Home is where the heart is
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Intro: Good Morning, I again want to remind us that today there are so many different messages the world wants you to hear. We know that God is not the author of confusion. In fact, one of the ways that Satan tries to catch us off guard is by his subtle messages. That is why this particular part of Hebrews urges us to pay the utmost attention to the message that God has spoken to us. Don’t drift away or forget what God has done. This message is the good news about the incarnation of the Lord. That God revealed a way for us to be saved through the person and work of His Son Jesus. When life falls apart and things seem to be hopeless, we as Christians have hope because our hope is in Christ, and what he has done for us. This is the best News ever the best News that we should pay attention too.
Over the past several weeks we have taken a look at the author pointing for us to see the Son’s superiority to that of angels. The author wants us to really understand this, because remember that during this time the worship of angels was a very big deal. After all angels are ministering spirits that were without human bodies and time and time again they ministered in very important ways.
Today from our short text there is a shocking turn in events, but again there is this matter of greater authority as to who would rule the world to come? For a little while he is made lower than the angels. This is a huge statement church! So, by accepting the status of a human being the Son has achieved the glory and honor God has made known for humanity. We will see this more clearly next week in verses 10-18. My point is this. Because Jesus was willing to step out of heaven and share our life, and even more than that, share our death, He is able to be the Savior we need, and that is nothing any angel or human could do or has done. Let’s dive in and take a look at what is happening here.
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.
1. Man was created to have dominion over God’s creation.
1. Man was created to have dominion over God’s creation.
So, if God has subjected the world to come, not to angels, who is the subject here? When God created the first man and woman, he gave them dominion over His creation. At the time the earth was a beautiful and perfect place that was without sin, and God designed it in a specific way. What we see here in verse 5 is that God never promised that the angels would have dominion over the earth. When we go back to the book of Genesis and take a look at the beginning of time we see that God subjected the world to mankind. In fact, the first people to walk the earth Adam and Eve were given some specific instructions. Let’s take a look.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Now the interesting thing about our text here from Hebrews is that it is a quotation from Psalm 8:4-6. King David marveled at the fact and privilege of humanity, appointed by God to have dominion over the animal creation. In fact, there are many things God has given us we dominion over here on earth.
-We were given dominion over Plants and animals.
-Parents= your children.
-Husband = your wife in a loving, caring, Christ like manner.
-Even Governing. God allows human rulers that he ultimately has appointed to rule for our good over mankind.
So, there are things God has put in place to show his design and plan. God would share his power and glory with mankind. Let’s keep reading to see this.
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?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 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.
2. The Problem is Mankind has been blinded by sin.
2. The Problem is Mankind has been blinded by sin.
These verses here show us how God’s Word theologically develops the dominion mandate given to Adam. The author of Hebrews actually is quoting from the Old Testament and more specifically from Psalm 8.
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
What King David is doing here is just explaining to us how the Genesis story is setup. In fact, David is marveling that “little old man” or “mere man” could somehow be ruler over the earth and made to be less than God. And because man has been made ruler over the world and has been given dominion this is now exercised through the Davidic king.
Now lets come back to Hebrews because what we see here is that the author interprets this text as ultimately pointing toward someone who comes through the Davidic line and that is Jesus Christ. In fact, the theology of these verses show us the theology of Paul when he talks about Jesus as the last Adam.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The problem that we see here is that mankind is fallen and this all began with the first Adam. That is why we need a Second Adam a better Adam. When Adam and Eve choose to eat of the fruit, God’s Word tells us that their eyes were open and they realized that they were sinners. Sin came into the world and now it is obvious today that mankind is not exercising dominion over creation. Originally man was given dominion over the fish, but today we cannot control the fish or animals. In fact, man has a hard time controlling himself.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
Today we have a pandemic problem on our hands. Mankind has little self-control. Man lives for himself. We see this all the time on social media. Look at me, look at how good I am living. Let me post a picture of my kids and all the things that i have bought for them meanwhile he has had affair after affair, he has been unfaithful to his wife and God. He is depressed and not living for God. He is not in not in His word or church and has no accountable godly men in his life. He is proud, arrogant, and abusive. Children today are more disobedient than ever before to their parents, teachers and authority figures. People are ungrateful and living unholy lives.
The first Adam failed to carry out the duties of image-bearing. And down through history we see how this has played out. We are sinful human beings in need of a Savior. The author of Hebrews recognized a tension between the reality of the ascended and reigning Christ, and yet the continuing presence of sin in this world. For Christ the second Adam, there is nothing that is not subject to him now, and yet verse 8 tells us, “we do not yet see everything subjected to him.” This is how mankind is living!!!
We may not see all things subjected to God, but we do see or should see Jesus, who has fulfilled every part of the Old Testament and has secured his throne in glory.
My prayer today is that you would see what Christ has done for you. That you would know that He gave up his life so that you might have life everlasting.
Here is the last verse. Look with me at verse 9.
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.
3. The answer to man’s problem, is Jesus.
3. The answer to man’s problem, is Jesus.
This is the first time in the book of Hebrews where we see the name Jesus. So, why does the author drop his name here? Because Jesus is God’s answer to mankind’s problem. The author of Hebrews tells us that Christ has been crowned with glory and honor because he has fulfilled his messianic task of dying for the sins of mankind. The result of his suffering is redemptive. The first Adam plunged humanity into sin and death. The last Adam (Jesus) was plunged into death for our sake, to save humanity from sin and death. The work of the last Adam (Christ Jesus) undoes the work of the first Adam. Christ now exercises dominion over the whole world. He is superior to all things including angels.
Conclusion: Over and over again as believers we must celebrate the person and work of Christ on our behalf. We should have thankful and grateful hearts. We do this by understanding his work in the context of his identity. As Hebrews 2:9 reminds us, the person and work of Christ are intimately intertwined. Jesus is the eternal Son of God who comes to glory through suffering. And He is superior to all things. Someday every knee will bow and confess Jesus Christ as Lord. For some of you, this needs to happen today. May we see the urgency to pay attention to this good news!
(Pray and Lead into Communion)