Hebrews series

So we're reading from the book of Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 5.

It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified. What is mankind that you are mindful of them? A son of man that you care for him? You made them a little lower than the angels.

You crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet. In putting everything under them, god left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them, but we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. So that by the grace of god, he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that god, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.

Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters. In the assembly, I will sing your praises. And again, I will put my trust in him.

And again, he says, Here am I, and the children god has given me. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely, it is not the angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to god, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. Well, keep that the those verses open. Let's ask the law to help us. Help us further as we look at these verses to impact them into our minds and our hearts and our lives. For the glory of Jesus, r m.

Now when you look into a a cot of a a newborn baby, what what do you see? Well, we've had quite a lot of them, recently, but what what do you see? Well, you see a tiny little human full of potential. That's what you see. They're weak.

Yep. They're vulnerable. They're totally dependent, but they're actually bursting with life. Every cell is dividing and growing, and it's an amazing thing. What will those little hands so beautifully made?

What will those little hands do when they're older? Where will those lovely little feet take that person? There's so much potential because the baby, like all of us, are born to live. We're actually born to live. And that's why this weak and vulnerable and totally dependent little 1 has a father and a mother, usually, to protect them and to care for them.

And, to be loved by them. That little 1 has so much potential. We want to protect it, and we want to do everything we can because it's born to live. We want to help that life. That's why we have hospitals.

That's why we have all kinds of, things to help the children grow if if they're not because they're born to live. We were born to live. That's our purpose. Our purpose was not born to die. Our purpose was born to live, but here's the great crisis of humanity.

The great crisis of humanity. Every 1 of those little children dies. That's the crisis, isn't it? That's our great issue, if you think about it? Death.

That's the real big issue around the world. Wherever you're from, That's the issue. Death. We're born to live, but every 1 of us dies. That's why wars are so awful.

Why why is war so awful? Because of death, No more people die because of war, do they? They're all we're all gonna die anyway, whether there's a war or not. So it's death that's the issue. That's why disease and cancer and murder and Fatal accidents are are so bad.

Aren't they? No more people die through cancer that are gonna die anyway. Death is really the issue. After my mother died, I was going through some old photos. And they're amazing those old photos.

They're old photos I'd never seen before. And as I went through, there was my mother as a baby, my mother as a baby, on my great grandmother's knee, with my grandmother and my grandfather next to them. And that photo had captured a a little moment in life, but everyone in that photo is dead. Everyone. We're born to live.

And that's why we put so much effort into trying to keep ourselves alive, but we die. And this is why Christmas is so absolutely vital. It's not just a celebration that Christians are involved in. It's actually essential. Christmas is essential.

To every single person in the world, whether they're from a Christian background, a Muslim background, an atheist background, it doesn't matter what faith they're believing in that Christmas is really for the whole world. It's not just a Christian celebration. Everyone in the world is born to live, but will die. But at the first Christmas, there's 1 who is born to die but lives totally different from any other person in the universe. Let me read those verses from Hebrew Hebrews again.

Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 and 15. Listen carefully. Since the children, it's talking about humans there, have flesh and blood, he, the he there is Jesus. He too shared in their humanity. So that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death.

That is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. They're just staggering verses, aren't they? It's talking about Jesus. Jesus was born to die. That is.

He is the 1 that took on flesh and blood precisely so that he could die. So that in that dot dying, he could rescue us. That's what it's saying. I mean, do you see that? He shared our humanity so that by his death, he might break the hold of the power of death.

That's the purpose of the incarnation. God, becoming flesh, incarnate incarnation. He was incarnate. He is born to die. The purpose of Christmas is good Friday, and the purpose of good Friday is Easter Sunday, resurrection.

That's how it works. Look into that Christmas manger. And what do you see? When you see the Christmas manger, what do you say? A baby?

Yeah. It's a little baby. But a baby who's chosen to be there. A baby that's chosen to become a baby, someone who's chosen to become a baby, 1 who's chosen to share our our flesh and blood, 1 who has descended to our human crisis, to take on the human crisis. This is the most amazing and radical thing He's come in the most amazing and radical way.

In the most thoroughgoing way, Jesus, the eternal messiah has become a man. He's commandeered the whole of human life from the cradle to the grave. When the shepherds looked into the manger, they praised god because they saw what they called a savior. When the 8 year old Jesus was taken into the temple to be circumcised under the rulers of his religion, 2 old people met met him. 1 called Simyan who took Jesus in his arms as an 8 year old baby and said my eyes have seen your salvation, and the you're there is the sovereign lord's salvation.

My eyes have seen that the sovereign lord has sent salvation. Anner, another old lady, in the temple, praised god and called Jesus the redeemer. When the magi, the wise men, whatever you wanna call them, saw the child, they worshiped him. And out of their treasure, they took out, gold and frankincense and myrrh, and all what that means. When you look into the manger at Christmas, what do you see?

A cute little baby, a cute little baby with bling, Christmas bling all around, or 1 born to die so that he would be the death eater. The salvation, the savior, the redeemer, 1 to be worshipped as bigger and grander than you. What do you see? Well, let's have a look at this passage and break it down a little bit. The first thing you see is Jesus was born to die to break the power of the devil.

Look at verse 14. Of Hebrews chapter 2. Since the children, that's humans, since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil. Jesus was born to die to break the power of the devil.

It's an amazing thing. Now that word break there isn't really strong enough. In the original language, it means destroy to abolish to render ineffective, to bring to an end. So Jesus was born to die to bring to an end, the devil. That's that's what's being said here.

Now let me just say this because you might be squeamish about something like the devil and say, well, who believes in that these days? Well, the Bible is unashamed to talk about the devil. The Bible is unashamed to believe that there is actually an evil power that's doing his work behind the scenes. The devil is described in the Bible as that ancient serpent, that has a seductive forked tongue. Jesus calls the devil the father of lies.

Jesus says he's a murderer from the beginning. He's always been a murderer. In the book of Revelation, he's called the accuser. He'll accuse you. He'll attack you.

He'll point out your errors. Satan, The evil 1, the dragon, the lawless 1, the beast, even called the ruler of the of this age that we're living in. They're all names for the devil. He temps. He inspires false teaching.

He incites hatred to Christians. He creates doubts and fears about god and life. You see, if there is a being, which I believe there is a being called the devil like this, see how powerful he is. Of course, if he can persuade you, he doesn't exist. He's gonna be even more powerful.

Because he'll use all of those techniques, and you won't even know he's there or believe he's there. He loves it when people don't believe in him. Weapons of doubt and fear and death and violence and lies and temptations and seduction and falsehood and enticings. They're really, really powerful weapons in the hands of Diabolas. The devil.

And he with his demons, spends your whole life and my whole life lying to us for he's the father of lies. He lies to us about how we get here. He lies to us about our origins. He lies to us about what life is about. He lies to us about eternity.

He lies to us about god. He lies to us about the lord Jesus Christ. He lies to us about death. When you look at the world, there are times you see unbelievable beauty and design. That isn't that right?

And you see it both in humans and in nature. You see sometimes the braveness and the courage and the beauty of people and their creativity. And you see in the natural world some amazing stuff. It's extraordinary that can take up our lives just you know, just investigating. I think I said, some time ago, but I I was listening to a bloke, and he'd given his whole life to just studying bees.

He'd studied bees for, like, 60 years, just a bee. Extraordinary. He'd actually taught them to play football, which is amazing. He actually believes that bees have different emotions. But anyway, I won't go into that, but it's just extraordinary.

Beauty. But then isn't it obvious? That there's darkness around that seems to want to extinguish that beauty, that there's evil working and suppressing that beauty and that wonder. At times, Don't you feel that the world is suppressed under some kind of evil dictator? The wars, the ashes, the meaningless violence, the horrible hatred, few years ago, I went to Rwanda and went through a whole load of things where if you you know that there was a massacre there, you know, they people were turning on their neighbors and massacring each other.

And in about 6 months, I think there was a million killed by by machetes and knives. And there is no way you can go there and see what happened there. And say there's no devil. I don't think there's any way you could say that there's no evil power behind the universe when you saw what happened there. See what's going on in parts of the world.

See, we're very secure, and we feel very safe But in those parts of the world, there are times where you have to say there's some evil here. Isn't there? Look at verse 14. Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil.

Now how does the devil hold the power of death? Well, the wages of sin is death, and the devil seduces us to sin. Come on, this is good news. This is great. And as soon as we've been seduced into sin, he welcomes in his friend death.

The wages of sin is death. He's very happy to give out the wage packet. And how does the devil do that? Well, he does it in the same way that he's always done. So you go back to Genesis.

This is why the Bible was so important to read. You go back to Genesis chapter 3, and you'll see the devil's working. And this is the way he always does it. He persuaded Adam and Eve. If you know the story, then you're you can fill in the bits.

If not, then let me tell you. He persuaded Adam and Eve of first parents, the first people to doubt the goodness of god. That's how it worked. Doubt whether god is good. God's holding back blessing from you.

He says to Adam and Eve. There's that tree in the middle of the garden, and he's stopping you having it. He's holding back blessing, so he starts to persuade. And make us doubt whether god's a good god. Is he really giving us what we should have?

Then he persuaded that Adam and Eve to think that they would be better gods themselves. If they were in control, if they were the ones deciding what is good and evil, then they would run a better life. And then he persuaded Adam and Eve to doubt god's warning. His warning words, if you eat of that tree, you will surely die. No.

You won't. He told them that their eyes would be opened if they went ahead with his plan. And then once he persuaded them to disobey god, he turned on them immediately. Because that's how he works. The seducer is now an accuser, instantly.

That's how he turns. Just like that. Seducing us to disobey god, to not listen to god. And then instantly we do, he's now accusing us, and he's calling on god to do what god said. You said you would judge them.

You said they would die. Now bring that death in. And that's when fear of death comes in because there's a judgment before god. And so what do adam and Eve do? They do what we all do.

We run away further from god. We need to get away from god. Because there's death and judgment on its way, and so you have Adam and Eve running and hiding in the trees and getting some fig leaves to try and cover up their guilt and their shame as if god can't see through that. Verse 14 then, since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil.

Jesus was born to die to break the power of the devil. You can't break it. But he can, and he can do it through his death. And on the cross, Jesus struck a death blow on the devil. He breaks his power, This 1 is born to destroy the power of evil.

That's who this cute little baby is, in the Christmas manger, He's come to give a fatal blow to the devil himself. And it's only a matter of time before satan will be utterly destroyed and die under that blow when the son of god Jesus comes. In all his glory and death is vanished. So then here's my second point. Jesus was born to die to break the power of death.

Jesus was born to die to break the power of the devil, but secondly, he was born to die to break the power of death. Look at verse 14 again. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death, he might break the power of him who holds the power of death. That is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Again, you got that word destroy.

He's come to destroy the power of death, and and it it's not just break. It is destroy. He's come to set an end to the power of death. And then notice that word free there, to free from the fear of death. That word free is literally to release.

It's if you have experienced it, it's my chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose went forth and followed thee. That's the Christian experience. The chains have fall fallen off.

The chains that drag us down into fear of death. Now I I've talked about death a lot, and it's it's something, isn't it? You know, near the end of this year, the bloke's waffling on about death. Now I realize, you know, it's an awkward subject to talk about. I realize that.

I'm not I'm not, you know, I know that. And it's not really polite to talk about death, is it? You know, it's it's 1 of the last taboos. You can talk about almost any ****** thing you wanna talk about, but death I mean, ****. I mean, imagine over the Christmas dinner, you've just had it, you know, a couple of days ago.

You're sitting around the deal as a turkey and all of the people are eating their sprouts. The conversation dies down, and you think, what shall I what shall I bring up? And you lean over to your host or to your grandma or who's just sitting there, and it's all gone quiet. And you say, has anybody thought of their own death recently? I mean, the brussels sprout will come shooting out.

People will be coughing and turkey all over the place. Grandma's teeth will fall on the floor and chatter away. And, you know, it's it's just it's not done in polite circles. Is it? Because we wanna hold on to life, because we were born to live, not die.

And even those of you, and there are those of you that have suffered the death of a loved 1 this year, People don't know what to say to you, do they? Sometimes they even avoid you. Close people avoid you because they don't know what to say. Why? Because we're afraid of death because we wanna hold on to life.

Because we're born to live. We hang on. Few weeks ago, I was in South Africa, and we went to Robin Island, Cape Town, and and to Robin Island. That's in the sort of Bay or whatever it is you call Cape Town. And Robin Island is where where, Nelson Mandela spent years and years.

I think it was 18 year 27 years in orbit, 18 years on Robin Island. I I may have got my facts wrong there. And you see the cell that is in, which is a tiny little room about us, a little bit bigger than this platform here. And, and then the people that take you around Robin Island are the people that were on Robin Island. They're the ex convicts that were there.

And this bloke, he emphasized every word that he said, and it just was so powerful because he was there for 7 years. And then he tells you of the torture that man did to man, and the torture that I went through. And he says, even here, there are windows. There were no windows when I was in this room, took us to his own room. There was no hard floor.

It was wet. And he told us of the torture that he went through. And they released him after 7 years, and he got on a boat and went from Robin Island to Cape Town, and then got his way to the Cape Town Station, and they rearrested him and took him back to Robin Island. That's how they tortured people. And he told us of the tortures there.

And yet the interesting thing was that even when you were being tortured, largely, mostly those people who had this terrible life clung on to it because we're meant to live, not die. And even through his torture, he clung on to life. For he saw it was better to live, even like that. Than to die? Because we're meant to live.

Not die. Look at verse 15, to free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. Free us from the slavery of the fear of death. I'd rather be tortured than die. We live in the land of the shadow of death.

Everything we do is overshadowed by the grave. Very few of us face that shadow head on. Very few of us would say that their fears and their anxieties are actually related to their fear of death. And yet we know that's true. You can trace back all your fears and all your anxieties to the fact that we're going to die.

We fear loss. We fear the unknown. We fear separation. Without Christ, death is the ultimate loss. And the ultimate unknown and the ultimate separation, the roots of our fears is death, and it grows the fruits of anxiety and death in so many ways.

It's a slavery we're driven ultimately to dance to the tune of death. It's a darkness within us. But do you see this? This is what Christmas is about. Jesus has destroyed.

The power of death. Do you hear that? The 1 that was born to die has destroyed broken. The power of death. Do you hear that?

Do you hear that good news? This is what Christmas is about. It's not just about a little baby. It's about someone who became a baby to be born to die. Here's the great preacher, c s c h spurgeon.

Death is no longer banishment now because of Jesus. Death is no longer banishment. It is a return from exile, a going home to the many mansions where the loved ones already dwell. Jesus has turned death store into the place where you go to your mansion. The distance and, I'll explain this.

The distance between glorified spirits in heaven Christians that have gone to heaven, and the militant saints on earth, those of us are here on earth, seems great, but it is not we are not far from home, says spurgeon. A moment will bring you there. Through death. Jesus has opened that door. So first, Jesus was born to die to break the power of the devil, Secondly, Jesus was born to die to break the power of death.

Thirdly, Jesus was born to die to seize us for life. To seize us for life. Look at verse 16. For surely, it is not angels, he helps, but Abraham's descendants. It should read like this, actually.

For surely, it is not angels. Jesus hasn't come to save angels. It's not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants, he helps. Now I come to the help word in a minute, but who are Abraham's descendants? Well, when you read the Bible, it's not the blood relatives of of the Jews.

He's got nothing to do with that anymore. Yeah. It's not the Jews anymore. It's all those Jew and gentile who have faith. So the descendants of Abraham are people who trust, like Abraham trusted.

Abraham trusted god not his works. He trusted god, and it we're told it was credited to him as righteousness. He was made right before god by trusting god's promise, not his own works. And we are made right with god by trusting the promises of god in Jesus. You trust Jesus as the death eater, you're Abraham's descendant.

And when you do that, Jesus seizes you from death, Go back to verse 16 again. For surely, it is not angels. He helps, but Abraham's descendants, he helps. That word help is so weak. The translation is it should be it should be much stronger.

It is to seize It is to arrest. It is to catch. It is like the policeman pushing you on the ground and pulling your hands behind you and handcuffing you. It is to seize you. It's to manhandle you.

It's to lay hold of you. It's the child going to run across the motorway, and you see the truck coming, and you grab the child. And it doesn't matter whether you hurt the child or not, or whether the child cries or scream, and you drag it back It's the person who's climbing the rock and falls and thankfully has the rope on and and pulls down on the other person, and the rope pulls them and suddenly seizes them to a stop stopping their death. Jesus hasn't come just to inspire us or to command us or even to guide us into a path or even to help us to help ourselves. He's come to seize us.

He's come to catch us. He's come to gather us in these arms. He's the good shepherd that goes hunting for the stupid sheep that's caught up in the thorn bush, and he puts his hand in the bush and he rips the sheep out, the lost sheep out. With blood on his hands. To rescue us, that is what Christmas is about.

Jesus coming into the realm of darkness pulling us, seizing us from the whole of death and judgment and satan. So forthly, how does he do that? How does he do it? Verse 17? You see it?

For this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to god, that he might make atonement for the sins of his people. There are some complicated concepts there. But that is what the Bible is about. High priest, do you see that? So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of god.

You have to go back to the old testament. You have to read what the high priest did And the high priest on the day of atonement 1 day a year was allowed into this holy of holies, a place where god is represented of being, the holy of holies where god is. No one's allowed in there, except the high priest once a year on the day of atonement. And there's a curtain that separates people from god, because if you just stroll in there in the presence of god, Then the judgment your god will come upon you. So the whole high priest has to go through all wearing the linen clothing, washing himself in the right way, and he goes through the curtain into the holy place where god is, but he's carrying blood.

The blood of a sacrifice, something has died for the sin of the world, the wages of sin is death. And there, in the holy of holies, is a box of gold called the mercy seat. And in the box are the 10 commandments and other things to remind us that we've broken the 10 commandments the law of god, we've disobeyed because we listened to the devil, and we've broken them. And there are the broken 10 commandments in the box. And over that box is a golden layer with 2 angels looking down.

It's called the mercy seat, and the blood is poured on the mercy seat. The angels see the blood of the lamb, and god sees the blood that covers our disobedience and our law breaking. And we know that that has been accepted by god because the high priest comes out and shows himself to the people. Jesus is the high priest. Jesus is the 1 that's gotten to the father.

Jesus is the 1 that's opened the door of death, has pulled the curtain back and opened away as a pioneer into knowing god and knowing forgiveness. And the blood, whose blood is it? But look what it says. For this reason, he was made like us fully human. Body and blood.

In every way, in order that he might become the merciful high priest the 1 who's gonna bring the blood in the service of god, and that he might make atonement for the sins of his people. It's his own blood. He's made atonement. He's both the priest and the sacrifice. But that word atonement really is the word propitiation.

It's a very, very wonderful word. And propitiation means that he takes the anger and the wrath for our sin upon himself. He propitiates He takes our death and our judgment and our wages on himself and then brings it by his death and presents himself to god and god says that's acceptable. If you want an illustration of propitiation, it's like those things you see in the wars that are going on. And those rockets come up, and they're they're they're they're ready to just smash into a town or a or a city and blow people to smithereens.

And you see those rockets firing, and we've seen them on our TV masses of them, and they're powerful, and they hold death in their hands and they're destructive, and they're coming to the city. But what does the city do? It fires heat seeking missiles. It fires missiles between the city and the missile that's gonna blow them up. And what happens very often is that that heat seat that missile, this 1 follows the heat and blows up.

The heat is given off, and the missile follows the heat and blows up. And that's Jesus. He was born flesh and blood to die. The stand in the way of the missile. Take the wrath that we deserve.

Take the death and hell that we deserve. And he stands there, and the wrath of god falls upon him. He cries out my god, my god. I'm abandoned. I'm lost.

I'm in the depths of darkness so that you'll never have to say that. And the power of the devil is taken away. And all his accusations against you, you did this, you did that. Yes. I did, but Jesus stood in the way.

Jesus took the explosion. That's why he had to come flesh and blood. And that is why Christmas is for everyone in the world. Not just a celebration. Of a birthday of a profit.

It's the celebration of 1 that has come to turn death into a doorway. To know god. Now my last thing then. Do you know that? Do you know that?

Have you come to trust in Christ? Seriously? Have you thought of your own death recently? Are you ready? Are you ready to face god?

Are you putting it off and thinking, oh, this is so what the heck is this? I came for some joyful celebration. Well, it will be joyful. My chains fell off. My heart set free.

I rose, went forth, and followed the. That's good news. Do you know that? And if not, will you not come to Christ? Will you not ask him now?

Be my savior, be my redeemer, be my rescuer, be my death eater. Take my sin. Save me from the power of the devil and the power of death. Why not say that right now? Let's bow our heads and pray.

You can make this your prayer, which is our last hymn that we're gonna sing in a minute. So if the band want to come up and get ready, Before the god the throne of god above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me. My name is written on his hand. My name is hidden in his heart.

I know that while in heaven, he stands, no power can force me to depart. When Satan tempts me to despair, tells me of the guilt within. Upward, I look and see him there, who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For god, the justice satisfied, to look on him and pardon me.

Behold him there, the risen lamb. My perfect sinless righteousness, the great, unchangeable I am, the king of glory and of grace. 1 with my lord, I cannot die. My soul is purchased by his blood. My life is hid with Christ on high, with Christ, my savior, and my god.

Father god help us to sing this with vigor and joy. Those of us said, no, it, with tears of new life for those that are coming to know it by your spirit work in hearts today for your glory, amen.