Introduction

We’ve been reading through the New Testament this 2016, and I’ve committed to preach from something we’ve read the week before. As of today we’re smack-dab in the middle of Hebrews…

There is so much that we could read and talk about from Hebrews: The Lord Jesus’ humanity; the rest God has been promising His people since the beginning that we have partially in Christ and will have fully in the new Heavens and Earth to come; the Lord Jesus’ ministry as our high priest, intercessor, and sacrifice; how easy it is to drift away from the fullness of the God’s truth and the importance of not doing so; etc…

One of the difficult things about preaching from just one thing we’ve read the week before is having to choose from so much richness in God’s Word to pick just one thing to focus on. And I’ve chosen setting our sights on Jesus’ humanity, as Elder Doug Jacobs will proclaim to us in a moment…

Hebrews 2:5-18 [NLTse]

⁵ And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. ⁶ For in one place the Scriptures say,

“What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him? ⁷ Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. ⁸ You gave them authority over all things.”

Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. ⁹ What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. ¹⁰ God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

¹¹ So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. ¹² For he said to God,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you among your assembled people.”

¹³ He also said,

“I will put my trust in him,” that is, “I and the children God has given me.”

¹⁴ Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. ¹⁵ Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

¹⁶ We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. ¹⁸ Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested

Sermon

Hebrews is all about the greatness of Jesus Christ. He is greater than angels. He is greater than Moses. He is greater than Aaron and any of the priesthood or high priesthood. He is greater than the Temple. He is the initiator of a greater covenant than the Old Covenant. His sacrifice is greater. His promises are greater. The life He has for us is greater…

And while psychics and new age gurus and self-proclaimed witches and mediums talk about their encounters with angels, the dead, spirits, and the like, we have been visited by God’s Son! People get so excited about seeing and being visited by angels or the dead or by spirits, and yet too many Christians have come to take for granted that in the words of the Bible, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we sons and daughters of God are visited by the very Son of the Most High each and every time we open its pages, and He walks with us and He talks with us and He tells us we are His Own there!

Praise the Lord! What a great salvation we’ve been given! What a great and marvelous Savior! What a great and marvelous Lord!

Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not trying to be critical of Christians. I think the truth is that many have just gotten used to Jesus speaking to us through the words of Scripture. Whether we’ve always done what He’s called us to perfectly or less so, I think that many have come to take His voice across the pages of the Bible for granted: “Of course He speaks to me there!”. That being said, I think that many Christians are also just looking for something more in their relationship with Him. Just as our relationships with our friends or our husbands or wives can grow stale – we find we’ve gotten into a rut – likewise I think that our relationship with the Lord can grow stale, ho-hum, we want more of Him, we want Him to have more of us, … The great thing is that God is inexhaustible, uncontainable! There are no limits to His height, nor width, nor depth! Nor to His love for us, and the good things He has for us and with us! But we can have enough troubles keeping our friendships and marriages stirred up and fresh. How do we stir up and refresh our relationship with God?

Three things come to my mind: First, we need to fight the tendency to take God’s Word and the work of His Spirit through His Word for granted; the second is, we need to strive to strengthen and grow our relationship with Him through the spiritual exercises He’s laid before us.

One of the laws of thermodynamics is that energy runs down. That is, that complex things will always break down and become less complex over time. That high-energy systems will lose energy over time. Etc… So, it is no surprise that our relationships lose their energy and impact over time. It shouldn’t be surprising that it’s happening to us. We shouldn’t feel like Christian failures if we have times feeling a bit dull or far from the Lord. It’s an aspect of this fallen creation. And without yet going on to new things and fresh things we might do, we need to remind ourselves of the good and the great things we already have in Him. We need to stir up and celebrate the foundations of our salvation.

We have been chosen by God to be His sons and daughters. That truth should be enough to keep us dancing and giddy for several lifetimes, but often it grows cold! Jesus Christ has traded His full, righteous, rejoicing relationship with God for our lacking, sinful, separated lack of relationship with God. (Of course, after trading us He put our lack of relationship with God to death!) But the reality of such a trade and such an amazing and privileged relationship should be enough to keep us dancing and giddy for several lifetimes, but often it grows cold. The almighty God is always with us, always near. His Holy Spirit fills our lives and empowers us and comforts us, as we seek and follow Him, across life trials and strains. He has given us so many wonderful promises to look forward to in this life and in the new Heavens and Earth to come… All of this should be enough to keep us dancing and giddy through several lifetimes! But often it grows cold. So, our first work is to stir up and refresh our appreciation for it all.

For instance, how many times have you told your spouse, children, parents, friends, or folks at work or at the grocery store, “Well, I was talking with God this morning and He told me…” Too often we tell people we were reading the Bible or our devotional and it said…” And yet we believe that the Holy Spirit speaks God’s Word to us through the Scriptures, right? We believe that God answers us when we pray, right? So, we need to encourage ourselves in the truth of such wonders by letting those around us know that God spoke to us through the Bible or prayer! He met us and was gloriously near to us in Worship! Whatever the truth, we need to stir and refresh ourselves in the truth of these things by declaring and proclaiming these truths aloud to those around us. The people around us need to hear it. We need to say it!

What a wonderful salvation! What great and glorious revelation! It takes work to keep the good foundations of our relationships fresh and like-new. We must do so, for others’ sake and our own!

Secondly, many of us may have daily Bible reading and prayer times. And, of course, all of us here today are in Worship this morning. And being in the Word, and talking to God in prayer, and joining with others to sing His songs and proclaim His glory and learn about Him and praise Him and ask for His help (and more that we do in Worship), all these things are precious and strengthening and empowering and just plain good! But we need to stir up what we do with our families and loved ones and friends to keep those relationships vital and growing. And the same is true with the Lord.

Find some different ways to read the Bible. Try some different ways to pray. Give yourself to Worship – to singing, to praying, to responding to the Word – in different ways, etc… And, of course, there are other ways to enjoy God: Fasting; walking through a beautiful part of creation with Him while praising Him for it; setting apart special times to be quiet – to not speak and to turn off the TV or music, to be without your iPod or phone; going out of your way to serve someone just for Jesus’ sake; etc…

There are many “grace practices” you can find on the internet or by asking me… Stir up your relationship with God. Get out of the rut…

Lastly, and this is the reason I picked our reading for this morning: We can refresh and renew our relationship with the Lord by remembering the Lord Jesus’ humanity.

As I’ve preached a number of times before and as our reading this morning underlines: Jesus was like us in every way except that He did not sin. The one difference that Jesus has from us is that He was not conceived by a man and a woman. The Holy Spirit conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb.

When Adam sinned in the very beginning, he passed on his sin nature to his children when he made babies with Eve. And their children passed on that sin nature to their children. And so on through to today. But Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. He had (and has) no sin nature.

Because of our sin nature, we are sinners in the womb and from birth. We can’t help sinning. Sin nature is a part of our DNA. But not Jesus. Because He had no sin nature He was able to not sin. And the Bible tells us that He sought God’s will and chose God’s will first and in every situation His entire short life long.

But other than that, Jesus was like us in every way the Bible says.

So that means He had financial hardships. That means He had relationship troubles and unreturned love. That means His folks disciplined Him in ways He didn’t like or thought were unfair. That means He was wronged, hated, made fun of, that He wanted things He couldn’t get or wasn’t allowed to get, etc…, etc…, etc… He was tempted in every way like we are except that He did not sin!

Notice it doesn’t say that He was like us in every way except that He never sinned AND He had God’s wonder-working power to preach and heal and work miracles. No, He was like us in respect to God’s power, to. That is, Jesus of Nazareth was born a human being. He didn’t have God’s power. Philippians 2:6 says that He took off His almighty power when He was born a human being. He had God’s power only because He was baptized by the Holy Spirit. (After John baptized Him with water we see the Holy Spirit coming upon out of Heaven in the form of a dove. That’s being baptized by the Holy Spirit: When the Holy Spirit comes upon you and fills you because of your faith and trust in the Father through your faith and trust in Jesus.)

And yet, Jesus did so many wonders! John ends his gospel saying that all the books in the world couldn’t contain all the wonders Jesus did, if all of His wonders had been written down! If He is just like us, as you say, Pastor, (you may be saying) then why don’t we see ourselves doing all those wonders? Why don’t we see you doing all those wonders, Pastor? (You may be saying.)

Well, (this is my answer to you) that’s what I believe God wants us to be talking about here this morning, because the Lord Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in My name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it!” (14:12-14) So, the Lord Jesus Himself has said that we can do the same works He has done and even greater works! So, either the Lord Jesus Christ is a liar, or something’s not right here…

Here’s what I think: I think that you and I don’t always do the empowered, miraculous works that Jesus did because we don’t believe we can. But Jesus always believed. As we’ve said, He’s like us in every way except He never sinned; He always believed; He always trusted in God and did what God directed Him to do. So, when the Father directed and empowered Him to speak, Jesus spoke! When the Father directed and empowered Him to heal, Jesus healed! When the Father revealed knowledge about those around Him to Jesus, Jesus believed that the knowledge had been revealed to Him by God and He acted on that knowledge the way God wanted Him to! But that’s not always true for us, is it?

Anybody here ever seen someone in great pain or going through great distress? … Anybody here ever asked God in that moment, “Do You want to heal them through me, Lord?” Or, “do You want to comfort them through me, Lord?” Or, “do You want to provide for them in some miraculous way through me, Lord?” And, if you have asked God these things, and if the Father’s answer has ever been “yes, I want to do that through you,” who here has always reached out in whatever way the Holy Spirit has led you to do so – to heal, to comfort, to provide – each and every time the Lord has led you to do so?

So, I think the Lord Jesus’ empowerment seems so very different from ours because He always believed! He always sought the Father’s will first at all times and in all circumstances, and He always did the Father’s will at all times and in all circumstances. And as is true for apostles, disciples, and others who’ve loved, trusted, and followed the Lord Jesus over the years before us, as we seek Him first more and more, and as we follow and obey and do His will more and more, then we will recognize better and better the Father’s direction, we’ll sense better and better His empowerment, and we’ll be able to step out in faith with greater and greater assurance that God Almighty has spoken to us, is wanting to work wonders through us for His glory, and we, too, will see more of the life and love and empowerment that we see in Jesus’ recorded life in our own lives and in the lives of those around us in His Church, as well.

We get more of the Father – more of God – by trusting Jesus and surrendering to the Holy Spirit. We get by giving. We receive by surrendering. We gain more life by laying our lives down.

People are visited by angels. Who cares! Big deal! I live with God’s Son! He walks with [pointing] you and He talks with [pointing] you, and He tells us we are His Own!

Let us refresh ourselves in the good things we have in Christ. Let us shake up our relationship with Him to try new things and to do old things new ways. And let’s take Him at His Word. Let us believe Him more intimately, asking Him what He wants us to do, and doing what He tells us.

It’s not crazy. It’s not fanatical. It’s living by faith. And Jesus has commanded us to do so, because He’s with us, visiting us, walking among us and talking to us by the Holy Spirit. The demons tremble and the angels rejoice!