see in God’s intention for man is man’s deity - Hebrews 2:6-8 quotes Psalm 8:4-6
It has been testified somewhere, “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
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.
what is man - wonder of wonders, man is insignificant in the universe, yet the Creator of all time, space, matter, and just everything is interested in him.
And it’s an undeniable fact that that same God is mindful of us - you are on God’s mind all the time. The God who created the vastness of the universe is mindful of finite man.
And it’s an unbelievable fact that He cares for us. The King James here says that He visitest - so He visits man!
Throughout the Old Testament God visited Abraham, Hagar, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon - ugh, Gideon - Samson’s parents, Elijah, Daniel - the list is huge!
But better than all of those Old Testament visits was when He visited as Jesus Christ - the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy that all of those Old Testament folks were looking forward to. It is a fact of eternal astonishment that God’s delight should be with us - the sons of man.
It’s a fact of great surprise that God visits us, loves us, delights in our company, desires our love and friendship, and wishes to abide permanently in our hearts.
Now we get to that unique honor as noted in verse 7:
You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
Evolution or the world says that man is a little higher than the animals. The Bible says that man is currently a little lower than the angels - and that’s temporary.
The dominion that God gave man in the Garden - that was glory and honor, and soon that glory and honor will again be bestowed upon those that are in Christ.
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.
Man was placed in a perfect paradise environment. He was given a specific task and special trust, and literally everything on earth was in his dominion. Then came the fall. The fall broke and misdirected much of man’s dominion. Man’s dominion status was revoked or at least suspended as a result. So now we look at number 2:
2. MAN AS SIN HAS MADE HIM.
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.
And it’s the last part of that verse that is basically a summary of Genesis 3 - because all mankind fell in Adam, because he lost his kingdom and his crown, we do not see the earth subject to man. Wild animals defy us - I’m going to go ahead and just say all animals, especially cats, defy us - storms batter us, earthquakes and volcanoes, climate change, ozone layers - When man lost his crown, he lost the mastery of himself and the earth. He is totally sinful and a slave to sin.
Why is our world broken? Sin. What can we do to save the world? Nothing.
Now for those that are environmentally conscious - those that recycle, or drive clean vehicles, or - you know, however you desire to contribute to the environment or whatever - I’m not saying that you should or shouldn’t do those things, because I do enjoy seeing clean streets and forests and animals and stuff.
What I am saying is that this world we live in is going to be consistently defying everything we attempt and what the Bible is saying is that one day He is going to return and that dominion is going to be restored.
But until then, all of our efforts, all of our desires - we live in a broken world due to sin, and sin is ugly. And every one of us bears that sin that is in our nature through Adam. So let’s look at number 3 -
3. WHAT THE SAVIOR CAN MAKE US.
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.
We. See. Jesus. Not we can see Jesus, not when we see Jesus, not we have seen Jesus, simply we see Jesus. As Christians, we see Jesus - continually. This should be our common habit, the element of our spiritual life. We see Jesus because we are sure - sure of Him and His existence, sure of His presence, we have an intimate relationship with Him. Our spiritual vision far exceeds the vision of this world, and our only desire is to see Jesus always.
In contrast to the sinfulness and failure of man, we see Jesus. When God sent His Son, God revealed His glory once again. And through this we see His incarnation.
His incarnation in His position in that He stepped off of the throne of the universe to be contracted to the span of a virgin’s womb speaks of His humility. He humbled Himself for us.
His incarnation in His purpose - to become death for everyone - because the ultimate curse of man and his rebellion was death, but the cross conquered that curse.
Jesus, before whom the angels of God fell in worship, condescended below angelic nature and took upon Himself human nature.
The second thing we see through this verse is His substitution. The motive for His substitution was His grace - we did not deserve it, we cannot earn it, and we cannot repay it. 1 John 4:10 tells us:
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
And His ministry was to be the substitute. He came to die, to taste death for everyone.
Death in and of itself is a terrible reality, but there was never a death like the death of Jesus. The Lord suffered not only outward torture, but also inward agony as He took upon Himself our sins. Je was on the cross for 6 hours, and in that infinite period of time Jesus endured an infinite grief. He experienced all of Hell for all the sin of all the people of all the world for all time. He took your place. By the grace of God, Christ became our substitute.
Why? Not because we are loveable. Not because we deserve it. He did it simply because He loves us.
Glory removed - that’s the tragedy of man. Glory revealed - that’s what Jesus did.
As our time today comes to an end, I’m going to quote Charles Spurgeon:
Hebrews Exposition
Sometimes our faith, like our sight, is not quite clear. You do not always see, I suppose, equally well. There are many things that affect the optic nerve, and we know that in fair weather we can see a longer distance than we can in cloudy weather. I was at Newcastle some time ago, in a friend’s house, and when I went up to the top window and looked out, he said, “There is a fine view, sir, if you could but see it; we can see Durham Cathedral from here on a Sunday.” “On a Sunday!” I said. “How is that?” “Well, you see all that smoke down there, all those furnaces, and so on; they are all stopped on a Sunday, and then, when the air is clear, we can see Durham Cathedral.”
We can see a great deal on a Sunday, when the smoke of the world is gone for a little time; we can see all the way to heaven then. But sometimes, what with the smoke we make in business, and the smoke the devil makes, and the smoke that sin makes, we can scarcely see anything at all. Well, since the natural sight has to undergo variations, both from itself within and from the smoke without, and from the state of the weather, we must not wonder if our faith undergoes variations too. It ought not to do so, but sometimes it does.
Let’s Pray.
Father God thank you for revealing yourself to us. Thank you for the Word, from His presence in the beginning, to His presence in the Law, to His presence on the cross, and to His presence as the King in the end.
As you keep praying today, I want you to really take a moment and just think of the greatness of our King - he is better than anything this world has to offer. And really, we see all of these descriptive terms and in our humanity we forget that Jesus is all of these things. Not He was, but because He lives and because He is over all of time and space and matter and all of the living, He is exalted, He is to be worshipped, He is creating, He is enthroned, He exists outside of time, and He is destined.
Father, show us the perspective we need to see your promises fulfilled and your greatness. Show us your presence that is alive and flowing today. Open our eyes Lord to your all day every day glory, that we can see that you are, not you were, that we can live our lives fully devoted to your current and coming Kingdom.
And as you remain in prayer there are some here that may have realized that they don’t have a relationship with Christ. Maybe you’ve been a churchgoer for years, but you don’t know God personally. Maybe you’ve been trying to “find God” on your own, maybe your family were believers or took you to church or maybe you just haven’t wanted anything to do with religion because the darkness has felt good for you. Maybe you’ve always looked at God in the past and never really looked at Him as ever present and as the ruling King, and you feel like there’s something missing - you’re tired of looking around in the dark, and the Light is what you need and that Light is a living relationship with Jesus Christ.
And there are those of you who Christ desires to reveal Himself to today. So today, call on His name, Jesus, the Son of God who to save you was born in a manger without an earthly father so He didn’t inherit the sin nature, so that He could be your Savior, becoming sin on the cross, shedding His blood, dying, and being raised to life so that anyone who calls on His name will be saved. That’s why you’re here.
If that’s you, if God is calling to you to draw into a relationship with Jesus, answer Him today. If you don’t know how to start, you can simply pray something like this:
Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. Lord I believe that you came to free me from the bonds of sin and hell, and Lord I thank you for what only you could do. Lord I choose you, to follow in all that you are and to walk in the Spirit in a relationship with you, and to spend eternity with you. In Jesus name, amen.
Father, thank you again for this body, and Father as you are speaking to those here today, I pray that they will follow you where you lead, that they will see you revealed, and that we will follow in your presence today.