Preparation of Priesthood

I want to welcome you all to this part of our service, and as we share the Word, I plan to speak from the second chapter of Hebrews this morning. And I don't know how many of you remember this, but in February I talked about the first chapter of Hebrews.

And so I'm hoping that your recall is quite good because that's six months.

And I'm just going to give a little bit of review about what we talked about in chapter one. And in the very first part of chapter two, we learned that Jesus is God's supreme revelation. That was sort of the final. He talked to us in a lot of different ways at a lot of different times, but now he's spoken to us by the Son.

And he also is the exact image of God. It's like a rubber stamp. You get the exact image. And that's very important to keep in mind as we study the book here.

He's been made much better than the angels. And I also want you to keep that in mind as we talk about what we're going to talk about in chapter two. Much better, a more excellent name than the angels. And the angels worship Jesus. It's not the other way around.

And then in the beginning of chapter two, we talked about the tendency to drift. And we talked about how if you're on a long journey, like the astronauts that went to the moon, they have to keep correcting their course because they tend to get off course. They drift a little bit. And if you set out across the ocean, you would find the same thing. And the way you know you're drifting is you compare your position and your direction to an object that's known.

We know that this, like we know that the North Star is at the same place every day. And so for us, if we want to know if we're drifting, we have to look at Jesus because he's the same. Yesterday, today, forever. It's a fixed reference point. And we talked about how if the Word that was given by angels, which was the law, proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect the greatest salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord? So if an angel came and stood right there and told us to do something, we would just do it, right? We wouldn't think too hard about it.

But we've been given a Word that's more sure. And so that was what we talked about. How do we prevent drift? By comparing our life to the life and teachings of Jesus. There's no other way to combat drift than apostasy.

The Word that we have from Jesus is more sure, from a higher authority than an angel. We can have assurance that this Word is authenticated by God and by the people who heard it originally and passed it on to us.

So that was chapter one and the first four verses of chapter two.

And now we're going to take the rest of chapter two. I'm going to go ahead and just read the whole chapter to sort of give us a little bit of momentum going in. And then as we go, I'm going to be referring to the new English translation as well because I like a few of the things, the way that they render it.

So Hebrews chapter two, beginning in verse one, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proves steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will?

For he has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. But one testified in a certain place, saying, 'What is man, that you are mindful of him? Or the Son of Man, that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.'

For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one. For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, 'I would declare your name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you.' And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here am I and the children whom God has given me.

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed, he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted."

And I have titled this message, "Preparation for Priesthood." And as we go through the book of Hebrews, we're going to hear a lot about the priesthood of Christ. And I think this chapter sort of lays a little bit of a foundation for that.

And I saw a few things in here that were a little bit new thoughts for me, and hopefully you will appreciate them as well. So in verse five, because that's where we're going to pick up, it says that, "He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels."

And I guess that means that it hasn't happened yet, but this world that we're in now isn't under the control of the angels, and the one to come isn't going to be either.

And then he quotes Psalm 8, "What is man, that you are mindful of him? Or the Son of Man, that you take care of him?" And I guess the psalm writer felt a little bit discouraged about his position. But when you think about how insignificant a single human being is in perspective to the rest of the universe or to eternity or anything, I mean, Isaiah talks about the nations being like a drop in the bucket. And if you have a five-gallon bucket and you get one drop in there, it's not very much.

Now, there's a lot of discussion about this passage as to who it applies to. Does it apply to the human race, or does it apply to a particular person? And I guess in this context, I think it probably applies to Jesus. He called himself the Son of Man, and it talks about the Son of Man in this passage.

And then after he quotes that, he starts to talk about Jesus, who was made lower than the angels.

And we'll talk a little bit about why or how he was made lower.

First, he says, "This hasn't been totally fulfilled because not everything has been put under subjection." I mean, there are some Jesus is over everything, but there's still some things that are happening that aren't entirely what Jesus wants. And finally, when everything's put under subjection, then everything that happens will be exactly what he wants. There won't be the free will that we see now of people being able to go against Jesus is going to end, and everyone is going to bow down. And at that point, everything will be under subjection.

So then Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while, it says. And I think that is important. Maybe it doesn't say that in the King James, but it does say that in the Net. You made him lower than the angels for a little while. You put all things under his control.

And you know his life on earth was a pretty short span in which he really and truly was lower than the angels.

And the reason that he was lower is that he suffered death. The angels can't suffer death like that, not in the same way. They may be able to receive some kind of eternal punishment, but they can't give their life up and die like a human can and does.

And so he says, "But we see Jesus." And it talks in this passage about suffering, Jesus' suffering. And one of the things he suffered was death. It wasn't the only thing that he suffered, but he suffered death. And that death gave him a reward. He was crowned with glory and honor.

And we have a part to play in that crowning, I think, because we can give him glory and honor for the death that he died. And it says that by the grace of God, Jesus tasted death for every person, every person. And that word "tasted" is sort of interesting. The Greek word is "would taste," but it doesn't mean sample a small amount. If you give me a taste of chocolate, I'm probably not going to be happy because I would like more than a taste. But it would be one bite, right? That would be a taste.

Or you know a taste of cheese. If you went to Panola Pantry and they give you a sample, that's a taste. It doesn't fill you up. And you don't really experience like eating a sandwich with that cheese on it would give you.

And so in this sense, it means experience something cognitively or emotionally, come to know something. So it's not just this little taste. It's a whole experience.

He experienced death for everyone, all of us here. If we believe in him or if we don't, if we haven't said yes to him, he still experienced death for you this morning.

And that just it should blow us away that there was someone that Jesus, the Creator, was willing to come down and experience a death for us. And then in verse 10, he says, "For it was fitting for him, for whom is everything and by whom is everything, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." And so this whole plan fits right into the character of God. That's what it means when it says it became him. It was fitting for him and highly becoming to God. Though unbelief considers it a disgrace. If you aren't interested in what God's doing, then no, why would God do that?

But it actually fits exactly in with God's character of redemption.

And it says that he was the Creator, by whom are all things and for whom. And we talk I think it says somewhere else about something similar to that. Everything's created for his pleasure. And then he talks about the captain of their salvation. And that's an interesting word. The Net translates it to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

I like that word better. I think it gives a better sense of what's happening. The Greek word translated "pioneer" is used of a prince or leader, the representative head of a family. It also carries nuances of "trailblazer," one who breaks through to new ground for those who follow him. It is used some 35 times in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, and four times in the New Testament. It always refers to Christ.

I thought that was interesting, a trailblazer. Did you ever blaze a trail? Go out, go up to the mountain, and you can follow a trail that somebody already blazed, the Appalachian Trail. You see there's white marks, and they get volunteers to maintain that trail so you don't have to wade through the jungle to go where you want to go.

But somebody made the trail, and they were the trailblazer. They said, "Well, we think if we go here, it'll be interesting. And if we think if we go here, it'll be the easiest way to get there."

Jesus blazed the way in salvation, and we can follow him. He made a good trail, and it works. It gets you where you want to go.

And it says that he was made perfect through suffering. Well, how can you make something that's perfect, perfect? I mean, if you've got a perfect diamond, you can't make it any better, right? It's perfect. And they have a grading system for that kind of thing. And some of them are less quality, and some of them are perfect.

So that's not what it means. There wasn't some fault in Christ that had to be made perfect, but he did have to be made complete.

He was made complete by suffering. And that word is also interesting because it can mean to carry through completely, to accomplish, to finish, to bring to an end. And I thought that was interesting.

He saw that through to the very end, those sufferings, and he finished, and he completed, and it was successful to bring to the goal, the end goal proposed.

And we'll talk a little bit more about the sufferings towards the end here.

And I think that this whole thing of well, maybe I'll wait to say that.

It says in verse 11, "For both he that makes holy" that's what the word "sanctified" means, makes holy. "And those who are being sanctified, are being made holy, are all of one." They all have the same origin. And that's really important to remember, the same origin. And because of that, because we both Jesus is God and came from God, and we were created by God and came from God, we have the same origin. And because of that, Jesus isn't ashamed to call us brothers and sisters this morning.

He's not ashamed because it's the same origin. And then he quotes some verses from the Old Testament that I neglected to figure out where they were. "I will declare your name to my brethren, and then amidst of the assembly, I will sing to you." And then the last one, "Here am I and the children whom God has given me." And he's using that as proof that we're from the same origin.

And in 14, "And as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he likewise shared in the same." And why did he share in the same? So that he could destroy the person who held the power of death. Isn't that amazing?

Jesus' humanity is what destroyed the devil and the power of death because he came and became incarnate. He was able to do that. And it says that he released those or he broke the power of the fear of death. Do you fear death this morning?

You don't need to because Jesus destroyed the person, the entity that had the power of death, and he's released everyone from the fear of death. He's set us free. That power's broken this morning. If you're a believer in Christ, you don't need to fear death.

You can truly sing that song that Larry Nicholl wrote, I think, "No More Fear of Dying." It still seems a little scary, but we have a lot of hope, and we don't have to we do not have to be in bondage to the fear of death anymore.

That's really exciting. And then this last section talks about being made like his brothers, like his brothers and sisters. The Net Bible says that it's acceptable to translate this Greek word that's in the New King James translated "brothers" as "brothers and sisters." And I really like that. I like that we can include everyone in that phrase.

In verse 16, he says that he does not give aid Jesus does not give aid to the angels, but to the seed of Abraham.

When the angels fell that word "give aid" could also mean take a hold of. And one of the commentaries that I read said that when the angels fell from heaven, Jesus didn't grab them. He didn't reach his hand out and rescue them. But when the humans fell from heaven, he did.

He reached out his hand, and he's giving us aid.

And in 17, it says, "Therefore he had to be made like his brother in all things." And so Jesus has become became like us. He experienced life exactly the way that we experience life today. He experienced all these same emotions that we do.

You know he suffered loss. We don't read about his father in the Gospels after he's 12. We don't know when what became of him, and we assume he died at some point. So he lost somebody, a close family member. His close friend Lazarus died, and he experienced grief. He got hungry. He got frustrated, but or was tempted to be. You can see some frustration coming out in the Gospels when the when the Pharisees were being so unjust. And he just experienced all of those same emotions and temptations and feelings that we do. But he never sinned. He never gave in to the temptation. Someone was saying that, you know we're tempted and we're tempted, and then we give in.

And maybe there's some relief there. Usually, I don't feel very much. But he never gave in. Those temptations were just there the whole time. And in the last verse, it talks about how Jesus suffered being tempted. And I was thinking, I wonder I wonder if a lot of the suffering that Jesus went through as a as a human was temptation.

I never thought about that before. I think that rode him pretty hard and pretty heavy.

And he never gave in, never gave in.

And it says that because he was made like us and because he suffered like we do, he was able to become the high priest.

And if he wouldn't have done that, I don't think the priesthood could have been his. I never really thought about that before. The priest had to be a man. It couldn't be a divine being. It could be both, but it had to be a man. And Jesus coming in the flesh satisfied that. Now he's qualified to stand between us and God. That's what a priest is, someone who stands between the people and whatever's being worshiped. There's pagan priests too, and they do the same kind of thing and offer these sacrifices.

Jesus offered that sacrifice. And as we get through Hebrews, we'll hear a lot more about the sacrifice that he offered.

And he's merciful and faithful. He was faithful because he did everything that God asked him to do, and he's still faithful today doing those same things.

And you know something that really hit me before Jesus came in the flesh, before Emmanuel was here, people could say to God, "You have no idea how hard it is to do what you're telling me to do. You don't know. It's impossible. There's no way. You're asking way too much, way too much." Jesus came, and he lived it, and he has destroyed all of our excuses.

We can live the same way that Jesus did because he showed us he was the pioneer. He blazed the trail.

And the other thing I was thinking about in that Jesus experienced temptation, if you want help with a project, who do you get to help you? If you want someone to help fix your car, do you ask somebody that has never changed oil before in a car to help you?

No, you don't. I mean, if you do, you're sort of being foolish, probably. And if you wanted to learn how to make a pie crust, you probably wouldn't ask me because I don't have very much experience, and I wouldn't be able to take you down a very good trail. But you're going to find somebody that has made a hundred pies or a thousand, and then they can help you, right?

And that's the way it is with Jesus because he was tempted and because he experienced what we're up against. It says that he is able to give us aid. And that word "aid" means to run to the cry of. And so I was thinking, you know if you heard one of your children crying loudly, you would drop everything and run to their aid, wouldn't you?

And if you heard somebody yelling, "Help, help," you would drop everything and run because maybe they're stuck. Maybe they you know Devon tells a story about how he was working around his house, and he heard someone hollering, "Help, help!" And it was Wilmer Eavy, and he was pinned between his tractor and the fence or something. And you know he dropped everything and ran and helped him.

And Jesus is going to do that when we call, but we do have to call. And so I think that's something to remember. If we want that aid, we probably need to ask for help.

Jesus is I just think that's so important that he destroyed all of the excuses that, "God, you don't know what you don't know what I'm up against."

And so in conclusion here, I'm pretty overwhelmed when I think about what Jesus has done. And I don't think we should lose the wonder of what Jesus has done, the wonder of him being incarnate and coming in the flesh and living the way we did, and then being able to make that sacrifice for our sins and to destroy the devil and the power of death. And so this week, when we're tempted, let's cry to Jesus for help. He wants so badly to come to our aid.

Let's take comfort in the fact that since he has become like his brothers and sisters in every way, he is now qualified to help us and understands who we are.