Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM-Jesus Better Than The Angels pt 2 - Hebrews 2:5-18 Pastor Ryan Nichols

And read verse 9 with me. Oh, Lord, our Lord. How majestic is your name in all the earth. And Father, we do praise you for your majesty. I praise you for your creation. And I praise you for the great love. That you show to us by sending us your son and by giving us your word. And so, Father, I just ask now that as we spend time in your word this morning, that you would open up our hearts, open up our minds and open up our ears

to what it is that your Holy Spirit wants to minister to us. I pray that you would do the work that only you can do through this time. In Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Well, we pick back up on the theme that we started in chapter 1. And that's that Jesus is better than the angels.

This is actually entitled Jesus is better than the angels part 2. And so, we took a brief break from that for him to give us a warning to pay attention to. But just to bring us all back up to speed. The writer to the Hebrews, because of the situations going on in the church at that point in time. That many of the Hebrew believers. Especially were dealing with persecution and were tempted to soften their stance on who Jesus is.

And basically put him on the level of the angels in order to avoid persecution was pretty intense at that point in time. Not to mention the fact that the Jews had a tendency towards angel worship. And it had become a false teaching of the day that Jesus actually was angelic in nature. The writer to the Hebrews in order to turn their eyes back on Jesus reminds them of the superiority of Jesus to the angelic realm.

And so in chapter 1, he points out the divinity of Jesus. That Jesus is far superior because he has a greater status. Because he has a greater power. And because he has a greater authority than the angels. Of course, then we took that break at the beginning of chapter 2 for him to warn us about drifting. Because if the message that was given through angels, i.e. the law.

If the message that was given through angels carried a punishment for those who would not obey it. Then how much more so the gospel. Through Jesus, the creator of the angels. That if we drift away from it and neglect so great a salvation, how shall we escape? So he gives us this warning. But then he returns to the subject of the superiority of Jesus. And while in chapter 1, he gave us the superiority of Jesus and his divinity.

In chapter 2, he gives us the superiority of Jesus and his humanity. It's interesting because of most of the false teaching that's out there. There's two categories of things that they usually do. They usually deny his divinity or they deny his humanity. As a matter of fact, one of the false teachings that had gained traction at this point in time denied the humanity of Jesus.

And so the writer to the Hebrews is so good to point that out. And so what he's going to do is he's going to do two things in this chapter. He's going to tell us God's intention for man. And then he's going to tell us God's work through the humanity of Jesus. And so starting in verse 5, this is what it says. For he did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.

But one has testified somewhere saying, What is man that you remember him or the son of man that you are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him for the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him,

he left nothing that is not subjected to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to perfect, the author of their salvation through sufferings.

For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood,

he himself likewise, also partook of the same that through death, he might render powerless him who had the power of death. That is the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery, all of their lives. For assuredly, he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, he had made he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful, high priest and things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For since he himself was tempted and that he which he was suffered, he also is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. I promise we're going to unpack all of that. I'm going to be honest with you. Thursday or Friday, my wife and I go on a drive every day. And I told her, I said, I've got to spend a lot of time studying this weekend because Hebrews,

Hebrews is a really hard book. You read it and you're like, I just, I got to figure out what he even means about anything he says right now. Like I read like seven different translations just to get an idea. That's not an exaggeration, by the way, just to get an idea of what he was talking about here. But the more you understand it, the less complex it becomes.

So the first thing he tells us is he tells us God's intention for man. Notice what he says. For he did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we which we are speaking. He is not subject to angels. He is not subjected to angels the world to come. Now, in order for us to understand what he's talking about here, let's talk about God's original intent for man,

man's failure in that intent and God's future intentions for humanity. God's original intention for man. If I were to take you all the way back to Genesis chapter one, if I took you back to creation, you would find that you go through all of those six days of creation. And the last thing that God created on the sixth day, he created man. He said, let us make man in our image,

and after our likeness, it will give him the breath of life. And so he creates man. And when he puts man in the garden, he gives man a command. He says, all of these things are you to subdue and rule over. That was man's job. Humanity's job was to rule over creation, to, as he says here, subject creation to humanity. The problem is when Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis chapter three,

they turned over, or if you will, they forfeited their right to rule over the earth. And they gave that over to the enemy. They gave that over to Satan, which is what Jesus redeemed for us at the cross. You may remember when Jesus was tempted by Satan, one of the temptations that Satan gave to him is he took him up on a high mountain and he allowed him to see all of the kingdoms of the earth is in this kind of spiritual sense, all of the kingdoms of the earth.

And Satan said, all of this could be yours. If you simply bow, bow down and worship me. He gave him almost the exact same temptation and his humanity that Satan gave to Adam and Eve because he was giving Jesus an out because Jesus was going to purchase the earth back through the cross. And Satan says, I can help you avoid that whole cross. If you just bow down to me now and I will give you back all of the kingdoms of the earth.

Of course, Satan is a terrorist and he never would have done that. But that's the temptation that Jesus had to face, which is why, when Jesus faced that temptation, it was so much more than we can ever imagine because Jesus basically said, I choose the cross over the easy way. And so God's original intention for man is that we would rule and reign in the earth, that all of the earth will be subject to us. The problem is we turned the title deed over to the of the earth over to Satan.

But God has a future plan for man. The future plan for man is that we once again will rule and reign, but we will rule in the earth. We will rule in the earth. We will rule in the earth. We will rule in the earth. We will rule and reign with Jesus because what man could not do, Jesus will ultimately fulfill. And that's what we'll see in this section. But to prove what he means when he says that,

that the earth to come or the things with, or the world to come has not been subjected to angels. He proves it through the Psalm that we just read. Psalm eight. Notice what it says. But one testified somewhere saying, what is man that you remember him or the son of man that you are concerned about? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels.

You have crowned him with glory and honor and have appointed him over the work of all your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. In this Psalm, he declares what God's intention for humanity was. That God's intention for man was that all things would be under his feet. But as he says this, I want you to point out what he, what he says,

what he says next here. He says, for in subjecting all things to him, meaning, meaning humanity, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. What do we see now? We see that things are not yet what they are intended to be. I think if you've watched the news over the last three or four weeks, if you've watched the news over the last five or six years,

if you've watched the news, you know, things aren't what they are intended to be. This is not what God ever intended. Because what we do not see right now is we do not see that subjection as God intended it. What we see instead is we see man's failed attempt to govern himself. And we see man's failed attempt to govern others. Right now on Wednesday nights, we're going through first and second Chronicles.

And we're just about, almost halfway through second Chronicles. And if we learn anything from the book of Judges, from the book of first and books, the first and second Samuel from the books of first and second Kings, and from the books of first and second Chronicles, if we learn one thing, it's this man is insufficient to govern. And it's what we continue to see in the world today. And everybody says, well, you know, if you just put this leader that I like in power, everything's going to be perfect.

Everything's going to be great. And then we put that leader in power and we're like, Hey, it sucks as much as it did when we started. What's going on here. It's because man has an inability to govern himself. And man has an ultimate inability to govern others because there is only one who is truly fit to govern. And that is Jesus. And he's the one who we ultimately will see at just a moment.

I'm getting ahead of myself here. He is the one who we will see that is ultimately the one who is to rule and reign, who is ultimately the one who is to govern. But we don't yet see all things put in subjection under him. We continue to, to see the failed attempts of man. And while I would love to just leave this in the broad brush, if we see man's failed attempt at government,

I have to bring this back down to your life. I see man's failed attempt to govern himself because what we continue to see over and over again is that we all have a failed attempt to govern in our lives. As a matter of fact, your first stage of salvation, your first step of coming to know Jesus, as your Lord and savior usually starts with, I can't do this myself because you realize your inability to govern yourself. What you find is that when your flesh rules and reigns, when your flesh is trying to make everything subject to it, you make an awful dictator.

We do not yet see all things put in subjection to him. And so as he tells us about God's original intent for man, he then begins to tell us about, God's work through the humanity of Jesus. And ultimately he's going to tell us what I see as five things. We're only going to cover the first two this morning, five things that are true of Jesus and God's work through his humanity.

Number one, we see that Jesus tasted death for all. Jesus tasted death for all. Now, as we start off in verse nine, it says, but we do see him who was made a little for a little while, lower, than the angels, namely Jesus. I do not appreciate this translation of this verse because it takes the thrust of the statement away. And so I want to tell it to you in the way it says it in the new King James,

but we see Jesus. Let me read this to you in its flow for in subjecting all things to him. He left nothing. That's not subjected to him, meaning man, but we do not get see all things subjected to him. But we see Jesus isn't that great brothers and sisters. If we keep looking at the world around us, which is the problem in the church today, it's always the problem in the world,

but it's become the problem in the church is we, we look at the world around us all the time. And as we look at the world around us all the time, we begin to sink in the mire. That is all of the things that go on around us. You begin to sink in all of the political controversies. You begin to sink in all of the, the evil you begin to sink in all of the overwhelming nature of things like

the Epstein files. You begin to sink in all of the depth of those things. And when we do that, we fail to do one thing. We fail. Listen to see Jesus. As we look at things, we realize the failure of man. And it's important to understand that man has failed, but it's even more important to see the fulfillment of Jesus. Because we're, man has failed. Jesus has succeeded.

The book of Romans says where sin abounded grace abounded much more. Romans chapter eight says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life in Christ. Jesus has set you free for what the law could not do in that. It was weak through sinful flesh. God did how by sending his own son in the, in the likeness of sinful flat in the likeness of sinful flesh.

He fulfilled what we could not, but we see Jesus. You see, we need to see Jesus as our everything. And I don't know why this has been so heavy on my heart, but I just, I just want to keep telling you this over and over again. You have to be able to see Jesus. You have to see Jesus as your everything. That is every part of your life. You have to be able to see Jesus as your everything.

You have to see Jesus as the savior of your life. You have to see Jesus as the sustainer of your life. You have to see Jesus as the hope of your life, as the peace of your life, as the purpose of your life, as the friend of your life, but as the Lord of your life, you have to see Jesus in every aspect of your life because Jesus is intended to fill every aspect of your life. And the problem always arises, in our lives that when we take our eyes off of Jesus, we begin to sink in all of the mire. We

begin to sink in all of the muck. And right now, I only know this because I've talked to a handful of people that have said this. Right now, the more that you watch what's going on in the world, the deeper you're sinking into it. And pretty soon, you've turned your Christian witness into a political debate. Now listen, when politics crosses into Christianity, I will deal with it.

I will always deal with the sin of abortion. I will always deal with the sin of transgenderism. I will always deal with the sins that come up when they cross into my world. But other than that, I leave politics alone until it crosses into the church world. And then I go, now I have to deal with it. So don't get caught up on whether or not you like the correct political candidate,

because what happens if your political candidate commits the crimes and he needs to be prosecuted? Listen, when Joshua, got ready to take the promised land, the angel of the Lord, who was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus, shows up. And Joshua looks at him on that night as he's praying about how they're going to take the city of Jericho. And Joshua looks at the angel of the Lord and he says, are you on our side or are you on their side? And the angel of the Lord said, no,

you be on my side. And that's what we've got to do, brothers and sisters. We have got to get on God's side. Let's get on God's side. Let's get on God's side. Let's get on God's side. Let's get on God's side. This has been one of the foundational truths in my life. As a matter of fact, I always say the first time I ever gave a message was Psalm 23. That's actually not true. That's on

me. I lied to you. The first message I actually gave was at Calvary Chapel Bible College in the spring of 2001. I gave a devotion in front of the entire school. A young 20-year-old kid who didn't know came here from Sycam got up in front of the entire school and gave a devotion. And you devotion was turn your eyes on Jesus I can almost give it to you verbatim because it again is one of

those lessons that the Lord has written on my heart and I can tell you this because as I was studying this I thought about one of the illustrations that I used because it's a beautiful illustration out of the gospel accounts do you remember Jesus fed the 5,000 and after he fed the 5,000 he still wanted to go pray so he told his disciples he said get into the boat and go to the other side of the sea and I'll join you so they got into the boat and Jesus went up on the mountain to pray well in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the sea that's on me in the middle of the sea there's a great storm that arose and the boat was being tossed about and the disciples were sure that they were going to die all of these tough fishermen thought that they

were going to die and Jesus it says came walking to them on the water in the third watch of the ghost and they kind of freaked out about it and Jesus says boys chill out it's just me it's Jesus and Peter being the guy that he was says if it's you command me to come walk to you on the water and Jesus says Peter I can't think of a better idea I ad-lib that part Jesus says come on come join me on the water so Peter steps out of the boat and he begins to walk on the water until one thing happens you see Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and it says in this gospel account it says he looked around and he saw the wind and the waves about him and what happened the moment that he started to see the wind and the waves about him he sunk into the water

and then prayed the shortest prayer in the entire bible lord help and you know what Jesus did Jesus did what Jesus did Jesus did what Jesus did Jesus did what Jesus did Jesus did what Jesus did Jesus said why'd you look at the wind and the wave didn't you know better than that you couldn't walk on the water anyway what were you thinking no that's what I would have done right that would have been like listen you moron comes out of my mouth way too much it comes out so easily people give me so many opportunities that's neither here nor there Peter cries out lord help and Jesus reaches down and he pulls him out of the water he puts him in the boat he says oh you of little faith you see it was impossible

for Peter to walk on the water under the best of circumstances so why did the wind and the waves terrify him and he began to and he began to sink because he took his eyes off of Jesus he took his eyes off Jesus and he got caught up with all the things that were going on around him brothers and sisters there's a lot of wind and waves around us right now and I would venture to say that some of you are sinking and it's time for you to cry out lord help and God is always so gracious to reach down pull us out of the water put us back in the boat he may say oh you of little faith because sometimes we need reminded hey what were you doing here but he's always going to pull you

out but we see Jesus if you take nothing else away from anything that I say this morning take that away is that you need to keep your eyes on Jesus he says but we see Jesus now this translation doesn't say that but we do see him who was made a little lower than the angels namely jesus because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone but we see jesus who was briefly made lower than the angels that speaks of his humanity remember he just talked about humanity and out of that psalm when he said lord what is man that you were mindful of him you have made him a little lower than the angels yet you've crowned him with glory and honor and subjected all of

creation to him even though we don't yet see all things subjected to him but we do see jesus who also was made a little lower than the angels for a time his brief stint 33 years in his humanity we see jesus who was made a little bit lower than the angels you see one of the mysteries of the incarnation of christ is that while he was 100 god and that's what was pointed out in chapter one he was also 100 man which is what he points out in chapter two he was briefly made a little bit lower than the angels but he was made a little lower than the angels for a specific purpose what specific purpose well to be crowned with glory and honor well how was he crowned with

glory and honor once he knows what it says again because of the suffering of death he was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor have you ever thought about the fact that the greatest crowning moment of the entire ministry of jesus was not when he fed 5 000 people the crowning glory of the ministry of jesus was not when he restored the sight to the blind it was not when he raised a little girl from the dead long distance when he and she's raised from the dead it was not when he healed peter's mother-in-law it was not when he walked on the water it was not any of those miracles that jesus did that were his crowning

glory of his time on earth what was the crowning glory of his time on earth the suffering of death why because that's the entire reason he came this is what bothers me so much of the liberal view of jesus today is because they view jesus as a social organizer one who simply came to teach us what it looks like to live like a good person which jesus is a great example 100 we're told in the book of philippians that let this mind be in you which was also in christ jesus that humble mindset we're supposed to have but listen he didn't come to set an example he came to be a savior but we see jesus who for a little while was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor

you see his death and his resurrection were his crowning glory and honor of everything that he did here on earth and i'll remind you again because i keep people i keep seeing people say this people are trying to equivocate things that are going on in our world to jesus and in in one of them is that they say well you know jesus was a political martyr no jesus was not a political martyr we need to understand that because that is a false view of the crucifixion of jesus christ jesus was a suffering servant he willfully gave his life he was not a he did not die because of his politics he died for the sin of humanity just like jesus wasn't a refugee that's an important

one for us to pay attention to as well i see this a lot people say well you know jesus you know jesus was a refugee no he wasn't he moved to a different part of the roman kingdom like it would be like saying that the people coming from california to texas are political refugees i means it's not a subject of an analogy but that's basically the idea he moved within the same region it was another province we have to understand that jesus's parents were immigrants and this and i'm not trying to make political statements here i'm just correcting things that i'm seeing said because the slowers who jesus was this makes some some sort of a political market not the savior of the worldwide when the roman soldiers although long with the jewish guards came

capture jesus and they said which one of you is jesus or are you jesus of nazareth and he said i am do you remember how they responded right like a straight matrix moment happened and they got shot back and they fell down and they were like let's try this again are you jesus of nazareth and he said yes and they said lord would you want us to attack him and he said no at any point in time i could call down legions of angels but that's not what's supposed to happen i give my life willingly you see jesus was crowned with glory and honor through the suffering of death notice what he said so that by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone he might taste death for everyone that word taste is kind of interesting

because it's a hebrew idiom meaning to partake in fully to partake in fully in other words he fully partook in the death for everyone that substitutionary death that jesus partook in completely for us because jesus took our place and he fully tasted death for everyone do you notice what it said by the grace of god by the grace of god because his full partaking in death was truly god's greatest gift to us i'm taking a group of kids through the book of ephesians right now and um we just did ephesians chapter three no yeah chapter three where it says the prayer at the end of chapter three where he says that you might know the the height and the depth and the width and the length to know the love of christ that surpasses

all knowledge and i was getting ready for one of my little groups thursday morning i looked at my wife and we get up earlier than the girls and try to pray together before the it's a little bit sleepy sometimes but anyway try to pray together at the beginning of the day and i looked at her and said i have no idea what i'm gonna talk about this morning usually god gives me things and i've got things i'm going through i said i'm just i don't know where to go next right now what should i do i just dude my wife just drops little dimes of wisdom on me every now and then i'm like that's good stuff and she said you should tell them about the height and the depth and the width and the

length of the love of jesus christ and so i got to think well how how can i do that best and in that moment the lord just brought romans chapter 5 verse 8 into my mind because romans chapter 5 verse 8 says god demonstrates or continually proves his love to us and that while we were yet sinners christ died for us while we were yet sinners christ died for us because he fully tasted of death by the grace of god for all of us we don't yet see what it should be but we do see jesus who tasted of death for all of us and then he goes on to number two talk about the author of our salvation notice what it says in verse 10 for it was fitting for whom are all things and through whom are all things

in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings for it was fitting that word fitting means befitting or becoming the character of the of in other words it was fitting or befitting and becoming of the character of god and then he goes on to describe god and he describes god two ways i want to point these out to you spend just a couple minutes talking about this when she knows what it says for it was fitting for him meaning god for whom are all things and through whom are all things he tells us two things about the nature of god right there that i think we should pay attention to. He tells us that God is the source of all things, and he tells us that God is the purpose

of all things. First of all, that God is the source of all things. I don't think you can explore this enough that truly the source of everything in life, the source of life itself, is God. He is the author of life. He is the giver of life. He is the creator of life, and he is the sustainer of life. I continue to be amazed at what God does even through a fallen creation. I continue to be amazed at what God does through the fallen world that we live in

because still, even in this fallen world, the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen in creation. Now, you all know because I've tried to make it as clear as I possibly can, I am not a fan of winter. I'm finally smiling again because the sun came out and the storm came in. I'm finally smiling again because the sun came out and the storm came in. Snow is melted, except in those places where it hasn't, where they piled it all up together, right?

Those places it still exists. But do you know what's really cool about snow? Snow does a handful of things. As a former groundskeeper, I can tell you a few things that snow does. Snow does a handful of things for the ground. Number one, it's a protective layer against the harsh cold that comes about. It's a protective layer for the ground. Also, with the ground being as cold as it is, if we get heavy rains and it was that cold, all of the water would run off, whereas the snow sits and melts slowly, which means that it can soak into the soil as it's supposed to because it's a slow soak because the soil is colder and can't absorb the water as fast.

But do you know what's really cool? Snow provides nitrogen. Nitrogen is what is necessary for the growth of plants. As a matter of fact, one seeding philosophy for, like, turf grass. I don't know anything about you farmers, but I know a lot about turf. One seeding philosophy for turf grass is that if you go out right before a snow and you throw seed down, you throw grass seed down, you don't need to do any prep work of the soil because that seed will slowly sink into the soil as the snow goes in and it goes in with the starter fertilizer of the nitrogen, right?

Is that not? God was like, hey, if you're going to have to have this terrible winter, let's make it do cool things, right? Let's make it do awesome stuff. And it's kind of cool what God is able to do. Why? Because he's the creator of life. He's the creator of all things. And listen, that is a God worthy to be worshipped. But not only is he the source of all things, but I will remind us again that he is the purpose of all things.

That he is the purpose of everything that takes place in this life. It's the exact same line that's given to us in the book of Colossians when it says all things were created by him and all things were created for him. That. That God is the purpose of everything that we need in life. I told some young person this here recently. I said, you were created on purpose for a purpose.

And they said, that's what I need to learn about. I need to learn about my purpose. I said, if you want to know your purpose, you have to know the one who created you. Because that's the only way you'll know your purpose. Because as you get to know the God who created you, he begins to tell you your purpose. And he begins to show you why he placed you on this planet.

Because God placed you here for a reason. And I'll say it again. None of you are here by accident. None of you are on this giant ball of water and dirt on accident. God puts you here on purpose. And he made you the way you are on purpose. Some people don't like the way that they are made. They don't like the things that they have. But listen, I'm here to tell you that all of the things about you, God knew exactly what he was doing and he had a purpose for it.

And God is the purpose of everything. God is using that purpose in your life. And when you come to grips with the fact that nothing about you is a mistake, everything is uniquely designed and created by God for the purpose that he wants you to serve, you stop viewing your weaknesses as weaknesses and you start viewing them as your strengths. Because you realize that that's where God comes in clutch for you in life.

You were created on purpose and you were created with a purpose. But listen. If you don't know the one who created you, you will never know your purpose. That's part of why I love my job so much. Because I get to watch people come to a place where now they know the God who created them and they begin to understand why they're here. And so he says, For it was fitting.

It was becoming of the character and nature of God for whom are all things and through whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory. To perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. He says the author of their salvation. Again, this is one of the times I do not prefer the New American Standard Translation. If you have the old King James or the new King James, it calls him the captain of our salvation.

Because that just sounds more awesome, doesn't it? Doesn't it have a military? He's my captain, right? Makes me think of that poem, Oh Captain, My Captain, right? It's just something a little bit different. It's just a little bit stronger about that than the author, right? I don't think about a guy behind a computer who's typing things up. I think about a guy with a sword.

But the captain of our salvation. That word captain is really kind of an interesting word. It does, it can also mean author. But the idea behind a captain of our salvation is that he is the leader, he is the originator, he is the founder, or he is the pioneer. Those are all pretty cool words about who Jesus is, right? When it comes to our salvation. Let me read them to you again.

He is the leader. He is the leader, the originator, the founder, and the pioneer. Of what? Of our salvation. In other words, not only is he the one that leads us to salvation, he's the one that came up with the idea of salvation. He's not just the one who leads us into that place. He's the one who came up with the plan. That's why we are told in scripture that Jesus Christ was crucified, listen,

before the foundations of the earth. Make that make sense. I can't because it's God. Because he is the author of our salvation. When we get into chapter 12, he's going to refer to him as both the author, listen, and the finisher of our faith. For it was fitting for whom are all things created and through whom are all things created in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of our salvation.

Through sufferings. Now we have to deal with the word that's a little bit difficult to deal with. Jesus needed perfected. I hope you wrestle with that for just a moment. I'm going to let your mind wrestle with it for just a moment because you should ask yourself a question right now. Does that mean that when Jesus was on earth, he had flaws? What does he mean by perfected?

What does he mean by that? It's a great question, right? You should wrestle with those words every now and then. When you come to a place in scripture, where you go, that doesn't make sense because that doesn't seem to jive with everything else that says in scripture. So what does he mean by that? That's where you take the full counsel of God and go, he can't mean that Jesus needed perfected

because everything else tells us that Jesus is sinless. So if Jesus doesn't need perfected because he is sinless, what does he mean by perfected? You see, now's where you would do something. Okay, I'm teaching a little something here. Now's where you would grab a Bible dictionary, which even if you have the blue, that are Bible on your phone, it has a dictionary in it.

And you look at that word perfected. What does that word mean? Or maybe you start off reading in some other translations. Well, if I know Jesus is sinless and he doesn't need to be perfected, what does he mean by the author of our salvation was perfected through sufferings? So you might read some other translations. You might grab a Bible dictionary and find out what the word perfected there means.

Or you may grab a word study, which there's lots of them that you can get. And you would start to study that word because you don't need to be perfected. You don't need to be perfected. You don't need to be perfected. Because you should never just bypass something in scripture. I don't ever want you to be in a place where you say, well, I just believe it. And that's all that there is to it.

Nope, you better figure out how to explain it because people got questions. And here's the thing. You have to teach kids to do this too. I read an article that somebody sent me here recently. And it said, as a pastor, I had raised my kids to believe all these things. And my oldest kid started walking away from the faith because there were questions that he couldn't understand.

There were questions he couldn't explain. And he said, it really bothered me. So I went home to my youngest son and I asked him, well, can you explain this? And I think that it was just salvation. Like, can you explain salvation? And he goes, well, no, I just believe it. And it's like, well, that's the problem. If you can't explain it, then that means you don't understand it.

Now, listen, there are some things that we go, whew, that was pretty tough. I need a little bit more information on it. But when it comes to the basics of the Christian faith, you should be able to explain it. And you should be able to understand it. You should never just take, blanket faith is the answer for everything. Because God is not a God of confusion.

God is a God who wants you to be able to know. And in this culture today, I do fear that in the revival that we see today is that it is a revival that is a mile wide and an inch deep. Well, I'm just happy that Jesus loves me. That's great. How do you know that Jesus loves you? Well, I'm just happy that I'm saved. That's great. What does it mean to be saved?

Because everybody starts off with a real, you know, database level of knowledge, but eventually you got to start to plumb the depths of it. Because otherwise people go, man, why are you living in a house of cards? That thing will fall apart real easily. And it's not a house of cards. It's a house with a fantastic foundation, beautiful walls and a ceiling that can protect you from everything.

But you need to understand it for yourself. So if Jesus was sinless and didn't need perfected, what does he mean by perfect? The author of our salvation through sufferings. Well, that word perfect literally means to consummate. It is the idea of the consummation of the human experience of sorrow and pain that he had to pass through for our salvation. Let me read that to you again.

It is the consummation of human experience of sorrow and pain that he had to pass through for our salvation. The idea is that he had to complete the act of salvation through the sufferings that he went through. We'll be told later in the book of Hebrews that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.

Why did Jesus have to suffer? Well, because he took our place. And all of God's wrath for sin was poured out on Jesus. And because all of God's wrath, all of God's wrath for sin was poured out on Jesus. He had to experience the suffering of the wrath of all of the wrath that God had towards sin. This is not the idea of flaws being removed. This is the idea of the completion of salvation

through suffering. And why did he do all of this? I want you to notice what it says in the middle of verse 10. In bringing many sons to glory. In bringing many sons to glory. Why, why did Jesus go through all of this? Because he wanted to bring us to the place of glory. Because we had an original intention. Sin ruined the original intention. And Jesus restored the original intention.

It all goes back to what took place in the garden. It all goes back to Genesis chapter three. Remember Genesis chapter three? When Jesus told Satan, he said there will always be enmity between you and the woman, between you and her seed. You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. We have that first promise of the cross, but something else took place after that,

that oftentimes gets missed. And what took place after that is remember when Adam and Eve sinned, what was the first thing that they made for themselves? They made for themselves coverings. Because they knew that they were naked because they were no longer clothed in the righteousness of God. They were now ashamed because of sin. And so they made for themselves coverings

and they were insufficient coverings of fig leaves. And so God made them coverings. And how did he make a covering for them? How did he make a kofar, an atonement for them? He did so with the skins of animals. So what did God do to make a covering for Adam and Eve? God slayed an animal to be the sacrifice for Adam and Eve to cover their sin. And from that moment on,

we have looked to a substitutionary sacrifice for sin. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to it. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to the coming of a substitutionary sacrifice. And then arrived Jesus on the scene. But we didn't. We see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels briefly so that he could taste death for everyone because it was fitting

that he would consummate all of the suffering through his own personal sufferings in order to bring us to glory, in order to restore humanity to what God had originally intended. And so as always, I like to end a message like this with a question. Do you see Jesus today? What are your eyes on today? You see, for some of us in here, I know that every time I talk to a group of people in a room,

I know that the potential is there, that there are some people in here that do not know Jesus as their savior. And you are completely caught up with all of the things of the world and they're completely lost in the things of the world. And you can't see Jesus yet, but you have come to a place of going, but I can't do it myself. I know that it's, I know that I'm insufficient.

I know that I'm insufficient. I know that I'm insufficient to deal with what needs to be dealt with. And I wanna tell you today that if that's you, it's time to put your eyes on Jesus. There's no magical words that you pray. There's no magical things that you do. You just simply confess your sin and ask him to be your savior. And in that moment, you too will have your eyes on Jesus.

But also know that most of us in here are believers in Jesus Christ. And I bet a good number of us in here, are in a place where we've put our eyes on something else. I bet a good number of us in here have gotten distracted from the truth that is the superiority of Jesus Christ in our lives. You've either gotten caught up with the politics of the world or the conspiracies of the world or the sin of the world, or quite frankly, you're drowning because you're seeing all of the garbage take place around you.

And you find yourself going, I don't even know what to do with all of the things that I see right now. I don't even know what to do with all of the things that I'm taking in. I don't even know what I'm taking in right now. And I'm here to tell you the best thing that you can do is to put your eyes back on Jesus, is to get your focus back where it needs to be.

And just like Peter, reach your hand out and say, Lord help. I promise he'll pull you up, he'll pull you out. He'll put you back in the boat and you'll get your eyes back where they need to be. Amen. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come before you. And I just want to lift up each person that's in this room right now. And first of all, Lord,

I thank you that you are the sufficient God. Lord, I thank you that you are the true savior. And Lord, I thank you that you are the one who we can put all of our hope in, all of our trust in, and all of our focus upon. And Lord, as always, I praise you that you are just one prayer away. And so Lord, I want to lift up each person in this room this morning. And I want to pray that if we have gotten our eyes

off of you, that today would be the day that we put them back on you. And probably tomorrow will be the day that we have to put them back on you. And the day after that, Lord, may it be a continual process of continuing to restore our focus on you. And Lord, may we truly know you as the God who is our purpose in life. The one who tasted death for us so that we could live life in you.

And so Father, go before us, be with us, draw us near. In Jesus' name, amen, be blessed.

You give life, you are love to this darkness. You give hope. Father, we just thank you for your word this morning, God. It is sharp and powerful. Lord God, thank you for this time that we can gather together in your name. And as we leave here today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit continue to work mightily within our lives, within our homes, and our families,

and our communities, our schools, Lord God, and in our nation, Lord. We love you and we praise you, and in Jesus' name, amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.