Hebrews 2:5-18
Hebrews and the Incarnation • Sermon • Submitted
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· 85 viewsWe are looking at the Incarnation from the book of Hebrews, and are starting in Hebrews 1-2
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Intro:
Intro:
-The book of Hebrews is one of the most fascinating books in all of the NT
-Part of what makes it so fascinating is the fact that there is so much we don’t know about it
-If you want to start a debate in any NT seminary class, just ask the question who wrote the book of Hebrews, and that will surely get people going
-We do not know the author of this beautiful piece of Scripture, because this person never identifies himself
-Apparently though, the recipients of the books knew who he was
-There are many people who have been put out as guesses over the years: Paul, Timothy, Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, Priscilla, Silas, etc.
-And we will never know for sure, because the Holy Spirit did not inspire the author to tell us
-But this person seems to be a powerful and eloquent preacher of the Word of God, and someone deeply and intimately acquainted with the OT Scriptures
-For what he does is that he goes through and exposits, preaches on, several key OT passages of Scriptures.
And he does this for good reason:
-The audience he is writing to seems to be Jews, since he uses the OT so much and speaks much of the priesthood and sacrificial system and the Tabernacle, etc.
-These also are Jews who probably lived outside Jerusalem, so somewhere in the Roman empire, maybe even in Roman itself
-And the reason that the author is writing, is that these Jews are suffering persecution
-They haven’t been killed yet or probably had any of their church martyred (Hebrews 12:4)
-But they had been persecuted and had some of their possessions taken (Hebrews 10:34)
-Times were hard, and these Jews were tempted to fall away from the faith and deny Jesus
-These people were probably hated by the pagan Gentiles around them, as well as hated by the Jews that they lived in community with, and even their own family members
-Why?
-Because of Jesus
-Jesus, the Nazarene was becoming more and more hated in the Gentile world
-And the Jews who held to the OT Law despised Him
-And if you accepted Jesus, you would be seen as an apostate by your fellow Jewish friends and loved ones
-Someone who abandoned the faith handed down by God from Moses and the prophets
-And so the temptation these Jews faced was to abandon Jesus!
- “Let’s go back to our old way of living!
do you remember how glorious the Mosaic covenant was? I mean, God wrote part of it with His own finger!
The Law of God was given by angels!
The tabernacle, was given by instruction by God Himself!
The Aaronic priesthood was instituted by God!
The sacrificial was instituted by God!
How glorious all these things were!! and if I move away from Jesus and go back to that, then I can also stop facing the ridicule and persecution from Gentiles, and even my own Jewish community and family
And the writer of Hebrews is writing to warn them not to fall away!
And his message is simple!
JESUS IS BETTER
-He’s better than angels!
-He’s better than Moses
-He’s better than the sacrificial system
-He’s better!
And He’s worth all the persecution that can be endured.
The first chapter, he establishes that Jesus is better than angels
-Then in chapter 2:1-4, he gives a warning about not falling away, and that brings us to our text today.
I was going to preach on all of 2:5-18, but then I got so caught up in the wonders and the joy of 2:5-9, that I knew I couldn’t preach on all of it or else it would be probably an hour long sermon or more
**Read text**
So, as I’m reading this passage and meditating on it and praying, I’m trying to figure out what the point of this passage is: what is the author trying to establish
And as I’m reading it, I come to understand that he’s showing that Jesus is the perfect man
So the question that I want you to be asking of this text is this:
How is Jesus the perfect man?
How is Jesus the perfect man?
Vs. 5
-Now, in order to answer this question, the author has to establish the question: who is man?
-What would the qualifications be for being the perfect man?
-So for that, this expositor goes to Psalm 8.
-Psalm 8 is a Davidic Psalm
-This can almost be taken as David’s meditation on Genesis 1-2)
-He’s contemplating the place God has given man in Creation
-David is contemplating the greatness and grandeur of God and His Creation
-Where the Psalmist goes next is surprising
-Instead of coming to the conclusion that man is insignificant, he marvels at the fact that man is so significant!
And here is where the preacher comes to his text, vs. 4-6
But one testified in a certain place, saying:
“What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
You have made him a little lower than the angels;
You have crowned him with glory and honor,
And set him over the works of Your hands.
You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.
So, there are three truths about man that we see here:
-Lower than the angels for a short period of time
-Crowned by God with glory and honor
-Set him (man) over the works of His hands and put everything in subjection to him (man)
So with that, the author of Hebrews is going to show how Jesus meets these three qualifications, and therefore is the perfect man
1. Jesus became lower than the angels for a short period of time
1. Jesus became lower than the angels for a short period of time
The One who created the angels, that One became momentarily lower than the angels.
-Now, this could sound blasphemous
-God is inherently above all and worthy of glory. Did Jesus stop being God?
-Absolutely not! Jesus always has been and always will be God, with all of the glory and honor and worth that comes with being God
-The writer here is speaking about the humanity of Jesus
-According to Psalm 8, mankind is for the time lower in rank than the angels
-And by taking on human flesh, Jesus Himself in that sense, became lower than the angels for a brief period of time
-Read that again:
“But we do see Jesus — made lower than the angels for a short time”
-Do you see that??
-Oh the humility of our Lord!
Jesus the Creator:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Jesus, the self-existent and eternal One:
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Jesus, the image of God
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Jesus, the One who perfectly represents the Father
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Jesus, the one whom angels point to:
Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
That Jesus! In His humanity, He briefly joined a race that was lower than the angels
-Oh what humility of our Lord!
-To take on human flesh!
And why did Jesus become lower than the angels?
-That He might taste death for everyone!!
-What does that mean?
-The prophet Ezekiel preached to a generation of people in Exile who thought they were not responsible for what was happening to them
-They thought God was unjust and they were being punished for someone else’s sin
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
-The just and right punishment for sin is death
-Every soul who sins must die
-In our house, we were not allowed to talk back to our parents
-We couldn’t argue with them or be disrespectful
-The soul who talked back to mom and dad would die”
-And so, anytime that happened, which I was a pretty bad kid, I would be disciplined
-I was guilty of that transgression and deserving of my punishment
-All of humankind stands guilty before God, deserving of physical death (separation of soul from body) and spiritual death (separation from a loving relationship with God forever)
-And Jesus became lower than the angels for a brief period of time, so that He could take that death for everyone!
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This Christmas season, understand that Jesus was made lower than the angels briefly, so that He could taste death for you and I
-Even though Jesus was sinless, He was perfectly human in His Incarnation, and therefore suffered in our stead
Poem by Sheila Bertrand
Eternal became time-bound
Lying in a trough.
Almighty became human
To show us His great love.
He who formed the universe,
Who stretched out all the skies,
He who sprinkled stars in space
Now, helpless, there He lies.
Once enthroned in the heavens,
The earth His footstool then,
He cannot take a single step,
Who once walked on the wind.
The everlasting Word of God,
Speechless as a babe;
The God who filled up all of space,
Confined now in a cave.
Who formed the hairs on every head
Suddenly can bleed.
The God by Whom all things were made
Now suffers want and need.
He blew life into every man;
Now He takes His first breath.
Immortal God, the Timeless One
Can now feel pain and death.
Oh, how much He loves us!
How much He condescends
To come down from His lofty throne
To be my Savior and my Friend.
2. God has crowned Jesus with glory and honor
2. God has crowned Jesus with glory and honor
Now, let’s look at Psalm 8, the passage that the writer of Hebrews is expositing
-Notice vs. 7
-Notice how “crowned with glory and honor”
So how is Christ crowned with glory and honor?
-Is it because of the Incarnation?
-Vs. 9
-Notice that!
-God has crowned Jesus with glory and honor because of His suffering in death
-What does that mean?
-How has Jesus been crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death?
When we think of being crowned with glory and honor, we think high honor and praise because of an amazing accomplishment
-The Atlanta Braves recently won the World Series
-they were huge underdogs, had the least amount of wins of any team to make the playoffs, and were underdogs in all of their playoff series
-At the end, they’re out there hoisting the trophy on the field and then in the locker room
-then they go and celebrate in Atlanta with the trophy
-They’re being crowned with glory and honor because of their incredible and heroic feat
-That’s often what we associate it with right? Something heroic and amazing that shows off just how awesome you are
But Christ is crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death
Look at what Philippians says:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Notice the “therefore”
-It is because of Jesus’ suffering that God has crowned Him with glory and honor!
-Jesus was humiliated, and suffered in death
-But Jesus’ great humiliation that He suffered willingly, has turned into His universal exaltation to the right hand of God, and one day all creation will worship Him
I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Jesus has been crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death
-I grew up watching the old mission impossible TV show, my mom would rent it for us
-And what usually happens is that these group of agents would take on a special mission to overthrow some corrupt ruler of a vaguely defined country that doesn’t really exist in the world, or they’d take down some mob boss or something
-And it would look like the bad guy was winning and everything was going according to plan
-And the good guys looked like they were losing
-And all of a sudden at the end, everything would switch around
-Jim would pull off the mask, and all of a sudden, what looked like their defeat would be their ultimate victory and leave the bad guys stunned in defeat
-And what looked like Jesus’ lowest humiliation and suffering, turned into the greatest triumph and exaltation ever as God accomplished our salvation through the death of His Son
3. Jesus has all things subjected to Him
3. Jesus has all things subjected to Him
-So as I’m studying this passage, I’m looking for the connection between verse 8 and 9
-What is the flow of the argument and thought process here?
-And then I see these 2 clauses in here:
-being made lower than the angels
-being crowned with glory and honor
-And I’m seeing this and how it connects back to vs. 6-8
-But there’s one thing I don’t see in vs. 9, and that’s the subjection part
-Notice the clause in vs. 8 “and subjected everything under his feet”
-In verse 9, we don’t see that clause stated about Jesus
-So I’m sitting here wondering, why is that?
-Where’s the connection to subjection
-Then I realize that he is hitting on it in verse 5 and 8
Look at verse 5:
-He (God) has not subjected the world to come to angels
-Now, notice that he does not say just “the world”
-He’s not simply talking about the world right here, right now
-He’s talking about the world to come
Now follow the thought here:
-Vs 6
-what is MAN
So man is the subject here:
-Follow me
-you made MAN lower than the angels for a short time
-You crowned MAN with glory and honor
-You subjected everything under MAN’s feet
Now, some want to apply verse 8 to Jesus
-They think it says “For in subjecting everything to Him (Jesus), He (God) left nothing that is not subject to Him (Jesus). As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to Him (Jesus).”
-However, if you notice in your NKJV Bible or your HCSB or other translations that do this, the three “hims” are all lower case.
-That means, the translators take those “him”s to not be referring to Jesus, but to man
-And I believe they are right
-Man is the subject in the previous verses, and so man is the continuing subject
-So what’s the author saying?
-He’s saying that God originally subjected His creation to mankind
-All the created works of God written about in Genesis 1-2 were intended to be ruled by mankind in a way that reflects God’s own wise and gracious and loving rule
-But unfortunately, that is not what we see
-Mankind is sinful and fallen
-We miserably fail, as a race, to rule over creation the way God designed and intended
-We are often cruel and harsh towards each other
-We are often wasteful and harmful to the created order God has made
-and most of all, we fail to rule over creation in a way that is subject to God Himself
-So the way that God intended and created man to rule over creation falls far short of what it should be
Have you ever bought something that was supposed to function a certain way and make your life easier and better, and it fails miserably?
-in the Jacquot household, my whole life we always bought used cars.
-And there were some good cars that were good buys, but there were some real clunkers
-I remember my dad one time bought an old toyota forerunner, and let me tell you
-We thought that would be nice to have that car and make life so much easier, but it was one thing after another
-I think he sold that thing within 3 months of buying it
-Why?
-Because it did not function like it was supposed to
And in the same way, the purpose that God intended us to function, we have failed miserably
-And God knows that
And that is where Jesus comes in
-Notice verse 5 again
-not subjected “the world to come” to angels
-the Psalm doesn’t mention the world to come
-but that’s the author’s point and his intended direction!
-Who is going to rule the world to come for all eternity?
-Jesus will!
-The being that will rule the world to come for all eternity is a MAN
-But not just any man!
-He is the God-Man
-All of God’s perfect creation in the New Heaven and New Earth, all the angelic hosts, all humans, and all created things will be subject to a Human
-The Word who became flesh
-The Word who is no longer a little lower than the angels
-The One who is fully God and fully Man, Jesus Christ
God will one day subject all things to Him
-And this has already begun!
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Jesus’ reign has begun right now, and His reign will come to complete fruition in a very short time
Jesus is THE PERFECT MAN
-The one who this Psalm which speaks of humanity ultimately finds it’s culmination in the ultimate man
Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Jesus will forever reign over the earth
Application:
So, what does all of this mean for us?
-Look at verse 9 again
-Jesus was made lower than the angels so that He could taste death for everyone
-In order for Jesus to be able to stand in the place of ruined and sinful mankind in order to be our substitute, He had to be completely and totally human
I don’t want to steal too much of my thunder in coming weeks, but look at vs. 17
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Because of Jesus’ perfect humanity, He becomes the perfect High Priest
-What was a High Priest?
-He was the closest thing to a go-between for God and man as there was in the OT
-And more specifically, he represented mankind to God
-He would bring in the sacrifice, representing all of God’s people, and make that sacrifice
-The Prophet oftentimes in the OT was the spokesman for God
-He would say “thus says the Lord” and therefore represent God to man
-The High Priest more-so represented man to God
-And Jesus is the perfect High Priest because He was in His human nature, exactly like us
-Jesus had emotions
-Jesus had desires
-He hungered
-He thirsted
-He wept
-He was tired and slept
-Jesus had pains and sicknesses
-Jesus caught a cold
-Jesus had indigestion over something He ate
-Jesus tripped and stubbed His toe or skinned His knee
-He became like us in every way, so that He could represent us to God and make atonement, propitation, be a pleasing sacrifice to God for your sins and mine
That’s just one implication of the Incarnation
How does that change things in my life?
-I can have complete confidence that Jesus saves to the uttermost those who come to God through Him . . . because of His perfect humanity Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
-I can come boldly to the throne of grace and find grace to help in time of need . . . because of Jesus’ perfect humanity
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
-I can be confident that because He Himself was tested and suffered, He is able to help those who are tested . . . because of Jesus’ humanity Hebrews 2:18
For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
-I have a High Priest who sympathizes with my weaknesses because He was in all points tempted as I am, yet without sin . . . because of Jesus perfect humanity Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
We have a hope that anchors our soul, because Christ has entered into God’s Presence behind the veil and serves as our High Priest there . . . because of Jesus’ perfect humanity Hebrews 7:19-20
for the law made nothing perfect; on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.
And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath
-Here’s what I would challenge you to do: read through the book of Hebrews this Christmas season and find out for yourself all the wonderful and beautiful implications of the Incarnation and humanity of Jesus
-See for yourself all the implications and applications of the Incarnation
Poem by DA Carson:
Before there was a universe,
Before a star or planet,
When time had still not yet begun —
I scarcely understand it —
Th’ eternal Word was with his God,
God’s very Self-Expression;
Th’ eternal Word was God himself —
And God had planned redemption.
The Word became our flesh and blood —
The stuff of his creation —
The Word was God, the Word was flesh,
Astounding incarnation!
But when he came to visit us,
We did not recognize him.
Although we owed him everything
We haughtily despised him.
In days gone by God showed himself
In grace and truth to Moses;
But in the Word of God made flesh
Their climax he discloses.
For grace and truth in fullness came
And showed the Father’s glory
When Jesus donned our flesh and died:
This is the gospel story.
All who delighted in his name,
All those who did receive him,
All who by grace were born of God,
All who in truth believed him —
To them he gave a stunning right:
Becoming God’s dear children!
Here will I stay in grateful trust;
Here will I fix my vision.
Before there was a universe,
Before a star or planet,
When time had still not yet begun —
I scarcely understand it —
Th’ eternal Word was with his God,
God’s very Self-Expression;
Th’ eternal Word was God himself —
And God had planned redemption.