Jesus, our Fitting Sacrifice

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

For 18 today. As we've been talking about it, I feel like we need to kind of recap a little bit about where we're going. We've been walking through Hebrews chapters one, two, three, and four, and we're about halfway through. And so far, what we've talked about, it's important to kind of understand for where we're going to be going today. We talked about how Jesus is the full and the final word of God, that Jesus is God incarnate. He's worthy of worship. He's the creator of all things. Jesus sits on the throne in the beginning. He formed the heavens and the earth like Hebrews 1 has been telling us. Because of this, like we've talked about the beginning of Hebrews 2, because of this, we need to not neglect what Jesus is doing or saying. We need to listen more closely to Jesus, which is what it says in verse 2 of chapter 2. And today we're actually going to be doing just that.

We're going to be looking more intently into this great salvation, more intently at this salvation that we have. And as we do, we're going to discover, it's going to be great. We're going to discover the character of Jesus. Not just how Jesus worked in the past, but how Jesus is at work right now. How Jesus decides he's going to kind of move and be and do. That there's a specific way that Jesus, that we see this in Hebrews in the latter part of chapter two, that should catch our eye. That should help us understand what we're going through even today. So we're going to start in Hebrews chapter two verse nine, and we're going to look more closely at this salvation, and we're going to see Jesus's character. So Hebrews two nine, it says, but we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, mainly Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.

So that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone. So the first thing that we need to notice is that he was made a little lower than the angels. This Philippians 2:7 talks about this, how Jesus emptied himself and he took the form of a servant. The Son, the eternal Son, the one worthy of worship that we've been looking at in all Hebrews chapter one and then the beginning of two, this Son lowered himself. And this Son, it says, namely Jesus. That's the first time that Jesus is actually mentioned in the book of Hebrews in 2.9 there, it says, namely Jesus. So the pastor in Hebrews is making a point here, it's saying this Jesus, it's the same one that people have interacted with, the same one that the disciples witnessed, bore witness to, the same one that we have heard these things of. This is the same guy, we're not talking about an abstract principle, we're not talking about like the theoretical

second person of the Trinity. We're talking about a man, a person, Jesus Christ. This Jesus, the one that you know, this one, the one who miraculously died and rose again, the one who is testified to by millions of saints, the one that millions worship around the world on today, the Lord's day. This Jesus was, and it says, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. And so he was crowned with glory and honor, so it's connecting the glory and honor that Jesus receives with the fact that he suffered. So he says he's crowned with glory and honor because, so that's a direct relationship right there, because he suffered death, because he endured all of that. And then it says, so that, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. So then there's a there's a cause going on, right? So Jesus then he is crowned with glory

because he suffered and died and he suffered and died so that he might taste death for everyone. So it's saying that Jesus's death then served a purpose that was greater than itself. So here we see in nine, we see this established, Jesus tasted death by design. Jesus tasted death on purpose. He made himself low, he suffered horribly, and he received glory and honor for it. And this is all building up to verse 10. In verse 10 it says, for it was fitting. Really want you to concentrate on that word, fitting. It's a really important word. For it was fitting that he for whom, and by whom all things exist, and bringing many sons of glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Let's get into this fitting, right? When it says that it's fitting for that to happen, it's saying that it made sense. It made sense for Jesus to become human and suffer.

It was logically accurate for Jesus to lose everything lose everything in order to gain everything. Why is that fitting? Why is that logically accurate? It's because it reflects the very character of Jesus Himself. Jesus is the one who said that you must lose everything to gain everything. Jesus said the last or first. Jesus said the weak are strong. In other words, it's not just because He said those things, it's because He lived that way, it was fitting for him to lose everything in order to gain everything. It is consistent with Jesus's character to suffer trials and not only just a trial on the cross, but a trial of a rejection, hardship, betrayal. Jesus invested 90% of his ministry with 12 guys, one of whom turned his back on and betrayed him and delivered him over to death. Jesus suffered trials, not just on the cross. He suffered trials, and this corresponds with his nature.

The very character of Jesus was not going to allow him to kind of skate on top of everything, not feel it, not get into it, not get his hands dirty. No, that's not Jesus. Anytime somebody's talking to him, they're saying, like, I feel like Jesus just isn't there. I mean, I get it. I mean, I validate those feelings. Yes, I have felt the same way, but the reality is that's not true. The truth is that it is fitting for Jesus' character to get in, to suffer, to feel with you that is in his character. This Jesus whom we worship lived and died and rose again in a way that was fitting with his character. It was in a way that showed us more of who he is, of how he works, not just how he worked, but how he works today. Why is this significant? It means that Jesus is not going to look at our sinful state.

He's not gonna look at Lazarus coming from the grave. He's not gonna look at Ashley as she's feeling like Lazarus coming from the grave, with a stench of death, and we've all been there, Jesus isn't gonna look at that and try to tack something on to improve our situation. Jesus did not put perfume on Lazarus, okay? Oh, you stink, well, the problem is you need to smell better. No, Jesus is not simply leaving us in our sinful state sinful state with the ability to cope, with the ability to get used to it, right? Jesus isn't like hoping we don't mind it so bad. That's not what Jesus is doing. Jesus makes people new from the inside out. So it is fitting that Jesus went down into death to make something new. And that's something that he made new. That's something that's so much more powerful than death. Jesus makes people new from the inside out. We like to work in terms of improvement.

We like improvement, okay? We want advice to become better at things. That's what we want, right? Not necessarily a simple thing, it's just kind of our go to. It's just what we wanna do. This is why DIY shows are so popular, why I secretly want to be Chip Gaines? It's why, because we love the fact that they can just tack a few things on and make it real pretty. Just put a color scheme on there and a decoration idea, and it's just gold. Joanna is magical, that woman. We know we need help, but the reality is we want to DIY. We want to do it ourselves. We want to improve. We want to tack something on. We want to put new wallpaper on. If our lives are a house, our lives have a crumbling foundation. Our lives have cracked walls. Our lives have leaky roofs. Our lives have so many things structurally wrong with it. And what we want to do to make things better is we want to put new faucets in the bathroom.

We want to put new tile down. We don't want to address the cracks in the wall. We don't want to address the foundation. We don't want to change out the sewer system. We want stuff that's pretty that we can see. We want the new bathtub. We don't care if the roof is leaking. The bathtub will catch it. We just want the pretty bathtub. We want new faucets. We want new furniture. And what Jesus wants to do in our lives absolutely strip it down and put a new foundation down. Jesus is not interested in your Art Deco new furniture style, right? He loves you more than that. He loves you more than just appeasing you with whatever you think looks pretty. Jesus wants to strip everything down to nothing and to lay a new foundation and from that new foundation, build from the ground up. Jesus is not in the business of improvement. Jesus is in the business of rebirth. He's in the business of something new.

And we see this all over the Bible. I will list all the scriptures I'm about to quote, but it's just helpful to hear them. Let them wash over you. If you really wanna write them down, they're all here. Okay, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, And therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest passed away, behold, the new has come. John 3, 3, Jesus said, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Romans 6, 4, he was buried. Therefore with him by, we were, excuse me, we were buried therefore with baptism, with him by baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we might too walk in newness of life, Not improvement of life, but newness. Ephesians 4, 22 through 24. So to put on your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

but be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, created after the lightness of God in the true righteousness and holiness. Isaiah 43, one of my favorites, 43, 18 through 19. Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing for now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Catch this, ways don't belong in the wilderness and rivers don't belong in the desert. Jesus is saying, I'm gonna take something that's dead and I'm gonna put a river through it. I'm gonna make it new. It's gonna spring forth life. I'm not gonna tack flowers onto the desert, okay? Just to make it look pretty. I'm gonna put a river in it. Revelation 21:5, another favorite, Jesus saying, behold, I make all things new. Our hope as Christians is not that Jesus will enhance or improve the world, although that has a place.

I'm not saying we don't try to make things better, right? Let's help people, let's love them where they're at. But that's not our hope as Christians. Our hope as Christians is that Jesus Christ will make this world new. Not just improved. And let's not miss this basic message, right? The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a message to try harder to make it look better, to be nicer to people. That is the religion of Burleson. Let's not get those things confused. That's cowboy religion. And I love cowboys. My grandfather was a cowboy. But it's not, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not to be nicer, not to open doors for people that need to or to tip your hat. All those things are great, but it's not a life-saving message. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of the Gospel is that Jesus has already come. That Jesus has already done the work. That Jesus has already suffered and died on your behalf.

That He's already done that work. That the foundation, the opportunity to be made new is there. That it's for you. And truly, it's so that you and that your old self could die and be reborn into someone new. This is how the next few verses put it in Hebrews 12, sorry, Hebrews 2, 11 through 13. It says, for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. 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 and the children God has given me this. This is what makes us all brothers and sisters that we have been born. We have put to death the old self and something new is born in us. And we see this play out in a different way in the next couple of verses in 14

15, it says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, the children being us, the flesh and blood being the Lord, he himself, Jesus 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. So hear this, Jesus did not simply dial back the devil's power. I love it. When I was a kid, I would watch horror movies often and some of them were exorcism movies and I would not recommend them to anyone at all ever for many, many, many reasons. But one of them is that theology is terrible. They kind of pit Satan and Jesus as like these equal foes. right? No, no. In Scripture, right, if you have somebody that's possessed by a demon, Jesus just shows up and they beg him not to just eradicate them. Okay? That's how that works. Not like the

movies. Okay? That's how that works. Jesus didn't just dial back the devil's power. He destroyed it. it. Jesus eradicated it. I mean, he stabbed it in the face. That's what Jesus did with the devil's power. Okay. And I do mean to use kind of visceral terms. I mean, that should excite you, that should get your blood pumping just a little bit, right? That it's not that Jesus died so that you could live kind of this mediocre life, right? He didn't die for you to sort of hang on to all these old, all this old self, right? No, no, Jesus died to give you the power to do to your old self what he did to the devil's power, right? To stab it in the face. Or as Romans 13 puts it, to put to death the works of the flesh. It's telling Christians to do that. Put to death the works of the flesh. Put a knife in your old self. Jesus did this through death by suffering and dying and rising and he did the work.

I need to give an example to see kind of why this is important. Why we should distinguish between improvement and rebirth. And I'm going to use a strained relationship as an example. So you can supply the people from your own life, marriage, boss, kids, whatever. Strain relationship, whatever that is. Let's see, this is improvement. Improvement is trying to be encouraging. trying to be encouraging. It's improvement would be working to see it from another person's perspective. In my case, improvement would be willing yourself to to lower your voice. Don't raise your voice. All those things are not bad advice, but that's what improvement does. Improvement says you're looking for advice and control. How can I perform better more consistently? How can I perform better more efficiently? That's what improvement is going to do. How can I make those 1% improvements?

And again, it's not wrong. Improvement's not wrong. It's just incomplete when you're talking about healing. It actually goes second, not first. Rebirth is different. Rebirth, in rebirth, you are finding the Holy Spirit prompting you to bless other people. In rebirth you are discovering joy and warmth where there was cold resentment. In rebirth you are responding to a desire to praise Jesus, the one from whom all blessings flow. The biggest difference between those two is that rebirth is not up to you. With improvement you have a pretense of control. With improvement you feel like you're making a difference. But remember all those words I use for improvement, trying, working, willing yourself, and then contrast that with the words of rebirth, finding, discovering, responding, rebirth works different. But I can't just say that, right? I can't just say it works different. I have to really demonstrate that. I

really have to show how. So I've made a decision tree. Never seen a decision tree before. They're really helpful. You ask one question, yes, one way, no, the other. Okay, that's how decision decision trees work. So in real time When you are going through when you are kind of evaluating and maybe maybe the Lord has just brought this to you just like hey Hey, you've got this train relationship. What are you gonna do about it? The first question that you should ask very firstly is Jesus making this new right now is

That happening if so how how is Jesus making this new? How is redemption already beginning to happen in this situation? Because I guarantee you if the Lord is bringing that up to you nine times out of ten There's gonna be some kind of redemption that's already happening some kind of making new some kind of rebirth That's already there now. It might be like a little a Little tiny flower on a huge You know parking lot pavement of cold nothing. Okay might just be a little bit, but it might but it's there. Okay? It's going to be a little bit, is Jesus making this new? Are there any flowers in the concrete? Okay. Look for that first. Okay. The answer is no, and it really could be sometimes, that the answer is no, that the, my encouragement is to ask for renewal and to wait for it. I know that doesn't fill you with a lot of hope because it doesn't make you, like, you know, you can't, like, push God's buttons and, like, make it happen,

right, but you actually have to ask and wait. And really, I would encourage you, how can I ask for redemption to happen here? How can I ask for Jesus to make this relationship new? How can I ask Jesus to restore broken trust? How can I ask? Not how can I make, but how can I ask? How can I wait? How can I relinquish control and put this the feet of Jesus and say, please, please, please bless this. You've said that you want to bless it. So bless it. Ask for renewal and wait. If the answer is yes, if Jesus is making it new, then you go to number two. See, decision tree. Number two is, sorry, I got way too excited about these. Number two is engage in vulnerability and wait. I know it's a lot of waiting. I know that's the second one with waiting so far, but we must wait. We engage in personal vulnerability with Jesus. So engaging in vulnerability isn't just telling everybody

your business like Tim was talking about, right? Some people shouldn't spill all their beans. But engage in personal vulnerability with Jesus. Let me tell you this, anytime you have any kind of strained relationship or anything that kind of needs work, that needs renewal, your own junk is gonna come up. You are part of every problem that you have. That doesn't mean I'm blaming you for every problem you have. However, there is a common denominator in every problem that you have, and it's you. And that's OK. That's actually really healthy to admit. And again, it's not just taking all the blame, but it is saying, as you're praying for this strain relationship to be made new, and you're really coming to Jesus, you say, hey, Lord, I need you to make this new. Please make this new. Part of him making that new is him bringing stuff up in you where you've screwed up, where you're going to begin

to discover ways that you are contributing to your own problem, right? Now, it's not that simple, right? It isn't, it takes counsel, wisdom, time. It's not like, oh, I'll just engage in personal vulnerability with Jesus for the next 10 minutes and it should be fine. No, it's a little longer than that. And really, it's kind of like you're mining for things, right? You're, it's gonna come up. I say mining, but I mean, it's gonna come up. It's gonna just kind of bubble to the surface. And as it comes, you need to be faithful. As it comes, you need to be able to say, okay, Lord, I see this. I receive it. I'm not super excited about it. kind of mad, but you're right. Here's what it is. I'm sorry. I don't want to do this. The biggest mistake you can make here when you engage in personal vulnerability and wait is to think that you have to detangle your own mess. It's not your mess is way too tangled

and involves other people. And so anytime you try to untangle your own mess, you're inevitably going to try to control other people and you shouldn't do that. That's not a really good idea. not very encouraging or efficacious, right? It's not what Jesus called us to do. Jesus says, Jesus says, I see you doing this, okay? Gonna bring that up in you and say, okay, okay, this mess, it's right here, look at this mess, okay? Be vulnerable with me about that mess. But understand, even in that mess, Jesus is saying to us, I'm in control of that mess.

I'm not wondering what to do about it. I'm not grasping at solutions here. I know what's going on. It's on a timeline even. I'll leave it, I mean, I could show you where this mess is not gonna be a mess anymore, but it would blow your mind, so I'm not gonna do that. However, you can trust me in the midst of it. I'm gonna bring that stuff up. We often need help here. This is where life groups are really helpful because you're bringing up some things that are difficult. And you're bringing that to the light. Tim, what a great word, right? Like, don't suffer in the dark sin, thrives in the dark, bring that stuff to light. That's what this is about engaging in personal vulnerability and waiting that you need to, you will discover ways that you're contributing to your own problem. And you don't need to suffer alone, it's tough.

So engage in vulnerability and wait. After that happens, make the sacrifice. I need you to remember that Jesus works terms of rebirth and resurrection, not improvement. And so when that happens, something needs to be put away first. In all those verses that I read, it talks about putting to death the works of the flesh. It talks about putting away the old man. It talks about sacrificing for something to be reborn and something needs to die. something needs to be put away. And if it is consistent with Jesus's character, if it is fitting for him to suffer and die before he is resurrected, then it is fitting for us to do the same. The student is not above his master. Jesus didn't just skate over the top of all of his problems, he went in the middle of it. Calls us to do the same. If you just try to skate over all your problems, man, that is not the way of redemption. That is not the way of rebirth. That is the

with death, with no hope. That's not life, that's not resurrection. And this is the cost of following Jesus. This is what it takes to be reborn, is dying. Many of you maybe have been thinking about this kind of offer, and I realize that it is extremely off-putting to say you need to die first, you need to make the sacrifice. But this is our calling. This is what it is to follow Jesus. It is to make that sacrifice, to engage in personal vulnerability before the Lord, to depend on Him to make things new. We are powerless. And if you have lived any amount of life, you understand with all the bumps and bruises that you have, that you are powerless to make something new from the inside out. You are dependent upon the Lord God in heaven to make anything new in your life. And so why act different? Why go down the path of DIY? It's painful, it doesn't yield anything. Why not make that sacrifice?

Why not do what the Lord has been calling you to do? If you've been walking with the Lord for a long time, you've seen this sacrifice turn into a blessing thing happen over and over and over again. It may be not with consistency, but you've seen it. You've seen it. Our response time today is gonna be a little bit different And as I've told a few of you, my wife contracted COVID on Wednesday. And so I'm in, technically I'm in day five of quarantine right now. So I've, you know, maintained the distance and all of that and spoken to all the people I need to speak to about it. But our response time is going to be a little different. Normally I'm kind of just up at front and I'm waiting. What I'm going to be doing is asking, so some of our deacons are going to be kind of stationed in the back. they're just going to be there to receive you in prayer. If there's anything that you need to pray

for, if there's any help that you need, anything that you need to pray for, please do that. The deacons in the back, they're great people. They deal with me all the time, so they've seen crazy. They can deal with what you've got to work through if you want to pray. If you're interested in joining the church or being baptized, you could still go to the deacon back there. I'm not going to be physically available for all the reasons that are already listed. But this is the offer of the gospel of Jesus. This is the great salvation that we should not neglect. This offer asks us to sacrifice. Something must die inside of so that we can see rebirth. I'm gonna ask Ashley to come up and I'm gonna pray for us as we sing a few more songs. Jesus, thank you for rebirth and resurrection.

Thank you, like Lazarus, you say, come forth. And like Lazarus, you, it's you. It's you making everything happen. You giving new life. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for this type of worship that we're going to enter into. Chas koh habei, I'm a child of God, I'm a child of God, yes I am, a child, yes I am, a child. Jesus we acknowledge that we are powerless before you God. We acknowledge Jesus that we are in full need of renewal in this moment God.