HE KNOWS THE FEELING
Hebrews 2:5-18
Ever feel like throwing in the towel?
Over the years, many people have told me they’re struggling with that;
they’re ready to quit fighting. They aren’t sure it’s worth it.
I know that feeling! I often wonder whether it’s worth it!
Let’s just throw in the towel!
Do YOU know the feeling? Who CAN know what it feels like?
Hebrews is written to Jewish believers who are suffering for their faith.
They’re considering throwing in the towel. They’re ready to go back to Judaism.
The writer reacts strongly to the thought.
Judaism has nothing to offer. –It’s bankrupt!
If they go back, they will suffer even more.
That generation is about to suffer God’s judgment for rejecting His Son.
Going back solves nothing.
He urges them to hang in there and endure the affliction.
JESUS IS BETTER THAN JUDAISM 1-10:18
He’s greater than all the significant people of Israel’s history. 1-7
HE’S THE BEST REVELATION OF THE FATHER 1-4
He’s a better revelation than the prophets could offer. 1:1-3
He’s a better revelation than the angels could offer. 1:4-14
2:1-4 contains a parenthetical warning
. . . based on the fact that God has revealed Himself in the Son.
After injecting the warning to pay attention to the superior revelation Christ brought,
he goes back to discussing Jesus’ superiority to angels.
Jesus is a better revelation of the Father than angels, . . .
Because He is like God. He’s the SON–He IS God!
Because He is like man.–He IS a man! 2:5-18
Contrasts with preceding verses where His greatness is exalted:
He is superior to angels because He is the eternal God.
He is superior to angels because He identifies with MAN.
He is both God and man. This is an inexplicable mystery, yet it’s true.
He is exalted as the eternal GOD.
He is identified with men because He is a MAN.
The God of the universe has become One with us.
JESUS RECEIVED MAN'S PROMISES 2:5-8 2:5
“It is not to angels that He has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.”
2:5 begins with “for,” which connects 2:5 with what went before. It looks back to 1:14.
Angels are sent as servants to those who inherit salvation, i.e., they serve humans.
They aren’t sent to rule; they’re sent to serve the heirs,
the people God appointed to rule the world.
Logic: God established men to rule earth. Jesus is a man.
Therefore, angels serve men Therefore, Jesus is superior.
God promised man dominion over creation (2:5; Gen. 1:26).
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
In 2:6-8 the writer looks back to Ps. 8 (3-8)
Psalmist is impressed, not by the greatness of creation—though he notes its majesty.
What blows him away, is that the One Who created it,
would give such a prominent role to man.
He’s amazed that God should remember us.
Why should the God of the universe ever give a second thought to us?!!
He has so many more important things to do and to think about!
Why should He remember or care about us?!!
Have you ever thought about how quickly we lose sight of people when we go up in an airplane. People are out of sight before we hit 10,000 feet!
How can God keep us in His sight?!!
From the perspective of heaven and eternity, how could He ever notice us?!!
Yet even within the vastness of the universe, He picks us out.
He sees me! He cares what happens to me!
In fact, He has chosen to place people like us over it all.
This has to be referring to the future—”the world to come” (2:5)
We certainly don’t see it that way now! 8b
“Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him.”
Because of sin, man isn’t able to exercise this authority—YET!
People have a higher destiny than angels.
But we look around and see that it’s not true yet.
For a while we serve under the authority of angels.
“A little lower than” can, and in fact, must refer to a time span.
Man is temporarily lower than the angels.
Due to the fall we don’t have dominion.
BUT we are made for dominion! That’s our destiny.
Jesus is the only person thus far to receive it.
But it’s still man’s destiny!
Man pursues a never-ending quest to rule the world.
We want control over it all! But we never quite make it!
People are always looking for new mountains to conquer.
Selfish power-seeking is a perversion of the original plan.
The animals don’t exhibit this quest.— It’s a human trait.
It’s also a frustrated human trait.—In spite of our quest, we don’t always rule.
There’s a reason we put bars between humans and animals in the zoo!
It isn’t just to keep them from running away!
Only one man has been able to exercise this authority until now.
Only Jesus has received the fulfillment of that promise.
Jesus, the perfect man, has received the authority God designed for us to receive.
It’s an authority which hasn’t been given to angels.
JESUS IDENTIFIED WITH MAN 2:9-18 Main thought in presentation of Jesus as man:
Angels can’t identify with us.
Their experience is totally foreign to ours.
Jesus, on the other hand, having become a man, knows what it’s like to live as a man.
He has endured the same suffering we do.
Therefore, He’s able to help us when we go through hard times.
Jesus became a man 9a
We see the One Who was temporarily made lower than angels
crowned with glory and honor, through the suffering of death.
That’s how God chose to exalt Him.
Jesus, became like us—temporarily lower than the angels.
Jesus suffered as a man 9b
He became our substitute by dying in our place.
Therefore, He has been crowned with glory.
In the end, through His death, many sons are brought to glory (v. 10).
Jesus identified with us. 10-14a
2:10 —The writer calls Jesus: “the Author of our salvation.”
More graphic rendering would refer to Him as “the trailblazer of our salvation.
Like an experienced leader on a jungle trail; He goes ahead of us, swinging his machete to remove obstacles that disrupt or endanger our path.
Jesus has gone down the trail ahead of us,
removing obstacles, and cutting a path for us to follow.
Since He knows the way, He can safely lead us through it.
Interesting dilemma: God saw fit to “perfect” Jesus, through suffering.
Was He not perfect previously?
He lacks nothing to satisfy the holy requirements of a just God.
He was already perfect morally.
Spurgeon: “He was not made perfect in character by His suffering,
for He was always perfect—perfect God, perfect man ...”
He fulfilled the role God assigned to Him, by suffering.
The job wasn’t completed—perfected—without suffering.
He became the perfect “source of salvation”—the perfect trailblazer—by suffering.
For Jesus, as for us, the road to glory is through suffering.
Only way He could be a trailblazer for those who suffer is through suffering.
He can now serve as our high priest. He’s been there!
Jesus, by becoming man, has become family with all who trust Him. 11There’s family unity between the Son and “many sons” He’s leading to glory.
The holiness He provides makes us part of one holy family.
He isn’t embarrassed to identify with us as brothers and sisters.
12 Messiah identifies with the family, his “brothers” in the congregation.
13 Isaiah 8 refers to his family as those who serve the Lord.
They hang together as people who trust God in an unfaithful community.
The family sticks together around their united faith.
They’re a symbol for everyone else because of common family bond.
That common bond unites our family with our Lord also.
We are one family with the rest of the saints.
Jesus is able to help us. 14b-16
As family, we’re all made of flesh and blood; we share a common humanity;
we receive His help,
through His death we’re free from the slavery which fear of death produces.
Angels share in none of this.
The readers, as Abraham’s descendants, and we as humans, share this heritage.
Jesus is able to serve as our priest 17-18
Since He identified with us, He is able to help and function as our High Priest.
You can only sympathize with someone
when you’ve been through what they’re going through.
Jesus has been there. That’s why He’s the perfect High Priest.
Angels couldn’t do that.
Jesus understands those who are tempted, because He’s been there.
He’s experienced with temptation we face—to throw in towel when suffering.
He could have taken the easy way out.
Satan tried to get Him to do that.
He knows that pressure.
He can help in any temptation because He was tempted like we are.
Demonstrates you can be loved by God and still face “pressure cooker of life.”
Demonstrates that it’s possible to endure pressure without giving in to sin.
Jesus never knew internal desire of flesh we struggle with. He was perfect.
He was tempted beyond what we bear —without giving in to the pressure.
It’s like testing the tensile strength of a wire.
Some break with 10-15 pounds of pressure.
Others break at 200 pounds.
Others at thousands of pounds.
Which knows more about enduring pressure?
Jesus has been under far more pressure than we could ever endure!
At whatever point we break, He’s been there and beyond.
Only a sinless person can know the full intensity of testing.
Therefore He can come to our aid when we need it.
SIX SIGNIFICANT VERBS EXPLAIN WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR US:
1. He tasted death for everyone. 2:9
Taste is a common metaphor which means “to experience.”
It doesn’t suggest a mere sip or sampling, but the full experience of eating.
“Everyone” indicates that the atonement was made for every person.
He who knew no sin, became our substitute.
He took on Himself our sin; He took the penalty we deserved.
He went through death so that we don’t have to.
2. He rendered powerless the one who has the power of death, the devil. 2:14He doesn’t destroy him. —He makes him ineffective.
He renders him useless. He stops him from accomplishing his purposes.
Satan had in his grasp the power of death. Jesus rendered him useless.
He took away the fear of death. That fear, that power, became useless.
3. He delivered those who through fear of death were subject to slavery 2:15Fear of death holds people in slavery.
Latin America: that fear provides entry point to the gospel.
People are terrified of death!
Modern, deliberate Satanic strategy to defuse the fear of death.
Doctrines of reincarnation, tales of near-death experience in which relatives assure people that the afterlife is wonderful, doctrines of a second chance after death, all assure people that they don’t need to fear death.
Heb. 9:27, God says it’s man’s destiny “to die once, and after that, face judgment.”
That’s where this built-in fear comes from. People know there’s reason to fear!
That fear holds people enslaved.
Jesus has delivered us from that fear!
4. He gives help to the seed of Abraham. 2:16
Literally the expression means “to take hold.”
Used when Peter was sinking at end of walking on sea; Jesus took hold of him.
He took hold of the blind man, and the man with dropsy, to heal them.
Jesus doesn’t take hold of angels to help them,
but He takes hold of [spiritual] seed of Abraham, those who trust Him.
Writing Jewish believers, his point: Jesus came to fulfill the promise to Abraham, that through Messiah, God would take hold of His people to help them.
This promise was given to men, never to angels.
5. He made propitiation for the sins of the people. 2:17
“To expiate” the sins of the people. This term deals with God’s wrath.
His wrath, as the offended God, must be dealt with.
Jesus has dealt with our sin problem and satisfied the just demands of a holy God.
6. He comes to the aid of those who are tempted. 2:18
Verb is a compound from “cry” + “run” => “to run to the cry”
When we’re tempted, when pressure seems unbearable,
Jesus hears our cry for help and runs to our side.
He knows from personal experience what Satan’s attacks are like;
He knows the pressure from the crowd;
He knows the suffering;
He knows what it feels like to fight the desire to throw in the towel.
Therefore, when we cry out for help, He runs to our side to help.
No angel could do these things!
All this is possible because the One who was greater than angels, Whom we worship because He is God, was willing to make Himself for a while less than angels, willing to suffer, willing to be tempted, so that He might minister on our behalf!
We can come to Him because He’s been there. He’s been through it all!
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES JESUS’ EXPERIENCE MAKE FOR US TODAY?
Disease, poverty, loss of loved ones, loneliness, hopelessness, abandonment, betrayal, false accusations! He knows them all!
Spurgeon: “You cannot cast human suffering into any shape that is new to Christ!
If you feel a thorn in your foot, remember that one once pierced His head!”
Never can we cry out in the midst of discouragement, opposition and pain, “But God, You sit so secure in your heavenly sanctuary, with all your supernatural resources at hand, what do YOU know about our human struggle?
What do YOU know about living in the midst of human stench and decay?
What do YOU know about MY suffering?”
He understands our affliction.
He was perfected through suffering—human suffering!
He knows how to perfect us through suffering.
He understands the desire to throw in the towel.
But now He’s there for us, to give us the victory.
Joe Bayly wrote:
“I’m alone Lord—alone—a thousand miles from home.
No one here knows my name except the clerk—and he spelled it wrong!
no one to eat dinner with—laugh at my jokes—listen to my gripes
to be happy with me about what happened today —No one cares!
There’s just this lousy bed—and slush in the street outside between the buildings.
I feel sorry for myself—and I’ve plenty of reason to!
Maybe I ought to say I’m on top of it—praise the Lord!—things are great!
but they’re not! Tonight it’s all gray slush.”
Jesus knows about “life in the gray slush!”
When we’re all alone and everything seems against us, . . .
When we’re tempted to throw in the towel, . . .
He reminds us, Jesus is the trailblazer.
He’s been there ahead of us.
He knows all about the path ahead. He will run to our cry. Trust Him!
He’s done all these things for us. We don’t have to do anything.
He just wants us to cling to Him.
To trust the Son who tasted death for us, so that we might taste life. Trust Him!
Hang in there! Don’t throw in the towel!
In the end we will triumph with Him!
If you’re living with the pressure this morning, He wants you to cry out to Him, so that He can come running to your aid.
He knows the feeling! He wants to help.
Dial 9-1-1! Call Him!
He’s able to come to the aid of those who are tested!