Pastor Sam Huff preached from Hebrews 2:5-10. We learned that humanity needs a hero. Lector: Lindsey Blair
Pastor Sam Huff preached from Hebrews 2:5-10. We learned that humanity needs a hero.
Lector: Lindsey Blair
INTRODUCTION
“Reach people with the gospel, build them up as the church, and send them in to the world.”
(Working through the book of Hebrews) Have you ever looked back at your life and thought about your heroes? I remember my heroes from a young age: Leonardo (the TMJT), Hulk Hogan, Chris Sabo, Charles Barkley…they always conquered – they always won.
But there’s a whole level or heroes like parents, soldiers, first responders. In our home we are teaching our young children two things: that there is good and evil in the world, but what always wins? Good always prevails. The second is how does good win? It wins by sacrifice.
Its good to have heroes…to have people to look to and follow knowing they have blazed the trail, whatever that might be. It’s a part of our DNA. But have you ever boiled it down and asked, who is the true hero? Who is the one…the hero, not for my sport, my hobby, my job, but the hero of humanity?
The passage this morning is going to show us such hero. His name is Jesus. This passage starts out by saying, “Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.” Basically, this whole business of salvation, of which the angels were messengers, belongs to Jesus. The hero, our great rescuer, was not angels, but it was the Son of God.
Through Jesus’ humanity, he has conquered suffering and death, so that we might see what we cannot see. We are able to see our true hero.
Transition: The preacher of Hebrews invites us into this reality of the gospel by calling us to: 1) Confess That Our Eyes Don’t See; 2) Cling to What Your Faith Does See
CONFESS THAT OUR EYES DON’T SEE
The preacher does as he has thus far, and he quotes from Psalm 8. “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
This is not the entirety of Psalm 8, which is a wonderful poem about the majesty of God. It talks about how small humankind is compared to the universe, yet we were made a little lower than angels, and crowned with glory and honor, and God gave us, not angels, the keys to run the world.
It doesn’t take an expert to see that we did not fully live into the honor and responsibility God gave us. However, I don’t think that is where the preacher wants our minds to go by quoting Psalm 8. He does not stop and give a discourse on the dignity and value bestowed upon humanity…its as though he does not want us to look all of humanity but look at one human.
Remember, Hebrews 1 is all about how Jesus is superior to the angels, how he is the final and complete word of God. The Son of God sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Now, here in quoting Psalm 8, which is referencing Jesus, it says, “you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” Then, he follows this by saying, “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.”
In quoting Psalm 8, our eyes are no longer looking through the clouds into the heavenly realms but looking into the world around us…the world that is ruled by Jesus and under his control. Now, here is where we get to the crux of what is meant by “Confess that our eyes don’t see.”
When you look at the current climate of the people who seem to have the control and power, how many of us say, “that’s the control of the Son of God”? When you see pain and suffering, when your marriage is hurting, your kids are being defiant, how many of say, Jesus, you got this? This why the preacher says, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” That’s not to say that he doesn’t, but it is to say that our eyes just don’t see it.
We do not see the entirety of the world under Christ’s control. We don’t even see our own homes or day-to-day lives under Jesus’ rule. It hardly seems that the Son of God is actually running the show. To put it in stronger terms, our eyes do not yet see the victory of Jesus.
If we can all get to this point and confess that our eyes don’t see it, the next question is, how does it make you feel? Does it make you sad, angry, confused, tired? When our eyes see so much hardship, brokenness, and hopelessness what does it make you want to do? I just want to give up and move on the something else. Sometimes I want to try to take control. But in doing so, I lose self-control.
This is the state of the souls of the initial hearers of this sermon of Hebrews. Their eyes were seeing very dark times. They’re under immense pressure and persecution for their faith. Life was getting really hard and dying was more present in their thoughts than living. They, like us, were crippled by fear.
They wanted to move on from this Jesus belief and go on to something else or go back to the easier life of Judaism…maybe my family will accept me…maybe my life will be safer or its better to go back to something familiar.
I hope this resonates with all of us. I’ll go back to same question posed by Pastor Travis a few weeks ago, “Do your circumstances dictate your doctrine of Christ”? To put in the context of today’s sermon, “Does what your eyes see in your life, make you feel like Jesus is not in control”?
This is why the preacher of Hebrews opens this chapter with these words, “Therefore we must pay closer attention to what we have heard.” The imperative is that we stay anchored in, not what our eyes see, but in the message we have heard. The message that Jesus is on his throne ruling and reigning. The message that our humanity needed a rescuer, that we needed a hero, and Jesus is that rescuer…that hero.
Transition: We must, then, move from confessing that our eyes do not see and hear the call to Cling to What Your Faith Does See.
CLING TO WHAT YOUR FAITH DOES SEE
There is a theme in the book of Hebrew: “the distinction between what we can see with our eyes and what we can see only by faith, (Hebrews 11 - ‘the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’” Faith sees what the eyes cannot.
The transition of verses 8 and 9 is easy to overlook, but it profoundly necessary. “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus.” (the first mention of the name Jesus)
By contrasting chapter 1 with the quotation of Psalm 8, we are taken back by the fact that Jesus, who is superior to the angels, for a little while, was made lower than the angels. It is a major transition in the book of Hebrews. Its like being on the roller-coaster. Hebrews 1 is like the beginning of the ride…click, click, click…and here is the free-fall that takes your breath away – the descent of Jesus to our world.
What are we being called to see, not with our eyes, but with faith? Jesus is not a hero from a distance. He, who is superior to the angels, for a little time, became lower than the angels and became like you and me. This is mind-blowing and crucial to the rescue of humanity. Jesus came into our world…our broken, hurting, and confused world.
But the preacher is calling our faith to look deeper into it than this. Why is Jesus now crowned with glory and honor? It’s not because Jesus simply paid us a visit.
Jesus didn’t come into our world as some consultant for humanity, updating our human processes and procedures, or providing ideas on how to control and rule the world. It wasn’t, for Jesus, some great human experiment. It wasn’t a drive-through experience. It wasn’t a political power-move, a hashtag social-movement, or a mission on morality. It had to be more. And verse 9 calls the eyes of our faith to this.
Verse 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.”
Did you catch it? Jesus is crowned with glory and honor BECAUSE of the suffering of death. The eyes of our faith must first see Jesus coming into our world, but also to what he did while he was here. He suffered and died.
The Preacher does not wish to argue that Jesus was just a tiny bit lower than the angels in the hierarchy of creation, that he came just to the edge of human life and dipped his little toe into the pool of suffering. Rather, he wants to claim that, for a brief moment in time, the eternal and exalted Son purposefully and redemptively plummeted to the depths of human suffering and weakness.” ~Long
It says so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. The preacher is really going after our senses here. In verse 1 he states that we need to remember what we’ve heard. In verses 8 and 9 he talks about what we see and don’t see. Now, at the end of verse 9, he talks about taste, but its not what we taste…its what Jesus tasted. Because of God’s love for you, he tasted death for you.
Jesus’ descent into our world means that Jesus participated and endured that which is most true and haunting to our humanity…we will suffer and die. And so, Jesus plummeted to the depths of our humanity and suffered and died. Which brings us to verse 10.
Verse 10 reads, “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.” He is saying that in this whole story of humanity being rescued, the thing that make the most divine sense, that is most appropriate, is that the Son of God would complete the rescue of you and me through suffering and dying.
Here's the idea that has driven this whole thing thus far. This term, founder, has a rich and complex meaning. Some translations say “Pioneer or Forerunner.” This is not the image of someone sitting on a throne, but it is the image boots on the ground, going before you to conquer what needs to be conquered. Its not Lewis and Clark, but it’s the person who goes before you where you don’t stand a chance unless they charge up first.
This Greek term used here had a cultural connotation to the idea of a champion or a hero. In that time, the person that this term referred to the most was Hercules. He was a brutal warrior and went out to destroy the enemies, to shed their blood, and conquer for the cause. He was revered. Is this not what we see in the world around us? (Those who don’t agree with us or adhere to our way of life…out you go)
But by the preacher using this term, he is declaring, Jesus is the new Hercules. Jesus is the true hero of our humanity. How does Jesus become the champion of humanity? Jesus did not conquer suffering and death and achieve glory for you and me by overthrowing Caesar or all those who opposed him.
Jesus didn’t charge up a hill, sword in hand, shedding the blood of his enemies. He marched up a hill carrying the very cross he was to hang from, and he shed his own blood…not for the best of humanity, but for his enemies and sinners like you and me. Your humanity needs a hero and his name is Jesus!
When you look at Jesus with the eyes of faith, you are looking at your hero. He is not your hero because he holds up a sign that says #Imbecamehuman, or post pictures of his good deeds on Instagram. He is our hero because is entered into our world full of suffering, pain, and death, and conquered it all by suffering what we suffer tasting death for us all. He blazed the trail for what it means to suffer and die.
So that when life gets hard and suffering presses in on us, we look to Jesus, who has gone before us, now crowned with glory and honor. Because Jesus suffered and died, we have a reason to persevere. Though our eyes don’t see it, our faith sees that Jesus is in control, crowned with glory and honor, and one day we too will share in that glory.
It is nearly impossible to look at the world, and our own lives, with our eyes and feel like Jesus is our hero. But it is when we cling to what our faith sees, that we are encouraged in our suffering to remember that Jesus went before you so you can keep going.
CONCLUSION
Francis Crosby, hymn writer, blind from a young age – “Mother, if I had a choice, I would still choose to be blind. For when I die, the first thing I will see is the face of my blessed Savior.” This is a woman who was driven by what she saw by faith. Jesus, greater than the angels, became lower than the angels, suffered, died, and is now crowned with glory and honor. She knew that her faith in Jesus would one day lead to her seeing with her eyes, and she would see her hero, Jesus.
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his Spirit, washed in His blood.”
What is it that makes you question Christ’s rule of this world? What makes you want to lose heart and choose something else? Remember what you heard, the good news of Jesus…the good news that he is the champion of suffering death and that, no matter how tough things get, Jesus is in control, crowned with glory and honor. And through your faith, you will share in this glory one day.
COMMUNION –
But until then, we remember that Jesus tasted death for us. Our hero invites us to taste as well. On the night Jesus was betrayed…
So as you taste the bread and wine, remember what you heard, that Jesus died for you, and look with eyes of your faith to Jesus, your hero, going before you in suffering and death.
Through Jesus’ humanity, he has conquered suffering and death, so that we might see what we cannot see…we can see our true hero.
PRAYER –…🡪 LORD’S PRAYER