Sermon Tone Analysis

Years ago some friends of mine were into rappelling.

My first reaction was the same as yours, you are into what?

Here is a dictionary definition of “rappel”.

“A descent of a vertical surface, as a cliff or wall, by sliding down a belayed rope that is passed under one thigh and over the opposite shoulder or through a device that provides friction, typically while facing the surface and performing a series of short backward leaps to control the descent.”

I went with my friends and I did go down a cliff next to a waterfall.

It was scary because I don’t like heights.

When your life is being held by a rope, there is the tendency to try to hold on to the rope, instead of the proper equipment that is actually holding you.

In the Scripture we will study today we will be reminded of what we need to be holding on to in the walk of faith.

V 14 starts with these words: since, therefore.

You know what this means…We cannot go forward in these verses without reviewing what the author said previously.

On the last Sunday of July, we studied v9-13 and it is these verses that the author is referencing here.

The main message from v 9-13 is that Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers and God is our father.

Since Therefore Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers, the children share in flesh and blood.

This is saying that all human beings have one thing in common… we all have flesh and blood.

This phrase flesh and blood is used three other times in the NT: Matt 16:17 “17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

Eph 6:12 “12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood”

1 Cor 15:50 “50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”

All the uses of this phrase (flesh and blood) in the NT point to the same idea, we are physical beings, unlike angels who are spiritual beings with no physical bodies, we were created from the dust.

We are created with material bodies.

This is who we are, and because of who we are as physical beings, Jesus had to become a man, a physical human being.

He partook of the same things, meaning he became a man like us in every aspect, with one very important exception – He was sinless.

The incarnation is something amazing to consider and ponder.

That God willingly humbled himself to become a man and not just a man.

For He could have just taken the human form as an adult, but He became a baby in Mary’s womb, then He had to grow up, as we all do.

Jesus as a human being, had to learn how to eat, how to crawl, how to walk, play, and talk.

He chose to be born into a very poor family, people of no great fame or honor, just “regular”, common poor people.

Jesus for 30 years led such a common non extraordinary life that in the gospels we have only the account of his birth, and then the incident at age 12 where he was teaching the teachers about God’s law in the temple.

During 30 years of life as a human being, there was nothing extraordinary about his life as a human.

Except for His birth.

We could stop and ask the question.

What is so significant about these two recorded events that they were recorded?

First, what is the importance that Jesus had an extraordinary birth?

Jesus’ birth is extremely important for our salvation.

It boils down to original sin.

If Jesus was conceived in the same way we are, through a father and mother.

He would have inherited sin from Adam in the same way we do.

While the Catholics believe that Mary was without sin, we do not, because Scripture does not teach so.

If she was then how Mary would have not inherited the sin nature from Adam? Scripture does not teach that Mary was sinless, but it does addresses another much more important question.

How did Jesus not inherit the sin nature from Adam?

Scripture makes it clear that it was through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was conceived.

The gospel of Luke is the one that gives us a little more information on Jesus’ birth.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary he said the following:

Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

It doesn’t say that the Holy Spirit will make Mary holy, but that the child conceived in her womb will be called holy, the Son of God.

Therefore, the extraordinary birth of Jesus is highly important because Jesus was sinless, He was not born with a sin nature.

Because He was sinless from conception, His atonement was perfect, and He was completely righteous, from birth to death on the cross.

The other recorded account of Jesus childhood seems to point, perhaps put too simply, to His Holiness and His lineage through his Father.

Jesus, without expert instruction was able to teach the teachers of the law.

Even though he was just a little boy, as God’s Son He had further knowledge and wisdom from Scripture that He was teaching older experts of the law about His Father’s word.

However, besides His extraordinary birth and this event when He was 12 years old.

The rest of His life before His public ministry was very ordinary.

Which is kind of odd, for the Son of God after taking the human form to live for 30 years a very ordinary life.

We don’t know exactly what His experience was, but we can have great assurance that it was a typical experience.

He partook of the same things; He became flesh and blood.

We don’t tend to think of Jesus in this way, but He knows what it’s like to have an upset stomach or to have a headache.

Jesus knows what it feels like when you stub your toe.

Or when you run and you are out of breath.

To sit down and eat a delicious meal when you are starving, or to drink a cold cup of water when you are really thirsty.

Why would Jesus do that?

Why would he experience all of this?

Why would he wait so long to reveal himself?

Why suffer and humble himself for so long?

Why become fully a man?

The rest of the verse tells us why… “so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that it, the devil.”

Before we look at this phrase “so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.”

Let’s start with what it does NOT mean.

This verse does not support the Ransom theory of atonement.

Likely you have never heard this, but it was a common theory for many years in church history.

I want to mention this because I don’t want any of us to elevate the devil or to think of the enemy higher than what Scripture teaches.

The Ransom theory of atonement states that somehow Jesus’s death paid a ransom to the devil.

A commentator (Oden) rightly noted, “this theory is contrary to Heb 2:14–15 where the author explicitly stated that the death of Christ was a triumph over the devil, not a ransom paid to him.”

Therefore, this verse does not teach that Jesus paid a ransom to the devil.

It clearly states that Jesus destroyed the devil.

Jesus as the King of Kings destroyed the devil.

By conquering death, and taking the penalty that we deserve, namely death, Jesus took death so we could live.

John Owen has a book titled: The death of death in the death of Jesus.

The death of death in the death of Jesus.

This is what this verse teaches us through Jesus’ death He destroyed death.

V14 also says the devil has the power of death.

We may ask does the devil have the power of death?

Yes, it is explicit in this verse.

But how does the devil have this power?

The devil gained this power by first luring Adam and Eve to defy God’s prohibition in Gen 3:4; once mankind sinned the devil had the power of death, by accusing mankind to God’s just tribunal, the just judgment for sin is death.

This is the same way the devil still works in our world, first, he will tempt you to sin, pointing to the benefits or the pleasures of the sin.

Then he will turn around and knock you over the head by accusing you of what you have done and how you deserve God’s punishment.

He wants you drunk in the pleasures of sin or in complete despair of any hope, or just numb enough that you don’t listen to God anymore and you just care for your life now.

This is how we can pray for those in our families or friends, that they will not be overcome by the overwhelming guilt of their action and that they will not be lured into more temptations or taken captive by indifference to what truly matters.

Zech 3:1 pictures the devil as the accuser and Rev 12:10 describe him as the accuser of our brothers.

This power of death does not mean the devil can inflict death without God’s permission, it means the devil can justly accuse us and ask God to bring the judgment that we deserve.

Even more… Here is the unthinkable… unimaginable.

Jesus allowed himself to be “accusable” by the devil and overcame this.

God humbled himself to be a man so that He could die in our place and destroy the devil.

So, when the devil accuses us, we can say to him you are right, I’m a sinner and deserve God’s punishment, but praise be to God, Jesus took the punishment that I deserve.

If we truly believe this, it will also apply when others accuse us.

Here is a good example.

A few years ago, Russell Moore was accused publicly by the president of the US who said “Russell Moore is truly a terrible representative of Evangelicals and all of the good they stand for.

A nasty guy with no heart!”

Then Russell Moore was called on the national news to have an opportunity to defend himself.

His response was so unexpected that the host didn’t know how to follow up on his answer.