· The book of Hebrews was written to a church that was likely facing the pressure of persecution, as well as the allure of turning back to their old way of life. Perhaps they were tempted to turn back to Judaism or a way of life that would draw less attention and be easier for them.
· What seems clear, is that Hebrews was written to exhort the church to see Jesus and find hope in His promises
· In this passage, the author is showing us that Jesus is greater and we can hope in His message because He was humbled for us, to do what we could not do.
Main idea: Jesus was humbled for us, to do
what we could not
·
When God created Adam, as
the first man and the representative head of all mankind, God gave Adam great
authority.
Genesis 1:28-30 28 And God blessed them.
And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and
subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 And God said, "Behold, I
have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth,
and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth
and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth,
everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for
food." And it was so.
·
Man was the crowning
glory of all creation. In fact, God crowned man to rule and this is something
that the author of Hebrews wants us to see.
1.
God Crowned Man to Rule
·
God made all the vast
heavens and the cosmos, the earth, the land and sea, and all the animals but
then, He made man – the pinnacle of His creation.· God made man in His image. In the image of God, He created Adam and Eve
· But then our forefather Adam sinned and lost his God-given ability to rule over the earth and the creatures of the earth and he brought the curse of God on himself, on all mankind after him and on the earth itself. In Genesis 3, we see God pronouncing the curse on man when He said,
Genesis 3:17-19 cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall
bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you
shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
·
The ground became cursed
and it would be painful to work and it would produce thorns and thistles. Weeds
would choke out what was planted and man would have to work the ground to get
food. And instead of ruling over the earth forever, he would one day be turned
back into dust.· But in cursing the serpent, God promised to one day give Eve a son that would crush the head of Satan. And all throughout the Old Testament, there were prophesies of the coming chosen One, the anointed One, who would redeem mankind and make all things new.
· However, every man after Adam failed to deliver and failed to keep God’s commandments entirely; failed to be completely righteous and failed to faithfully fulfill God’s purposes
· Throughout the history of God’s people, when one person failed to fulfill God’s purposes, God would raise up another to take his place. And the nagging question became clear over the years… who could take the place of Adam? Only someone who could undo the effects of Adam’s sin could usher in a new world order and restore all things.
· In the meanwhile though, God gave angels some authority over the earth. God used angels to block Adam’s entry back into the garden. Throughout the Old Testament it is clear that God uses angels to intervene in the affairs of men and that God uses angels in His administration of the nations.
· In fact, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending to the earth in a vision, and through this God was revealing to him that His angels were actively at work carrying out His affairs on the earth.
· In Deuteronomy 32:8, in the Septuagint translation of the Bible, it refers to God parceling out the administration of various nations according to the number of His angels
· In Daniel, 10 and 12, God shows Daniel that there are various princes of angels who are over ordered ranks of angels and combat evil and carry out God’s will.
· And Ephesians 6:12 tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against “the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places”
· So, the author of Hebrews is saying that although angels are significant and they have a role in helping to administrate this present world, they are not going to rule the world to come.
· But, if angels aren’t going to rule the world to come – who will? In verses 6-8 the author begins to show us. In verse 6, he writes,
6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him?
·
The author is quoting
Psalm 8 here, to show us that the original intention of God was that everything
should be put in subjection to man.
·
If you think about the vastness
of the universe, it is staggering that God, the Creator of all, is mindful of
man.· But not only is He mindful of man, man was the crown of all creation. Of everything that God made, He loved man the most and cares for man the most. The Psalmist looked up at the night sky and wrote Psalm 8 in response,
Psalm 8:3-6 When I look at your heavens, the
work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful
of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little
lower than the heavenly beings1 and crowned him with glory and
honor. 6 You have given him
dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
·
The psalmist wondered at
how amazing it is that God had given mankind dominion over the work of God’s
hands. · This counters the very real problem of unbelief that plagues our world today. The world says that life is pointless and that our existence is random. The devil has deceived the world into purveying a message of utter hopelessness: that we are just meaningless specks of carbon, here by accident for no particular reason at all. But that isn’t true. God created us and He gave us a purpose and He intended that we reflect His image. And God made man as the crown of his creation. Man was crowned to rule
· The psalmist is absolutely in awe when he thinks about the glory and honor that God has bestowed on man in making him just a little lower than the heavenly beings.
· God gave mankind incredible authority over all the lesser creatures but at the same time, even though this authority was originally given to man, things are not as they were meant to be and from Adam’s fall until the time of Jesus, no one has been able to take the place of Adam and undo the effects of the fall.
· Man was crowned to rule but since Adam’s fall, man has failed to rule fully and as he was intended.
· However, we see that the author of Hebrews applies the Psalm to Jesus, and as the ultimate Son of Man, the Psalm is fulfilled in Christ.
· What he is saying is that Jesus has now come and through His character and achievement, He is recognizable by His people as the one whom God has appointed to take the place of Adam and undo the effects of the fall.
· Jesus came to do what man could not do and the second point we see from the text is that as the Son of Man, He truly rules.
2.
The Son of Man Truly
Rules
·
The author of Hebrews
understands that Psalm 8 applies to Jesus, as the Son of Man.· Jesus is the one who was made for a little while lower than the angels and who has now been crowned with glory and honor. Perhaps the writer of Hebrews was thinking of when the prophet Daniel saw a vision of this and wrote in Daniel 7:13:
Daniel 7:13-14 and behold, with the clouds of
heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and
was presented before him. 14
And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be
destroyed.
·
When Jesus was on the
earth, He often referred to Himself as the Son of Man – He is the one who “was
given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples and nations and
languages should serve Him.”· Jesus for a little while was made lower than the angels, as He became flesh and shared in all of the human condition. Jesus came to do what all of mankind couldn’t do but not only that - He came to undo what mankind had done wrong.
· All of the things that were originally intended for man, but lost by Adam in the fall, Christ came to restore, and He fulfilled all of man’s created intentions perfectly.
· When the psalmist wrote Psalm 8, he thought of it as applying to man in general, but the author of Hebrews points out that it’s only really fulfilled in Christ.
· Jesus is the true representative of the human race – He has fulfilled the language of Psalm 8 and perfectly fulfilled the purpose of God when He brought the human race into being.
· He has blazed the trail of salvation for mankind and made a way as the great High Priest for us in God’s presence
· Although Jesus had all authority over all of Creation as God – God has made everything subject to Him as the Son of Man and the representative head of all who trust in Him. Verse 8 says God has put
8 …“everything in
subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to
him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see
everything in subjection to him.”
·
But unlike the limits of
Adam’s authority, God has not just put the earth and all that is in it under
His feet – the dominion of Jesus, the Son of Man, is not limited. There is
nothing outside of His control.· Jesus has sovereignty over everything, even though not everyone accepts and acknowledges that Jesus is king of the universe yet. Jesus sits on the throne and is ruling over everything, until all His enemies are made the footstool of His feet.
· But don’t be fooled. Jesus is in fact ruling, even though we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him, it doesn’t change the truth. Jesus is in control. We may not understand it. We may not see it. It may not make sense to us and it may be difficult for us to comprehend His rule over all things.
· Even when it looks like Jesus is not in control, we must never, ever, doubt that the second Adam rules, and we rule with Him and in Him and only in Him.
· God made man for rule, but man sinned and lost what God had originally intended for him.
· Man’s rule can only be restored in Jesus Christ, who truly rules. And man’s rule is restored for all those who trust in Him.
· Then, the author of Hebrews shifts to his main concern and that is for us to see just how God established the rule of Jesus, the Son of Man.
3. Jesus was crowned to rule through His death
· God didn’t achieve victory for mankind in an expected way. What God did was surprising to His own people. They expected a Messiah who would conquer through force and a show of his might.
· God did something very surprising and His way of victory was through the humbling of Jesus. And in Hebrews, this is the first place where the author connects suffering and glory.
9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely 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.
· How does God reverse the effects of the fall? How will God restore mankind’s glory and honor as He originally intended? By His grace, God does it through the humiliation of Jesus in His incarnation.
· God made Jesus for a little while lower than the angels. For us, the height of our exaltation is that we were made a little lower than the angels. But for Jesus, this was the depth of His humiliation – He stooped down to reach us.
· Jesus, the infinite and eternal Son of God took on human flesh. The second person of the Trinity took on the nature of a man.
· The author of Hebrews is clear, angels do not rule the new kingdom – it is Jesus, the one who perfectly fulfilled God’s purposes – He rules and He earned the right through His death.
· Jesus became the new Adam, the head of the new human race, and the membership of this new human race is not based on color or background, nationality or ethnicity. It is based on faith in Jesus Christ and His death as our representative head.
· By God’s grace, Jesus was made like us, a little lower than the angels. Jesus has tasted death for us. And it is not a tasting in the sense of just sampling or taking a bite, but He tasted death completely in our place and on our behalf, and He took on Himself what was due to us.
· He died in our place. All of us deserve to be condemned to death and none of us can get ourselves out of what we deserve. The only way we can escape the mess that we are in; the only way to get out of what we deserve is by trusting in what Jesus has done for us.
· He was humbled in becoming a man but then, Jesus, the Creator, endured the ultimate humiliation in dying for the ones He created. And it was because of this suffering of death that He has been crowned with glory and honor.
4.
Jesus’ death was for us
to know God’s grace
·
He has redeemed us from
the curse of death, so that by the grace of God, we can have hope through Him. Our
hope is in His suffering and glory, because if we are united in Him, even our
suffering is connected to our future glory as well.· So, one could say we are saved completely by works really. But not by our works. We are saved through His works alone. Man could never be good enough and no matter how much we might try to earn God’s favor and restore ourselves to a right relationship with God, we can’t ever do it.
· Our salvation is only through what Jesus has done and we can’t trust in our works at all. We can only trust in Jesus because He has done the only thing that restores us to fellowship with God.
· The people this letter was originally written to, seem to have been tempted to go back to the old covenant system of righteousness. They were tempted to rely on the old ceremonial system and to rely on their own works. But the author of Hebrews is trying to show that Jesus Christ is superior and in fact, He is the only way to be restored to fellowship with God.
· Instead of making us righteous, the old covenant and obedience to the law were only meant to point forward to Jesus Christ.
· The law served to point forward to Jesus and Jesus has come, so why would we settle for the pointer? No amount of ritual, no amount of law-keeping can gain favor with God, or restore a right relationship with God.
· Jesus, through His suffering death, has tasted death for everyone, so that by God’s grace, we can be restored to God through Him. And His suffering, His death and His triumphant resurrection and exaltation are the sure pledge that we have that His eternal kingdom has already been established and will one day be made complete.
· Now, as our passage says, we see King Jesus, and He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and He is crowned with glory and honor and He is reigning until all opposition to His sovereignty comes to an end.
· Isaiah 45, Romans 14 and Philippians 2 all tell us that one day, “at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
· Then, our faith will be made sight and we will see everything subjected to Him completely. And through Jesus, one day, the intention of God from the beginning will be made complete. We will one day rule and have dominion over the new earth and all that is in it. God will make all things new. He will make a new earth.
· Jesus is our promise that God will complete His intention for us. Jesus was humbled for us, to do what we could not do. And seeing Jesus gives us Hope in His promises
Potential
Application Questions:
1.
How does it encourage you to know that God is
mindful of us and cares about us, even though we are so small in such a vast
universe?2. How does it give you hope that life is not random or pointless but that God has glorious intentions for man to display His glory and rule as His representatives?
3. Where man has continually and consistently failed, Jesus has not. How does knowing that He truly rules affect the way you look at your circumstances or situation?
4. Jesus was crowned because He suffered death. How can this give us hope in the midst of our own suffering?
5. If we are united in Christ, we are dead to sin and alive to God. God already counts us as raised in heaven with Christ. How does our union with Christ affect how we live our lives then?
6. What are some of the ways you are tempted to doubt His good intentions for you?
7. How does knowing that He rules and one day will redeem all things and make them new give you hope today?
8. Where do you find your trust today? Are you trusting in our exalted Messiah or looking to yourself, your ability or inability, situations, circumstances, relationships (or lack thereof)? How would God have you respond?
