The Ministries of Jesus pt. 1

Good morning and welcome once again to this worship gathering of Hope Bible Fellowship. It is one of the great honors of my life to be your pastor and to be here today to proclaim the Word of God to you. We have a lot of ground to cover today so let’s just dive right in. If you have a Bible with you, go ahead and open to Hebrews chapter 2. If you were with us last week you’ll recall that we ended with verse 9 which says,

Hebrews 2:9 ESV

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.

So we ended with this understanding that Jesus tasted death for everyone. This was a death that was substitutionary in nature, meaning that Jesus died a death in the place of someone else. He died in the place of sinners, taking the wrath of God we deserved upon Himself and giving us His righteousness.

This Jesus whom we have seen described as “heir of all things,” and “the radiance of the glory of God,” in chapter 1 has been identified also as the Son of God. Christians today are used to thinking of Jesus as the humble teacher roaming the ancient world with His followers but one author I read made the point that we rarely think of Jesus as he lives now and as He is described in verse 9 as “crowned with glory and honor.” He reigns and reigns in power. We get to share in that someday and it is a glorious truth. So the author of Hebrews, after laying this out there, that this Jesus, who is greater than the angels tasted death for us then puts before us this beautiful passage we find in verses 10-18 of chapter 2. Follow along as I read.

READ

Hebrews 2:10–18 ESV

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” 13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” 14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray and ask God to help us understand it and apply it to our lives.

PRAY

The first aspect of the ministry of Jesus that we see in verse 10 is the saving ministry of Jesus. Ultimately, Jesus came to save humans from their sin and deliver them to the Father.

I. The Saving Ministry of Jesus (v. 10)

Right away, we see the Trinitarian nature of Christianity in verse 10. When you are looking at a passage that has as many pronouns in it as this one, it’s a good practice to go through and figure out who they are addressed to. This first one in verse 10 when it says “he, for whom and by whom all things, exist” is talking about God the Father. When it goes on to talk about the “founder of their salvation” it’s talking about Jesus. So we see that all along in scripture we see that our Christianity deals with the three in one Trinity. Three persons but one God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all have acted in our salvation. There is no division in them and they act together in perfect unity.

As we look at the first aspect of Jesus’s ministry from this passage, I want to read verse ten one more time. I want you to pay attention to the beauty of the language used here.

Hebrews 2:10 ESV

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

“in brining many sons to glory,” This phrase is a beautiful summary of the gospel. It incorporates the relational and the familial aspects of the gospel and summarizes the work of Jesus in bringing many sons to glory. Now there are many things Jesus’s did in the incarnation, in His death, and resurrection. But this gets to the aim of it.

When the author writes “many sons”, he is identifying those who belong to God as sons. That is to show the family relationship with those in the family of God. Jesus is delivering these many sons to glory. He is delivering them to the Father. They make it to eternity with God.

A. The founder made perfect through suffering

Jesus is referred to in verse 10 as the founder of our salvation. Other translations may say pioneer or even captain. He is the forerunner. He has gone ahead and as FF Bruce writes of this,

Hebrews The Pioneer of Our Salvation

He is the Savior who blazed the trail of salvation along which alone God’s “many sons” could be brought to glory. Man, created by God for his glory, was prevented by sin from attaining that glory until the Son of Man came and opened up by his death a new way by which humanity might reach the goal for which it was made. As his people’s representative and forerunner he has now entered into the presence of God to secure their entry there.3

This is in agreement with what Jesus told His disciples during His earthly ministry in John 14, verses 2 through 4.

John 14:2–4 ESV

2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

Jesus is the founder of our salvation. But later in verse ten it says He was made perfect through suffering. What does that mean? I can tell you first what it does not mean. It does not mean that Jesus was anything less than perfect in His life here on Earth. He did not have any sin. He was sinless. In fact, the author of the book of Hebrews continually promotes the sinlessness of Jesus in the book. The phrase “made perfect” refers to Jesus’s uncompromising submission to the Father even in the face of increasing hardship. In Philippians 2:8

Philippians 2:8 ESV

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

In suffering and dying upon the cross, Jesus was perfectly fulfilling the office of Messiah. He was doing the things the Messiah had to do. He was the perfect sacrifice for the sin of man. This was ALL the plan of God the Father. And at the very beginning of verse 10 we see that this was fitting.

B. The Father’s plan was fitting

That Jesus should suffer and die to make atonement for us was fitting, it was appropriate, it was perfect. It was appropriate in accordance with His glorious character. That’s something that will help us understand so much more of the way God works. He always acts in keeping with His character. He will never act in a way outside of who He is.

There are a lot of people who have a real issue with the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus. They think it’s barbaric that an innocent man was slain on behalf of sinful men and people who don’t understand it have even referred to it as some form of child abuse. This is not a proper understanding of what was going on at all. They can’t reconcile what they see as a religion of blood and suffering with the God of love. But what they truly don’t understand is just how deep and wide that love of God in Christ truly is. Sin had to be paid for in blood. And because God is true, holy, and just a sacrifice had to be made. But because the love of God is so deep He also provided the perfect satisfaction for that sacrifice in Jesus. And it is through that sacrifice that Jesus brings many sons to glory. It’s how we get to be part of God’s family.

In being part of God’s family we see that Jesus is the elder brother of every Christian. Everyone who is truly saved from their sins by the blood of Christ has Jesus Himself as their elder brother.

C. Jesus as our Elder Brother

Depending on what your older brother was like, this idea might not at first sound attractive. I am the oldest in my physical family. I had a younger brother. I know that it was, at times, probably not a great joy to be my little brother. If you grew up with an older brother you know that things can get competitive. Or maybe you had an older brother who was just plain mean to you. If that’s the case, this truth of Jesus as our elder brother might hit you in strange way. Please know that Jesus is the best of all elder brothers. He is the ultimate and perfect older brother. Not one who is jealous of us or acts entitled like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son. Jesus is the opposite of that guy. Do you know this story? Jesus tells this parable or story that teaches in Luke 15.

To summarize, there was a man who had two sons and the younger came to the dad and said he wanted to go ahead and take all of his inheritance right now. This was akin to telling his dad he wished he was dead. So the dad gives him his part of the inheritance and the little brother goes and squanders the money on wild living. One day as he’s longing to eat the stuff they feed the pigs, he decides to go home and pledge himself as a servant to his father. So he comes back and the dad sees him and runs to him and throws a party to welcome his son back. And then we come to verses 25 through 32 where we see the response of the older brother.

Luke 15:25–32 (ESV)

25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.

27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’

28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,

29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.

30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.

32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ”

Jesus is not like this older brother. In fact, He’s the complete opposite. Jesus isn’t upset that the father forgives the sinful child. Even more astounding, it is our older brother who doesn’t wait in the field but came down to the far off country where we were sinning and living lives at war with God and He brings us to glory. The elder brother made a way for us to be adopted into the family of God and made heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ! This is incredible news!

Romans 8:17 ESV

17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

D. Adoption

Because of the saving work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, we get to be adopted into the family of God. The scriptures tell us we were at enmity with God before knowing Christ. That even while we were sinners Christ died for us. He knows exactly who we are and everything we do, down to our very nature, at war with Him in our sin and yet He made a way for us to be adopted into God’s family. I don’t know who you were last at war with. In national and political terms for the sake of illustration let’s use Adolf Hitler. He was an enemy of, well, really the world. But when the war was over and a treaty was signed, we didn’t invite him over for family dinner. We didn’t call him our brother or son. And yet, the picture we have in the Bible is that we were enemies of God and living against His will and His way and that sin rightfully deserved to be judged and the wrath of God poured out upon it. But because He is not only holy and just but also, at the same time, loving and merciful, God the Father sent Jesus the Son to earth, wrapped in human flesh to live a perfect life in our place, to die a perfect sacrificial and substitutionary death that we could not, and raise from the dead. And all those who believe in this good news and repent of their sin are gloriously adopted into the family of God. This is GOOD NEWS! This is life shaping, eternity securing good news!!!

Hugh Martin wrote this:

“We find sonship in him: for he is the Son. The adopted sons have this privilege in the eternal Son. To bring saved men into a filial relation to God required a Saviour standing in that relationship himself. Hence when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son that we might obtain the adoption of sons.” - Hugh Martin

Not everyone is in the family of God. You may have heard someone somewhere say that “we are all children of God.” That is not true. Generally speaking as all human life as created by God is His but not in the same familial way as those who are bought with the blood of Jesus. So no, not everyone is a child of God. Not everyone will spend eternity in Heaven. There is a real place called Hell and those who have not believed the message of the gospel and repented of their sin will spend eternity there. This is a serious message.

Jesus became like us so that we could become like Him. He came to earth to bring us into glory.

Our union with Christ transcends all other racial, cultural, or familial connections. You are not primarily your nationality, ethnicity, denomination, economic status, or any other identifier the world uses. IF you are in Christ then that union with Christ and our unity with one another surpasses any of those other labels.

As we continue to roll through the passage, we see in verse 11 that Jesus sanctifies His brothers.

II. The Sanctifying Ministry of Jesus (v. 11)

Many families have specific family traits that get passed down. They might be physical appearance like eyes or toe shape or maybe something non physical like an attitude . It could be something good like being hard working or something bad like laziness. The Callison’s have what my brother and I affectionately refer to as the Callison Shylock. It’s our nose. It’s not good or bad, it’s just there. You can see it on my face, my brother’s, Kenan has it, and my grandma even had it. Being part of a family means you exhibit some family traits.

So what is the defining trait of God’s family? It’s holiness. The defining trait of God’s family is holiness. Those who follow Jesus should be growing in holiness over the course of their life following Jesus. It begins when we come to know Jesus and trust the gospel and it ends when we die. We call this process sanctification. Jesus does this through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We press in and take part in our sanctification by doing the things Christ followers are called to do in scripture. We study the Word of God, we pray, we worship, we give generously, we gather with the local church, we share the Gospel with those around us. Jesus will sanctify those who follow Him. We are saved by grace through faith alone. You can not improve your standing with God by doing these things, but as someone saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I are supposed to be growing to be more like Jesus and sanctification is the process by which this happens.

Ephesians 1:4 ESV

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

So often we don’t think of this. Many simply think of the part where you become a Christian and then that’s it. But we know that there is a continual growth path in holiness for the true Christian. The Bible doesn’t know of a Christianity that does not continue to deepen and grow. Is it your aspiration to grow in holiness? Francis Schaeffer once pointed out that the basic aspiration of people today, including evangelical Christians, is “material affluence and enough personal peace to enjoy it.”

But that’s not the call of following Christ. This is our calling, our destiny, and our duty as believers in Christ. Having new life in Christ means that at our very core we should be different. He gives us new attitudes, new aspirations, new motives, and new actions. These things should be different and continually growing more and more different the longer that we follow Jesus. Our attitudes, aspirations, motives, and actions should not be derived from the world but from our true family and older brother. We should reflect the family traits of the family of God. Our outside lives should reflect the spiritual truth that we have Jesus’s righteousness credited to our account.

Ephesians 4:21–24 ESV

21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We will go through trials and we will suffer. Trials grow us in our holiness and our pursuit of holiness and in our reliance on God. Trials are part of the sanctification process. It’s like a master artist chiseling away everything on the block of wood that isn’t the marvelous statue he is creating.

I read this quote from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones that is helpful.

Hebrews The Family Traits

If God is your Father you must be special, you cannot help it. If the divine nature is in you, and has entered into you through the Holy Spirit, you cannot be like anybody else; you must be different. And that is what we are told about the Christian everywhere in the Bible, that Christ dwells in his heart richly through His mighty power in the depths of his personality, teaching him His will. “It is God who works in you both to will and to do.”2

In verse 11 we find that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. He’s not ashamed to look upon those He died for and those He is sanctifying and to call them members of His family and coheirs.

Following this we have three Old Testament references as the author of Hebrews is want to include. One quote is from Psalm 22:22

Psalm 22:22 ESV

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

and the second and third are from Isaiah 8: 17-18

Isaiah 8:17–18 ESV

17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

The risen Christ Jesus invites those who have called on His name and trusted Him for salvation to join in celebrating the completed work of salvation. He invites us to worship God. Even the Old Testament gave glimpses that those who follow God are His children. The ultimate goal is not that we would simply make a profession of faith in Jesus but that we would worship the Father.

As Richard Phillips writes, “Christ died and rose again not merely to save us but also to make us worshippers of his Father. “

We see the fulfilment of this in our churches and verse 12 concludes by pointing to the singing of God’s praise.

Conclusion

As we think on these points throughout the rest of our time together and throughout the week I want to put before you a question.

Do you desire to grow in holiness? At the core of your being are you truly desiring to follow Jesus? Maybe you have believed the Gospel but you were never discipled by anyone individually. Maybe you started off strong but have let the cares of the world slip in and you’ve abandoned some of the chase for holiness. I want to implore you to repent and return to the way of Christ. If you are someone who is sitting there in that place and maybe you’ve realized you need to grow even more in holiness my next question is this:

What are you willing to do? There are some very basic things that you as a follower of Christ can do to take part in your sanctification. Often times we don’t and I have to believe it is because we don’t really want to. We don’t want to give up the time or the effort to see growth in our lives.

If you want to grow in holiness you need to be in the Bible. Read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it. If you don’t know how, ask me and I will help you. Or ask someone else who knows how and they will help you.

Pray. Talk to the Lord. Confess your sins and ask Him to help you in your study of the Word and applying it to your lives. Look to His Word where He has already spoken to you. Beg of Him to let your heart understand His Word.

Regular attendance and involvement in the local church is essential in your holiness journey. There are no lone ranger Christians. We need each other. It’s designed that way. Later in Hebrews the author warns us not to neglect the gathering together of the saints. It’s that important that Holy Scripture warns us not to neglect it. So don’t just attend church. Be involved in one another’s lives outside of Sunday morning as well. This is an area we need to grow in as a church. I’m going to be looking for more opportunities for you all in this.

Do the things that grow your affections for Christ. Look, there are things in our lives that help us love God more. There are things that increase our affection for God. But there are also things that steal our affection for God or don’t help it grow. So I’m advocating that you do more and more of the things that grow your affections for Christ and that you stop doing the things that deaden your affections for Christ. It sounds so simple. It’s hard and you can’t do it without His help. But Jesus tells us in the book of Hebrews that He sanctifies us. So reach out to Him and follow Him on your sanctification journey.