Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning and welcome again to this gathering of Hope Bible Fellowship.

It’s always such a joy to be here with you.

I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2 where we will be today.

Last week I started in talking about the Ministries of Jesus.

I mentioned that I was splitting the eight verses into two sections.

Last week was part one and today we dive into verses 14-18 for part two of the ministries of Jesus.

This is a focus on what Jesus accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection for us.

If you’ll recall, last week we talked about the saving ministry of Jesus and the sanctifying ministry of Jesus.

We talked about the family traits of the family of God and that when we are adopted into this family we have Jesus as our perfect elder brother and we are sanctified by Jesus.

He makes us more and more like Him.

Today, in verses 14-18 we see Jesus’s humanity and suffering.

We see his identifying with us and living life facing the same things we do.

It’s another reminder of the main theme of the book of Hebrews that Jesus is better.

So many times we go through life and we face hardships or hard choices.

We face distractions from our main task.

We face family and friends letting us down or outright betraying us.

We face heavy temptations and the more we resist it seems that the pressure gets more and more intense.

Have you ever thought that surely, no one understands what you are going through.

Surely no one understands your life?

The truth is that none of us can truly ever say that no one understands our life.

Jesus understands your life.

He knows where you are at because He has faced the suffering and pain of human existence.

My intention is that you see this in the Word of God today.

Let’s read from Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14-18.

I. Jesus is really human.

Jesus being really human means that he was capable of being our high priest.

The author of Hebrews will address this understanding of Jesus as high priest later in the book but we see elements of that even here.

What does it mean that Jesus is our high priest.

Before we get there we need to look at two problems with the Old Testament sacrificial system.

Two problems with the OT sacrificial system:

The sacrifices have to continually be made.

They were not sufficient as once and for all sacrifices.

The high priests came and went.

They would die and and a new one would be in the role.

We needed a high priest who could continually advocate for us before the Father.

Our high priest, Jesus Christ, can understand us and intercede perfectly for us because He became one of us.

V. 14 - Core theological truth:

- Jesus is a real human in every way

- He had to become human to represent humans

Explained in v. 16

Jesus set out on a plan to save you and me.

He wasn’t doing this for angels.

He is out to save flesh and blood.

He became human so that we could die as a human for humans, for us.

This is not the type of high priest that the first century Jews would have expected.

If you go back and read about the role of the High Priest and what they wore and the rituals that they carried out, you can see that the Jews would have expected something more akin to one of the Pharisees or teachers of law and not a suffering servant who became human to ultimately die and not sacrifice an animal for human sin, but would become the perfect sacrifice for that sin Himself.

The reason why Jesus came as a human is explained in verses 14-15.

This is the subduing ministry of Jesus.

He conquered death.

When it says that Satan has the power of death, the author is not meaning ultimate power over death.

As Micheal Kruger writes, “Satan has the power of death in the sense that he influences the thing that causes death.”

That thing is sin.

Death is the result of sin.

Sin is rebellion against God.

The penalty for sin is death.

Jesus died to bear sin.

By Jesus’ death He defeated the devil and the power of death.

Key point: If you know that death has no power over you, then you can really fearlessly live for Christ.

Jesus’ death did two really important things:

Defeated death

Satisfied the wrath of God

V. 17 - Propitiation - a specific word for a wrath removing sacrifice.

It means that Jesus’ death satisfies the wrath of God against sin.

As one author mentioned, Jesus became like a sponge, soaking up the wrath of God rightfully due to sinners like you and me.

God is angry at sin.

Kruger writes, “God is right to be angry at sin.

If you are in Christ you don’t need to fear that anger because there is no anger left for you.

You have God’s favor resting on you now and need not be afraid.”

Jesus is a real human being who died a real death, was raised in a real resurrection, and this means He accomplished all of this for you.

The wrath of God is satisfied.

Because of this, we can now live without the fear of death.

The scripture speaks of us living in slavery.

But in Christ we are set free!

II.

Jesus really suffered.

(v.

16-18)

Think of this as the sympathizing ministry of Jesus.

It wasn’t just that He was a human.

It was that He lived amount us and experienced the worst of what we experience.

He did all of that without sin.

The reason Jesus is an effective high priest is because he can relate to you and me.

Jesus can relate to us.

III.

Jesus really understands.

He understands what it feels like to be abandoned or lonely.

He knows what it is like to be rejected.

He was put to death by His own people.

He knows what it is to feel grief by losing someone you love.

He knows what it is like to be lied about.

He was betrayed by a close friend.

Do you have financial concerns?

He knows what it is to be misunderstood by family members.

Have you ever felt highly stressed?

Jesus gets you.

He understands your life.

He understands how you are tempted and he suffered.

He relates to what you are going through.

He overcame it all.

He never gave into the pressure but He fully understands the pressure that is on you and mounting with every temptation.