Hebrews

Hebrews 2, and we'll start reading at the top of chapter 2.

We must pay the most careful attention then therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through Angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape? If we ignore so great a salvation. This salvation, which was first announced by the lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and by gift to the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

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 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, 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 I am, 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 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, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock.

I'm 1 of the pastors of the church here. And, again, if you're new, lovely to have you with us, please, see our our welcome desk, and come for coffee afterwards. We started a series a few weeks ago in, this amazing book of Hebrews, and, we're continuing. Let me just ask the lord's help. If father help us now, please, to concentrate, to hear, may your spirit break through our hard hearts and hard ears and may we bring praise to your name through this in Jesus' name, amen?

So here's a question. It's a big 1. So what is wrong with our world? What's wrong with our world? I mean, there's definitely something wrong with it, isn't there?

You you know, but what what what is that? Well, you could ask that question to almost any group of people, and I and I think you'll get all kinds of different surface answers. But underneath, it'll all be the same answer. Environmentalists, eco warriors, they'd say it's pollution and deforestation and and etcetera. World charities would say it's food distribution or you know, a lack of freshwater refugees are gonna talk about, dictator governments and injustice.

What's wrong with our world? War, religious fundamentalism, violence, lack of investment in poor countries, exploitation of poor countries, taking their natural resources, and not giving back. What's wrong with our world? Selfish, greed, lack of forgiveness, hatred, racism, stealing, lack of generosity. What's wrong with our world?

A feminist, my answer, man. Man is wrong with the world. That's the problem. He's man. And I want to say they're right.

Man is the problem, but not just the male. Male, and female, humanity, mankind. That is the problem behind all of those problems. He's the problem. We humans just can't seem to run our world very well.

K can we? We just can't seem to do it. Just read history. In fact, if you think of some of the world's war zones and troubled areas right now, How do you change that horror? It's really hard, isn't it?

To change what's going on. There is horror going on. And we just don't know what to do very often. Even good people, even powerful people. It's very hard for us to run the world.

There's an old song that some old English people all know. It was by a big welsh bloke, funny enough called Harry Seacum. Anyone ever heard of him? It's just us few. What was the song, his famous song?

If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring, that's what he thought. And then, I mean, it sounds nice, doesn't it? But would it if you ruled the world actually, what would it be like if you ruled the world? The rapper, Nas, he took that song and put his rap to it, and he called it if I ruled the world imagine. And it I think he's more honest than Harry Seacom.

If I ruled the world, imagine imagine smoking weed in the street without cops harassing. If I ruled the world, imagine going to court with no trial. If I ruled the world, lifestyle cruising the blue bahama bahama waters. That's the reality, isn't it? If you've seen that film, we was discussing it last night, some of us Bruce almighty, when god gives, Bruce, the opportunity and the responsibility to be god for a week or whatever it is.

You know, he rules the world, and it's all about, you know, his wife being a little bit better, and, you know, everything going well for him. He can't rule the world. And anyway, if you think about it, if every day was the first day of spring, it's the end of this world. There'll be natural disasters everywhere and no food. So it doesn't really make sense.

But what I'm trying to say is we humans, we're just incapable of ruling the world. And we can't even rule ourselves. Can we? It's very hard to even rule ourselves, yet alone, the world, and the universe. And the biggest illustration to show us that we don't rule the world is, death, isn't it?

Death just shows us. We don't rule. Death says, I rule. I rule the world because every man, woman, boy, and girl are gonna come to me. But here's the thing that I want us to get.

According to the Bible, God made people mankind, men and women to rule the world, but something's gone terribly wrong. So here's my first point, and we'll see it here in this passage. We were made to rule the world. That's why in some ways we want to. We were made to rule the world.

Look at verses 6 to 8 in our passage in Hebrews chapter 2. But there is a place where someone has testified. He's saying back in the old testament, there's a place. 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 you put everything under their feet. In putting everything under them, god left nothing. That is not subjected to them. So a subject is, you know, like under a king.

A king has his subjects. Nothing. Now the writer hearing of Hebrews is quoting a song I'm gonna quote quite a few songs today, but he's quoting a song, and he's quoting Psalm 8 in the Old Testament part of the Bible. And that that's in 2 halves. It talks about the majesty of god, but it also asks the question what is man, what is mankind, what are people?

And what are we? I mean, when you think about the universe, we're piddling, aren't we? We're tiny little specks of dust or a little ball of dust. The universe is massive, so we're told. And, you know, every day, science is showing us just how big it is.

It's bigger and bigger and bigger than we we think it is. It's vast. So what are we tiny puny small insignificant beings? Think of the immensity of the universe. And then he says, just to rub it in how sort of low man is, look at verse 7.

You made them god, you made them a little lower than the angels. So man is lower than the angels, this vast universe. What are we? Dust held together? And then we're lower than the angels, and and the picture there is that god is surrounded by angels on the throne in the heavens, And mankind is is on the earth.

We're sort of limited to the earth, and we're subjected to a physical body. So how could man rule the world? He's so small and so physically puny. And so physically limited. So in 1 sense, the job's too big for us, isn't it?

And yet, he says this. These are extraordinary words. And, yeah, god is mindful of him. God is mindful of them. Men and women are in god's thoughts.

He minds them. He cares for them, it says. The god who created this vast universe ponders and cares for mankind, men and women. He's we are on his agenda. We are his top priority.

There's, a deliberate, careful attention towards people from god. We're being told. Even though mankind are made a little lower than the angels, lower in proximity to god, I think, even though we're made a little lower than the angels, it says you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet. We are crowned. That's a king.

We are crowned with glory and honor to rule the world. That's god's intention that we rule over everything. Look at verse 8, the second half of verse 8, in putting everything under them. God left nothing that is not subject to them. That was the original plan.

You go back to the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible that explains what god is doing in the world and how he created the world. And he made people men and women to go into god's world to do god's work, to rule under god's word. So god and we rule. It's not god angels we rule. It's god and we rule.

And, you know, if we think about it, there's something of that glory in parts still around us. It's it's people can manipulate their environments for good. They can go underwater and live under there now. We can go above the sky, and we can live up there in space. We can invent.

We can discover things. We can plan. We can sow and reap and harvest. We can tame animals to some degree, but look at the last bit of earth 8. Yet at present, we do not see everything subjected to them.

That's men and women. We don't see everything under people today. We just don't see that. And as I've said before, the big illustration of that, you can just go straight to the the last illustration if you like and cut proving it out, in all kinds of, areas. The the big illustration is death?

Men and women terrified by death. That's not under our rule, is it? That's not under our feet. Men and women are enslaved to doing things that are wrong. We often do the thing we don't wanna do, and it's a wrong thing, even to people we love.

We seem enslaved to do wrong things. That's not under our feet, is it? Men and women are oppressed by the devil, evil spirits. That's not under our feet. He's not under our feet.

Is he? People try to rule the world, but those who try to do that turn into exploiting people and violence over people and force and war In order to make others subjected to them, they use force and violence. We're out of control in that area. We can't rule ourselves, yell in the universe, So we don't see people in this original position that Psalm 8 is telling us, and the writer is quoting something's gone terribly wrong. Man kind is a terrible, terrible enigma, creating wonderful things, but then taking those wonderful things and using them for the destruction of mankind.

We're made for greatness. But we're weak. We're made for life, put death reigns over us. We're made for joy, but we know so many fears. People are made to rule, but we're not doing that.

Look at verse 14 of the chapter. The writer talks about the power of him who holds the power of death, that is the evil 1, the devil. There's power over us, and yet we're supposed to have power over him. Mean, there are many parts of the world, and, I mean, even here, aren't there where we're so scared of spirits. I mean, you know, would you walk through a graveyard at night on your own?

You know, it's just quite scary, isn't it? If you've got an imagination like me, I'm thinking everything's a demon jumping out on us. Or but there are there are countries and whole societies that are under evil spirits and demonic things, and, you know, so scared. Of the spirit world. Cricker first 15.

He talked about human beings being held in slavery by their fear of death. The bloke who sang if I ruled the do you know that song surely you must there's more than just a few of us. I mean, I can sing it if you like. He was like if I ruled the world. Every day would be the first day of spring.

Well, although he's welsh Harry Seachem, he's buried in Surrey, not far from here. And I happen to be in the graveyard looking around a graveyard, sort of thing I do do, being scared. And, I started speaking to a woman. She said, oh, did you know I was married in this church? I said, no.

No. I didn't know that. I'd never met the woman before. And, She said, you know Harry Seacom's buried here? I said, no, I didn't.

What if I rode the world? Yeah. And I sort of started to sing it. And, and I said, oh, so you were married here. Are you gonna be buried here?

Oh, poach, say that? Don't say that? Don't talk about death? And so I thought I'd just push it a little bit more. Well, we're all gonna die.

No. Don't talk like that. Well, you were married here. I just thought you might be buried here. No.

I don't. I don't wanna hear. And that was the end of the conversation. It's amazing, isn't it? If I ruled the world's song, but he's dead, then she's gonna die because death rules.

That's the problem, isn't it? Death keeps defeating mankind. It's the character of a world that's gonna mark. We're not crowned with glory and honor. Oh, we?

We're carried in a coffin and burned or rot. So you don't see man in his original position how god made us, and it's very sad. It's very sad because this is now a very broken world and look at the devastation. We don't rule what other things do. There's a song by Coldplay.

I was quoting them and saying I didn't particularly like them, and that I fainted a lot of people because there's a lot of people that like Coldplay. But co play has a very sad song. It's called, Viva LaVid, the v Viva LaVida, which actually means long live life in Spanish. But the song is is probably about Louis the sixteenth, but it it it it gives him poetic form, someone who's lost being a ruler. Just listen to this, because I think this is how Adam and Eve and humanity should feel.

I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word. Now in the morning, I sleep alone, sweep the streets I used to own. I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemy's eyes. Listen as the crowd would sing. Now the old king is dead long live the king.

1 minute I held the key. Next, the walls were closed on me, and I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. That's the story of humanity. We used to rule the world. Now we're thrown out.

So that's my first point. Here's my second point. So what do we need then? What do we need? Well, we don't need another prophet to, tell us what to do.

We've got plenty of them. And largely, we haven't listened to the prophets. And if they're true and prophets true prophets of god, we've largely killed them and destroyed them. We don't need another profit. We don't need more laws and, threats about punishment if we break them because we're breaking the laws all the time and not caring about the threats of punishment.

And anyway, we have the 10 commandments and most of us don't even bother to know that what they are. We don't need good advice. It's far too much of that. We don't need more entertainment that just distracts us from the issue. We don't need more money.

To solve our problems because that always seems to cause problems because where do you get the money from to solve our problems? There's arguments over that. We don't need more scientists because, nearly every good invent as I say that we've made, we have the ability to turn that invention into destruction and exploitation. We just can't rule, can we, with those things? We don't need stronger rulers.

Because even the good ones have a habit of turning into dictators, don't they? What do we need? What do we need? We need a hero. Where have all the good men gone?

And where are all the gods? Where's the street wise Hercules to fight the risenauts? Isn't there a white night upon a fiery steed? Late at night, I toss and turn, and I dream of what I need. I need a hero.

I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night. He's gotta be strong. He's gotta be fast. He's gotta be fresh from the fight. I need a hero.

I'm holding out for a hero to the morning light. He's gotta be sure, and he's gotta be soon, and he's gotta be larger than life. Larger than life. Do you know that song? Yes.

Are we getting there? We need a hero, but we need more than a hero. There's a phrase I've got for you that will describe the hero that we need. Whoa. Sorry.

What have I done? Just 2 words. It's 2 words that will change our whole thinking if we understand them. 2 words that describe a massive wonder Beautiful words. There could be no salvation without these words.

There could be no forgiveness, no knowing god as father, no drawing to near, drawing near to god in prayer. There would be no Easter. There would be no Christmas. There'd be no future. There'd be no new creation to look forward to.

There'd be no peace, evil would rule, death would reign, and satan would win. We need a hero, but we need a hero that has these 2 words. Anybody guess what the 2 words are? Anybody guess? Some of you would have heard of these words, and most of us would never have heard of them.

Anybody guess what the words are? No? Can you guess? Hyperstatic union. You got it?

That surprised you, didn't it? You ready? Hyperstatic union. Hyperstatic union. That's what we need.

Hyperstatic union. What's he talking about? It's a theological term. It means the union of the 1 who is god and the union of the 1 who is man, the divine nature, and the human nature, the son of god, and the son of man. The 1 who is Jesus the Messiah being divine and being god.

Hypostatic in Greek means subsistence. It's individual existence There is 1 individual existence, there is another individual existence, and there's a union between the 2, not a mixture, a union to become 1 person. So this hero is a hundred percent fully god, and a hundred percent fully man in 1 person. God the son, hundred percent divine, God, the son of, sorry, the son of god, hundred percent, a divine, and the son of man, hundred percent human. Hypostatic union.

A hundred percent fully god. If Jesus Christ is not fully god, then we who worship him are idolaters. But if he is fully god and we don't worship him, we're rebels. Yeah? If Jesus, the Messiah is not god, he's a blasphemer, a faker, and a liar.

He cannot be a good man. He cannot be a wonderful teacher because he claims to be the son of god, 1 with the father. But if he's Not just a man. If he is the god man and we don't worship him, then we're blasphemers. Hypostatic union, a hundred percent fully man.

God the sun, becoming what he wasn't, while he never stopped being what he was, the in car nation, taking on flesh. God, becoming flesh and blood, creator, becoming creative. If Jesus Christ wasn't fully man, he could never represent us as man. He could never be our hero. He could never be our substitute.

How could he sub stand in my place if he's not fully man? He could not have died in our place. He could not be the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world. He could not have been able to go to death and conquer death if he wasn't for a human. Hebrews chapter 1 and 2 explodes with hyperstatic union.

Yeah? Do you wanna say that word? Just let's all say it. Hyperstatic union. If I say to you, let's say we're at a party and I come up and I I I snideled alongside you and say Hebrews chapter 1 and 2.

What would you say? You would explode with it. Yeah. Because Hebrew is 1 and 2 explodes with it. After chapter after the 4 first 4 verses in chapter 1, which is a packed full of Jesus that we looked at, He slows down a little in chapter 1, and he shows us again, and again, and again, and we saw it last week that Jesus is the son of god.

He's fully god. He's not an angel. He's way way way way superior to an angel. We saw it last week. And it's this hundred percent fully god that god speaks to us speaks to us.

And not only speaks to us, the hundred percent fully god is the message. He's the radiance of god. He's the exact representation of God. You wanna know what God is like, then you look at Jesus superior to the angels superior to the prophets. It's what the angels and it's what the prophets we're all banging on about.

They're all pointing to him, the son of god. So then in the first 4 verses of chapter 2, don't drift. How can you drift from the 1 who's described in the first 4 verses of chapter 1? Don't drift. They very careful attention.

And then the rest of chapter 2 is He's the son of man. Superior, the superiority of Christ hasn't changed because he's become a man. The superiority of Christ hasn't changed because he suffers death. Yet by becoming a hundred percent man, he was made a little lower than the angels. A hundred percent fully man.

Look at verse 14. Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity. Look at verse 17. For his for this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human in every way. This is the Christian message.

This is the hero on the white steed that's coming through the night. This is the son of god who created the universe. No 1 higher. No 1 greater. At 1 with the father and the spirit.

This is the son of god who's beautiful in every way. Here's the son of god entering the realm of flesh and blood. This is astonishing. He's big enough to become small and be crammed in a womb and be born into this world, the king of the universe, comes to our miserable, weak, painful, fractured, disaster of a rulership, a world full of sin and self and death, hyperstatic union. That's the hero we need.

Don't know how she could have got it in her soul. I need a hypostatic union. I need a hypostatic union to come through the night. No 1 else could do. Not angels.

Look at verse 5. It is not to angels that he is subject in the world to come about which we're speaking. We what do we need? We need a hero that's larger than life. And who's that?

My third point then. So where should we look? What should we see? Look at verses 8 and 9? In putting everything under them, god left nothing that is not subjected to them, yet at present, We do not see everything subjected to them.

That's the world we live in. Verse 9. But we see Jesus. There's a hero. We see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while.

Now crowned with glory and honor. What do we see? Jesus. What do we see? A man fulfilling what man was created for?

What do we see? This humanity claiming what was lost, reclaiming it. Here's the 1 who created the universe made lower than the angels, who comes into the world and comes under the power of death, who comes into a fallen sinful world, but now he's crowned with honor and glory. He is what mankind was made for, what you were made for. He's reversed The whole, we do not see everything subjected to him.

He's reversed that. He's won back the honor and the crown. He's done it. This is the original plan back online. So e even sin can't thwart the plan of god for mankind.

Even sin can't do that. He sorted that out. The original plan is his plan, and he's kept to it. Man will rule. And how has he done it verse 9?

But we do see Jesus who was made a little lower, for a little while, 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. Because he had flesh and blood, because he's a hundred percent fully human, he therefore could die. He therefore could represent us. He therefore could taste death.

I mean, that's a very sort of unpleasant word, really, tasting death, tasting it. I re I remember when my dad was dying, I remember that particular smell. And as he died, I I reme I because I've got a very strong sense of smell. I'm sorry about that, but I could I can smell and I I I can smell. I could smell the death.

Sounds odd. And and and and he tasted it. Bitter flavor, the horror of our life gone. The loneliness of separation. The judgment of sin, the wages of sin is death, but he didn't earn any wages, but he took my wage packet, and I'm very happy for him to take it.

Look at verse 17, in verse 17, he's talked about making atonement for our sin. What is atonement? It's bringing god and man at 1 again. It's, you know, often said at 1 moment, at 1 make, And that's what god has done. That's what the god man has done.

Fully god. Fully man has now brought man and god together in atonement by the cross. He's atoned. He's brought us together. And this man now is crowned with honor and glory.

He's crowned with honor and glory because he's done what god and the father wanted. Just look at these verses. I think I asked him would be put up. Philipp chapter 2. It's very hard not to keep going back to things like this.

But you can see this. Look at Philipp's, chapter 2, and we'll we'll start, who being in the very nature god of verse 6, who being in the very nature god did not consider equality with god something to be used, for his own advantage. This is Jesus in the very nature of god. And what does he do? How is he gonna rule the world, by the way?

Like the dictators? No. Rather. He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in the appearance of a man, he humbled himself, by becoming obedient to death, even the death on a cross. Therefore, god exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name that at the name of Jesus, every need should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of god the father.

That's how you rule the world by love and sacrifice by going to a cross. We're so distorted. We think we rule the world by tanks and nuclear warfare and by drones. And by guns and violence and strength, the strength of god is that the god man died because he loves us. He could not have done that if he wasn't a hundred percent man, and he could not have done that if he wasn't a hundred percent god.

Many years ago, just up the up the road in the in the in the, Kingston College, I was in quite a debate with some Muslim girls. They were all dressed up in their Muslim gear, and they they they actually were getting very fiery, and they were getting ruder and ruder and ruder. And finally, they wanted to insult me. But 1 of the girls stood up and pointed at me and shouted at me and said, if Jesus is god, then your god has to go to wee wee. Except she didn't say that word.

Your god has to go and take a dump. Absolutely right. You couldn't be more right. That's the grace of our god. You're absolutely right.

Thank you for ex explaining it. You had sweaty armpits as well. And he bled, and he died as well. Because our god shows grace to us. For this reason, he was made like them fully human in every way.

He did it to be the death eater. He did it to die. So here's another point. Look what he does. He's now the pioneer.

He's the pioneer, the way through death. He's died to deal with death. He's died to bring resurrection glory. Look at verse 10. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that god for for whom for who sorry, for whom and through whom everything exists should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he had suffered.

See, Jesus is the pioneer. What's a pioneer? He's the 1 who goes beforehand. He's the 1 that cuts the is the the the way through the jungle, and gets through all of the, all of the undergrowth, and you follow on. He's the 1 that opens the door, and you follow.

And he's opened the door through death, and he could only do that because he's a hundred percent man. And he's risen again, and he could only do that because he's a hundred percent god. So there's a door that's he's the pioneer. He's the perfect pioneer. He's made perfect because he's completed the mission.

He's opened the door. He's cut his way through. So we can follow. Look at verse 11. Both the 1 who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.

So Jesus is not a shamed to golden brothers and sisters. I'm holding out for a hero till the end of the night. He's gotta be strong. He's gotta be fast. He's gotta be fresh from the fight.

He's fresh from the fight. He died. For you. And rose again, and smashed through death. And on each Sunday, there was a hole through death.

The size of the resurrection. And look, I'm trying to hurry up. He's the death. He's the head of a new humanity. Let me read verse 10 again in bringing many sons and daughters to glory.

That's what we were originally meant to be. 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. That's god's to my brothers and sisters.

In the assembly, I will sing your praises. Jesus is gonna sing the praises of the father. Wow. That's a band leader, isn't it? Who's your band leader?

Fin. Yeah. Who's your band leader? Jesus. Oh, He's gonna sing the praises.

And again, look at verse 13. I will put my trust in him. And he says, again, here am I? The children of the children of god has given me. Here I sorry, here am I, and the children of god, the children of god has given me.

He brings people into the kingdom of god. He calls them Adam's descendants because he's having a go at these Jews that have become Christians that are wanting to go back to the old ways. Listen, if you really wanna be Adam's descendant, if you wanna be this, it's Jesus you keep your eyes on. And then you can see he is the high priest in those last verses. He's the 1 who brings us to god.

He's the 1 that understands everything about us. So let me sum up the problem. We're lost. We've lost our purpose, and we live in fear, and we're extremely bad rulers of ourselves and others. The answer, Jesus, the son of god became 1 of us to restore us, to give us humanity, and to give humanity, a future.

There's a future for you to rule with him. Not under the angels over them. Amazing, isn't it? Third thing is there's good news. Jesus died and rose again to set us free.

The fourth thing is the invitation, in that invitation, he he offers us mercy. Look at verse 18, because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus isn't a distant god. He understands your suffering and your difficulties. He understands.

He understands. He knows what it's like to be rejected and tempted. He's not a distant god that you have to cry out to to get his attention. He's come to us. We can draw near to god through him, draw near.

Yeah. He helps us. Fifthly, bring your distance bring your fear, bring your shame to him. See, many Christians, move away when they sin, which is the worst thing, isn't it? If you're ill, you move towards a doctor, you move towards the cure.

Why what why if you're a sinner, would you move away from Jesus? The friend of sinners, the 1 who's come to deal with our sin. We when you sin, you draw near. You can draw near. Confess your sin.

He's the high priest. He'd bring you to God. You can know God as father. When you sin, he's not ashamed of you. He's not so shameful people.

That's not how he works. He's not ashamed of his brothers and sisters. He wants to present us to the father. So draw near come. Stop putting god miles away and far away and a great transcendent 1 that we have to sort of feel in it experience.

No. No. No. He's come. He's come.

The son of god became the son of man. He's done everything for your future. So praise his name. Hypostatic union. Fully god.

Fully man. On Friday, Anna myself took some friends from an international cafe. Iranian friends. I don't know whether they're here. And we it was a long journey.

They wanted to see a grave, a grave of a poet that I'd never heard of. He's British, and I'd never heard of him. But in Iran, they love him. They absolutely love him. We drove 3 hours, and we came to this right in the middle of nowhere in Suffolk.

Just little old church building and a gravestone, and it's just it was just like you could see the graves any way you like. There's just an ordinary gravestone, and my my friend broke down in tears. Because she knows about this man. She spent half an hour looking at the grave. I mean, I was sort of where's my sandwich?

Funny thing is we went down to a local town, and I started asking people, Do you know this poet? And they said, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We've heard of him. Yeah.

I don't know anything about him. But this woman was in tears. She understood what he meant to her. Don't be like that with Jesus or be like that with Jesus. You know about him?

You know him, but haven't you looked at his grave and his resurrection? On you in tears about what he's done for you? Don't you want to spend a ponder some time? But all the people in the town that live near him couldn't care too much about him. There are other things to get on with.

They sort of heard of him. They sort of knew him, but he didn't affect their lives. How can the hyperstatic union hero? Not affect your life. Let's pray.

Ebony father, we do give you thanks for the things that we've just read and heard proclaimed to us. And we, rejoice in our savior, the lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is that fully man, fully god hero, that champion that we need who became like us in every way. In order to save us from our great enemy death. We thank you that now we can go to the grave of the lord Jesus and see him risen and then say in the face of death where o grave is your victory.

Christ reigns. Christ is risen, and we are free. We praise you for this and ask that you would help us to continue to draw near to the savior. Lord forgive us for when in our sin or in our confusion. We think that the answer is to walk away from the hero, and we're sorry for that and pray even this morning that there might be some many of us here, all of us here in different ways who need to not run away and hide, but to draw near to our hero, the lord Jesus.

Thank you, 4 8. 0, man.