Landon Coleman
Immanuel Sermon Audio
Merry Christmas: Jesus Is Born (Hebrews)
If you have a Bible you can open to Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 2. Come to the end of the year and the end of our Christmas sermon series. Next week when we come back we'll be on regular schedule so you'll be able to get your old seat back next week. That really throws me off when you're not in your seat. Look around the room and somebody has taken most of your seats. Next week we'll be back to normal. Next week we'll be back to the book of Romans. We left off in Romans chapter 7. Worked all the way through Romans 7. We're going to pick up at the beginning of Romans chapter 8, right where we left off. I hope you're ready for Romans 8, 9 and 10. There's a lot to talk about. There's a lot to take in. There's a lot to wrestle with and I'm excited to work through this next section of Romans with you on Sunday mornings. This morning is week 6 of 6 in the series that we've titled Merry Christmas. We spent one week in Matthew, one week in Mark, one week in Luke and one week in John reading each gospel author's account of the Christmas story. Last week Jake did a great job walking us through Philippians chapter 2 where we talked about Jesus humbling himself and becoming a servant and becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that in the end the Father might highly exalt him and in the end every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. This morning we're going to look at Hebrews chapter 2 and each Sunday in this series we've asked two simple questions. Who is Jesus and why was he born? Who is he? Who is this person that we celebrate? We celebrate his birth at Christmas and why was he born in the first place? Why is his birth worth celebrating? And so we're going to read Hebrews 2, 10 to 18 and then we'll try to work through the answers to those two questions. So you hear the word of the Lord, Hebrews chapter 2 beginning in verse 10, Scripture says 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. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise and again I will put my trust in him and again behold I in the children God has given me. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it's not angels that he helps but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people for because he himself has suffered when tempted he is able to help those who are being tempted. So the Word of God is living and active in a sharper than a two-edged sword. Let's pray. Father this morning we come to your Word. We believe what the book of Hebrews says about the scriptures that it is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword that it pierces the division of soul and spirit of joint and marrow and that it discloses the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts. Father we thank you for your Word written. We thank you that your Word points us to Jesus. We thank you that the Word was made flesh that Jesus the Son of God the one who upholds the universe by the Word of his power came to dwell among us and to help us. Father we are in desperate need of your help and so this morning we ask that your living Word would pierce our hearts and point us to Jesus who alone can help. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to start with a few comments about the book of Hebrews. We're just dropping in to Hebrews chapter two and so I want you to know something about the lay of the land in the book of Hebrews before we talk about the specifics of our passage amongst Bible scholars there's a lively debate about who wrote the book of Hebrews. For what it's worth my opinion is that by far the most likely candidate is Paul. Now I don't say that with absolute certainty I'm not willing to bet a paycheck that Paul wrote Hebrews but I think he's the most likely candidate. There's all sorts of theories about who wrote this book. Some people think it was Apollos the great preacher mentioned in Corinthian. Some people think it was Barnabas or some people think it was Luke but for three reasons I think Paul is really the most likely candidate. One if you go back in history and you listen to the earliest church fathers the church leaders who lived the closest to the time when these things took place and when this book was written almost all of the early church fathers just talked about Hebrews as if Paul had written it. They just assumed that Paul had written this letter. Secondly, when you come to the end of Hebrews there's a reference to our co-worker Timothy. Now I'm not saying that Timothy only worked with Paul but he did work with Paul and so that fits the bill that possibly Paul wrote this book. And thirdly if you read this book it really kind of reads most Bible scholars agree it reads like a sermon that a first century Jewish man would have preached and possibly this is the template for the sermon that Paul would preach in a synagogue when he walked into a town for the very first time to share the gospel. We know he always went to the synagogue first and so you can imagine Paul walking into a synagogue what sorts of things would he want to say to these Jews who read the Old Testament. Well these are probably the exact kinds of things that Paul would want to say. So for what it's worth my vote is Paul, Paul wrote this letter we don't know that for certainty or for sure but what we do know is why the letter was written. When you read the book you understand pretty clearly why this letter was written it was written to answer three questions and the first question is who is Jesus? Who is he? What do we need to believe about him? Here's some of the answers you'll find in Hebrews. He's truly God. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. He's greater than the angels. He's greater than Moses. He's greater than Melchizedek. He's greater than the high priests and the sacrificial system and all of the offerings that were ever offered in the tabernacle in the temple. That's who he is. He's our great high priest. That's question one. Who is he? Question two. Why was he born? This becomes pretty clear in Hebrews eight, nine, and ten. He was born so that at the right time he might offer a single, final, true, effective sacrifice for sinners. The book of Hebrews makes a pretty astounding claim. It says all of those goats and bulls and animals that were killed in the Old Covenant, they didn't deal with sin in the least bit. They were shadows and copies of the one true sacrifice that God provided in the death of his son Jesus Christ. So who is he? Why was he born? Question three. How should we respond? That's the final part of the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 12 and 13. We're not going to work through it. Can I just give you some of the ways that the book of Hebrews tells us to respond to Jesus? The last chapters, they're filled with imperatives. Everything in the first part of the book is indicative. This is what's true. This is what happened. And then you get to the end and it's imperative. All of a sudden you're supposed to do something. Here's some of the things that we're supposed to do. Based on who Jesus is and why he was born. We're called to run our race with endurance. Run the race of the Christian life with endurance. We're called to not grow weary and our struggle against sin. As long as the Lord leaves you on this earth, you have to put sin to death in your mortal body. We're about to read that in Romans 8. Don't grow weary in that fight. Here's a good one. Do not despise the Lord's discipline in your life. He disciplines those he loves. He loves his children and he will discipline his children. Do not despise his discipline in your life. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Do not harden your heart and ignore God's voice in the Scriptures. Let brotherly love continue. Here's a timely one. Let marriage be held in honor. Do not be led astray by strange teachings. Keep your life free from the love of money. Here's the summary of all that we're supposed to do. It's in Hebrews 12, 28. Therefore, let us be grateful. That's the command. Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus, here's the next command, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. We should be thankful people, not just on Thanksgiving. And we should offer acceptable worship to Jesus Christ for who He is and what He's done for us. Can we chase one small rabbit trail? It's worth chasing. Hebrews says offer acceptable worship. If in God's mind there is such a thing as acceptable worship, then by definition that means there is such a thing as unacceptable worship. You and I live in a place and a time where evangelical Christians think that when we get together on a Sunday morning, we can just do whatever we want. And nothing could be further from the truth. Because many of the things that happen in quote unquote church buildings on Sunday mornings would fall under the category of unacceptable worship and the call on our lives is to offer acceptable worship. How do you know the difference? This is the easiest Sunday school question you've ever answered in your life. How do you know the difference? We read the Bible and you listen to how God calls His people to worship. Never acceptable worship, not unacceptable worship. Here's the big idea of our passage, the central thing that we're going to talk about this morning in Hebrews too. Jesus is the God man, the God man. He's truly God and truly man and He was born to help His people. He's the God man who was born to help His people. I've asked you to fill in the blank man on your outline because we're looking at Hebrews two, not Hebrews one. If our focus was on Hebrews one, the focus of Hebrews chapter one is on His deity, on His godness. But we're jumping ahead to Hebrews two and we're talking about the miracle of the incarnation and the emphasis in Hebrews two is that God, the eternal Son of God, the one who created everything in the beginning and continues to uphold it by the word of His power, took on flesh and blood and He dwelt among us and He did it to help us, to help us. Now I have absolutely no idea what sorts of things come into your mind when I say to you that Jesus came to help us. I don't know what comes into your mind. Some of you may be of a certain age or of musical taste that you think about the Beatles. You remember what the Beatles asked for help for? They wrote a song called Help. Here's what they wanted help with. As I said, I'm feeling insecure and older and less self-assured and down. So I need help. Need help. Maybe you think of the infamous commercial that came out. I think when I was a kid where grandma was laying on the ground and she says, "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up," and lucky for grandma, she's got the life alert button and she punches it and the paramedics are right on their way to help. Students, maybe you think about an exam you took a few weeks back, and maybe you looked at that six weeks test or that semester exam or that final, maybe if you're a grown-up you're having flashbacks right now, and you say, "I remember staring at that page and saying, 'God, please help me.' I know I didn't study last night, but please help me. God, if you will help me on this test, I promise I'll do this or that, I need help." Maybe you're of a certain age group that will remain undefined, and for Christmas your kids or your grandkids gave you a gadget that you don't know how to work. And maybe you have to call someone who's 13 or below to say, "How do I help me with this? How do I work this? What do I do with this thing?" I'm hitting the button, it won't work. I need help. Help, maybe you think about law enforcement. Sometimes we see law enforcement on TV and they say to the public, "We need your help." It's been a crime and we're looking for somebody that fits this description, we need help. Or maybe you think about the government in FEMA and natural disasters. There were tornadoes yesterday in the Houston area in Louisiana and Mississippi, and many times when there's a disaster, we look for help. We want the FEMA trailers to show up, or we want the SBTC disaster relief team to show up. We want the men in the yellow caps and the blue caps to show up. We're looking for help. You are about to make a New Year's resolution. Some of you are going to make a New Year's resolution. And maybe you know right now, I don't think I'm going to keep it. I'm going to make it, but I made it last year and I'm in the same spot this year. I was at the end of the previous year and maybe you're looking for help, an accountability partner or a friend to encourage you or an app to help keep you on track because you know that you need help. Maybe, maybe, when I say to you that Jesus came to help, maybe that fits perfectly with the common American mindset that God and Jesus exist to help us sort of like a genie in a bottle, only you're not restricted to three wishes. It's like unlimited. You just come to Him in prayer and you say I need your help and that's what He's there to do. He's there to help you. He exists just to help you. You're in a difficult situation. You're late. You need to catch up on time. You have a problem. You don't feel good. Whatever it may be, any problem in life, you just assume that the reason God exists is to help you because fact of the matter is you, like many Americans, put yourself at the center of the universe and God is just on the periphery looking in and He's only there to help you, to make you safe, to make you comfortable. Listen, if you want to understand what Hebrews 2 means, when it says he didn't come to help the angels, he came to help the offspring of Abraham and he's a merciful high priest who can help you when you're tempted. If you want to understand that help, you have to start by understanding who Jesus is. Question number one this morning, according to Hebrews 2, 10 to 18, who is Jesus? Five truths that I want you to see. Number one, Jesus is the Creator. He's the Creator. We read this back in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1, that He is the Son. He's the heir of all things and through Him, He's the channel through which God created the world. He's the exact radiance of the glory of God and the imprint of His nature. He upholds the universe He created by the Word of His power. We read it in verse 10 in chapter 2 when we read about this one, "For whom and by whom all things exist." Jesus is the one. This echoes what we read in Colossians 1, "For whom and by whom all things exist." You want to talk about a paradigm shift in your life? This would be massive. If you could get deep down into your bones the idea that not only is Jesus the one who created everything, we've been talking about that. I talked about it in John chapter 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. Nothing came into existence that didn't come into existence through Him. He's a Creator. Got it. Here's a paradigm shift. Everything that He created was created for Him, first and foremost for Him, for His glory. Not for you, not for me. We enjoy many of the things He created. But if anything was created, it was created by Jesus and for Jesus for His glory. He's the Creator. Number 2, He's the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. I would just draw your attention to verse 12 and verse 13. You'll see there's three sentences with quotation marks and I think in most English Bibles they're set off with a different type of formatting. In the editors, the Bible editors, the printers are saying to you, "Hey, this is a quotation from the Old Testament." They come from the book of Psalms and the book of Isaiah and I'll just tell you that the book of Hebrews is filled with this. It is absolutely filled with direct quotations and indirect illusions to the Old Testament. A lot of times I have people say to me, "Hey, I'm reading the book of Hebrews. I'm thoroughly confused." My answer is, "Have you ever read the Old Testament?" Because that's pretty much all it is. It's Old Testament lifted up, filtered through Jesus and given to Christians. He's the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. Number 3, He's truly human. He's truly human. Verse 14, "The children share in flesh and blood and since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things that is flesh and blood. Took on a human nature, human body." Look at verse 17, "He had to be made like His brothers in every respect." The Creator took on the form, the nature of the creature that He created in the beginning in His own image. It's the miracle of Christmas, it's what we've been talking about for the last six weeks. It's the miracle of the incarnation that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus of Nazareth. I read that verse, those two verses this week, and I kept thinking about the phrase, "Don't judge a man until you walk a mile in his shoes." You've heard somebody say, "That maybe you've said that to someone else." "Hey, don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my shoes. You don't know what it's like to be in my circumstance. Hold back the judgment until you've walked a mile in my shoes." I started thinking about that phrase and I started thinking about songs. Elvis sang a song along those lines. Some of you may remember that, I won't sing it for you. Tom Petty, if you're a little bit younger, sang a song that said, "Hey, you don't know what it's like to be me. You don't know. You haven't walked a mile in my shoes." And I went down this internet rabbit hole. I found dozens and dozens and dozens of songs that make a reference to this idea. It's a pretty common theme in music if you have ears to listen for it. Reserve judgment until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes. You understand what the author of Hebrews is saying is that Jesus knows what it's like to be human. Listen, Jake laid out for you some, some Christological heresies last week. He did a great job. One of them was docitism. It's the idea that Jesus was kind of like Superman. He's really not one of us. He's just pretending to be one of us. In any moment, he could just rip off the phony Clark Kent business and there he is, he's Superman. Docitism, it means he only appeared to be human. Now, that's not what Hebrews is telling us. It doesn't say Jesus dressed up like a human for Halloween. It doesn't say that he just put on a human costume. It says he was made like us in every respect. He partook of the same things that we partake of, flesh and blood. He is truly human. He has walked a mile in our shoes. Number four, he's our great high priest, our great high priest. Number 17, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. If you want to understand what a high priest is, you have to read the Old Testament. You have to go back and you have to say, what was the job of the high priest in the Old Testament? The job of the high priest was simple. He stood in between the people and God. He stood in between. He was a mediator. He was a go-between and he offered these sacrifices that were a shadow and a copy of the one true sacrifice to come. Started with Aaron and this high priesthood was passed all the way down through the years, through the kingdom, through the exile, through the return, all the way down to the days of Jesus to a man named Caiaphas. These high priests, the top priest. And what the book of Hebrews tells you is that they were all shadows and copies of the true high priest. Jesus is the true, great high priest. The sacrifices that all those men, Aaron, Caiaphas, all of those sacrifices, they were shadows and copies of the real thing that took place when Jesus died. That brings us to the fifth truth. Who is he? He was tempted. He suffered and he died. Verse 18 says he suffered when he was tempted and if you keep reading in chapter 4 to the end of chapter 4 in Hebrews, you'll read that he was tempted in every way like we are yet, yet without sin. If you want to know the honest truth, Jesus was tempted more than you have been tempted or ever will be tempted because he never sinned. He withstood the full measure of temptation without ever sinning. You and I don't withstand the full measure of temptation before we sin in word or deed or thought or attitude or action. You don't know what it's like to run a marathon if you only make it 10 miles. You know what it's like to run 10 miles. You didn't make the whole race. You don't know what it's like to face the full measure of temptation unless you were without sin. The only Jesus of Nazareth was, he was tempted. Look at verse 10 says he suffered. He is a founder of our salvation. He was made perfect through suffering. Verse 18 at the end echoes this. He suffered when he was tempted. Look at verse 14. The children share in flesh and blood. He himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power over death that is the devil. He was tempted. He suffered and he died. That's who he is. Why was he born? Why do all of these things matter? Five simple truths. Number one, Jesus was born to save and to sanctify us, born to save us and born to sanctify us. Verse 10 and 11 talk about this, that he was born to save us and to sanctify us. My suspicion is most of you probably have the idea in your head that he was born to save us. I know you're here this morning and you've never heard this good news. It really is good news. Jesus Christ was born to save you from sin and death and hell. He suffered and he died and he was obedient in the face of temptation so that he could save you from an eternity separated from the goodness and the glory of God. He was born to save you and if you've never trusted him you should put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible says he will save you, to save you from your sins. He will save you from hell. He's also born to sanctify you. And I think many of us in the Bible about missed this memo when it came through. He was born to save us and to sanctify us, to make us holy. To get rid of sin in our lives, not just in heaven but starting now. To conform us to his image, to sanctify us. You want to talk about a paradigm shift, when you get it through your school, when I get it through my school, that Jesus not only wants to take me to glory, that he purchased my spot in glory, he's going to save me in the end, but that he also wants to sanctify me now. It changes the way I look at everything in my life. I stop looking at my lack of money as a problem and I say, Lord you have me in this situation to sanctify me. And you stop looking at your spouse as an annoyance or your enemy and you say, God you put this person in my life to sanctify me. And you look at your parents and your kids, both sides, and you say, God you placed me in this family unit to sanctify me. God you put me in this church and in this Sunday school class and with this body of believers. But some of them are really annoying. Do you know who you put here next to me? His aim is not only to save you, but it's to sanctify you, which is why at the end of the book the author will say, as much as it's possible for you, strive to live at peace with everyone and strive for the holiness, the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord, to save us and to sanctify us. Number two, to destroy the devil, Jesus was born to destroy the devil. You can read a similar statement in 1 John verse 14 says that Jesus partook at the same things that is flesh and blood so that through death, physical death, He might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil. Some of you are about to reset your Bible reading plan. You're going to start a new Bible reading plan and you're going to start in Genesis in just a couple of days. And it's just going to be a few days until you come to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 where we read this promise from the Lord to the serpent, "I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring, He will bruise your head, to crush your head, and you'll strike Him on the heel." Christians have long understood that that happened at the cross, that Jesus in His death on the cross disarmed the rulers and the authorities and the heavenly places. He defeated the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air. He defeated the devil. Happened at the cross, it happened in His resurrection. That's why He was born, to defeat the devil. Tied to that, thirdly, Jesus was born to deliver us from bondage. So through death, He's going to destroy the one who has the power of death. That's the devil. Verse 14 and verse 15, He is going to deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. We were slaves to sin, slaves to death, slaves, if you can believe it or not, to the devil. Apart from God's intervention in our lives. But because of what happened at the cross and because of what happened in the resurrection, look what Jesus said to John in Revelation chapter 1. Fear not, I'm the first in the last, the living one. I died. We just read about that. He died. Or took a flesh and blood that through death, I died and behold, I'm alive and I have the keys of death in Hades. Who has the keys of death in Hades? The devil? No, the Lord Jesus Christ has him. He has the authority over death in the grave. Not Satan, not the demons, Jesus. He's freed us from the power of the devil. He's delivered us from bondage. Number four, He was born to propitiate the father's wrath. Great word, important word, verse 17, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. If you were with us on Wednesday nights, we talked about this word. We spent one Wednesday night this last semester talking about propitiation. That means to satisfy one's wrath, to placate one's anger. Listen, the Bible's pretty straightforward that when the Lord God looks on mankind and sees our sin and our wickedness and our rebellion, He is righteously and furiously angry. He doesn't take it lightly. You think about the maddest you have ever been at someone who wronged you, who sinned against you, or hurt someone that you loved. The Lord looks down on the children of man. He sees that every intention of the thoughts of their heart are only evil continually. And He is a just judge, the book of Psalms says, who feels indignation every day. And He is merciful, and He's gracious, and He is abounding in steadfast love. And in the fullness of time, He sent not a prophet, not an angel, but He sent His only son to bear our sin and to suffer under His righteous anger that we as His people deserve. That's what propitiation means. That means no sin is swept under the rug, rather the sin of the world is placed on the Lord Jesus, and He suffers. He drinks the cup of the Father's wrath, and He drinks it full as propitiation. It's what we mean when we say that we have been saved by God, from God, from His wrath. Number five, last, Jesus was born to help us in temptation. It's verse 18. He has suffered when tempted, He's able to help those who are being tempted. Look it's the last Sunday of the year. You have come through Christmas. You all seemed pretty jolly when you came in this morning, so I assume you didn't get a cold in your stockings, and you got to have a few days off school, you got to have a few days off work maybe, you got to spend time with family, or if you weren't able to be with them, maybe you got to talk with them, or visit with them on the phone. We've made it all the way through a year. We're coming up on the beginning of a new year, whether you make resolutions or not. The beginning of a new year is often a time for optimism, and everyone pretty much kind of feels good about life in this season. Maybe there's things that cause sorrow and sadness for you, but Christmas is a time to celebrate, we're thankful for the last year, we're excited about the new year. People tend to be pretty optimistic at this time of year. And if we're honest, in the midst of that optimism, we're people who are tempted, tempted by the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking people to devour. Tempted by the world, I don't think Christmas tempts you, the world tempts you at Christmas. All the commercialism, all the stuff, all the goodies, all the things, if you have these things, you'll be happy, you'll be satisfied until they break in February, and you need a new one, tempted by the devil, tempted by the world. Tempted, James says, by our own sinful flesh that pulls us towards sin. We're tempted people. And what Hebrews chapter 2 says is that Jesus will help you, He'll help you. He's gone to the greatest link to save you. Think about what He's done to save you. He left the throne of heaven, humbled Himself and became a servant, born in the likeness of men, suffered and died on a cross, endured temptation. He's gone to the greatest link to save you. He defeated the devil, defeated sin, defeated death, raised to new and everlasting life, promised to come back for us. He's preparing a place for us. He's done all of these things to save you. He'll help you when you're tempted. He's walked in your shoes, yet without sin, a faithful and a merciful high priest. The heavy lifting's done. He has saved the people and secured their salvation. He'll help you when you're tempted. Will you acknowledge that you need the help? That's the question this morning. Will you just stop this morning and think about the things that you were tempted with this last year and the things you know you will be tempted with in the new year? And say, "God, I know these temptations are coming. They're coming from the enemy. They're coming from the world. They're coming from my own heart." Will you believe the truth about who Jesus is? Will you believe the truth about why He was born and why He died? And will you simply ask Him for help? Father, this morning we're grateful as your people to be gathered together and to spend one more Sunday celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus, the miracle of the incarnation. Father, what a wonder that the one for whom and by whom all things exist would be made perfect through suffering. That He would partake of flesh and blood and even death that He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that He might deliver us from slavery, that He might help us. We're thankful for a merciful and a faithful high priest who has made full and perfect and complete propitiation for our sins, or that's something we could never do for ourselves. The blood of bulls and goats, our money, our time, our efforts, we could never deal with the stain of sin. So we're thankful for the Lord Jesus drinking that cup for us. Father, we're thankful for the promise that Jesus who has been tempted will help us when we're tempted. We have everything we need for life and godliness in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Father, as your people, as we come to the end of a year and the beginning of a new year, we just want to acknowledge that we are helpless and needy and dependent on you for everything. We need you. We need your help. And Lord, we want to lift our voices and recognize that and cry out, call out to the Lord Jesus Christ for help this morning. So Lord, we are confident that you will hear our prayer and we are confident that the Lord Jesus will be faithful to give us help. We pray these things and we sing these things in Jesus name, Amen.