main point-Jesus’ obedience to God’s plan for His death was necessary for our salvation and His glorification.

 

Hebrews 2:5-9

5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 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?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,[a]
8 putting 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. 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.

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Verse 5- “world to come of which we are speaking”

• Talk about the tension, parts of the text today will be for our now, other parts will be for when Jesus returns
  • “Kingdom of God is at hand”
  • “Kingdom of heaven is here”
  • Inaugurated kingdom, not a consummated kingdom
  • Engagement, that will end in marriage
  • Scripture says in Ephesians 1:14 that holy spirit is a downpayment for inheritance that we will receive
  • This idea of the kingdom being now, but not yet
  • Saved but being saved
  • Seeing God darkly through a glass and later face to face
  • This idea is important because this text deals with both this world now and the future world when Jesus returns and fully casts out all enemies and hands His kingdom without spot or wrinkle to the Father

 

“Death was conquered and a king was crowned”

 

*1 Because of Jesus’ obedience to God’s plan of suffering & conquering death, He was crowned with glory

• • Talk about glory
    • Lifted up
    • Greatly esteemed
    • Dream team
    • Celebrities and influencers have glory
    • All of this glory pales, is dull, is plain, is common when compared to the glory of Jesus Christ
      • Mainly because the extent or value of glory one receives is contingent on whom is heaping the glory
      • In the case of the glories we described earlier, people heap glory upon them
      • But in the case of Jesus Christ…all things bow down to His glory, people, angels, and it is God almighty Himself that crowns and bestows glory upon Jesus.
        • #incomparable, #notinthesameleague, #flory (fake glory 🙂 
  • Read verse 9

• For a little while

• • • Jesus the Christ, the only begotten son of God, didn’t start in the form of a man and isn’t in the form of man now (philippians 3:21 Christ will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body)
  • Key part of verse is “Jesus , crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death”
    • Jesus is crowned with glory by His Father because He has accomplished His Father’s plan to restore all things to Himself
  • What action does this glory solicit? Worship

• Rev 5:8-14 we see a future scene of Jesus being worshipped in heaven

• • How do we glorify Jesus?
    • By worship: this is why we sing to Him, this is why we learn about Him, this is why we are active in the church (because it’s His body), 
    • By our fruitfulness & prayer: John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
  • I think we give Jesus our maximum glory and honor by emulating Him.  He laid down His life for the Father’s glory and we are called to lay down our life for His glory.  
    • Practically, anything I have that can make me glorious, I ascribe to Jesus and I render it to Jesus for His glory
      • Ie, money, talent, conversation all for His glory
      • Kb- HGA, His glory alone

 

*2 Because of Jesus’ obedience to God’s plan of suffering & conquering death, Everything is subjected to Him

Read 7-8

• Everything under His feet, everything in subjection, nothing outside His control

• • Every created thing
  • Every living thing except for God
  • This is why philippians 2 says 

9Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• Ephesians 1 the working of his great might 20that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

• Verse 8b At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him

• • If Jesus is over all and all things are under His control and subject to Him, why then do we have _______________?
  • Why are you allowing cancer?
  • Why are you allowing evil?
  • Why are you allowing abortion?
  • Why are you allowing killing?
  • Why are you allowing starvation? War? Slavery? Murder? Why Lord?
  • ___pause____
  • This was my question as I hovered over this text the last 3 days.
  • I want to respond to this in 3 ways: 
    • a) if the text says everything is subjected to Him and He controls it.  Then we believe it. Period. Even hard texts.
    • b) I believe the keyword here is “at present” & “yet”
      • Remember, the kingdom of God is a now and not yet thing
      • In the kingdom, where God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven, this evil is not being done in the lives of those of us that are in the kingdom.  In addition, it is our mission as kingdom representatives to confront the evils of this world wherever we see them.
      • Matthew 16:18 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock[a] I will build my church, and the gates of hell[b] shall not prevail against it.
        • We as the church until Jesus comes to consummate the kingdom are to attack satan’s kingdom and we will win.  The gates of hell won’t hold up against our attack. So attack we must!
        • From your station of influence, not only do you live as a disciple, but you also bring the kingdom of God to that area
          • For our nurses, you bring the light of the gospel and the kingdom of God to the hospital
          • Teachers you bring the gospel and the kingdom to your students
          • Wherever you work you bring the gospel and the kingdom there
          • For the retired people you bring the gospel and the kingdom to the places you recreate and volunteer
          • For the students, you bring the gospel and the kingdom to your schools and friends
    • c) we want to address this question using scripture, 1 Corinthians 15:20-28
      • So there is a timeline
      • This is why we cry out to God, “how long Lord”
      • All of these things are subject to Jesus now, but at the end, He will destroy them
      • There will be no death, there will be no pain, there will be no cancer, there will only be rejoicing.  
        • For those that have not accepted Jesus, it is a very different and grim story.

 

*3 Because of Jesus’ obedience to God’s plan of suffering & conquering death, we can be saved

• Verse 9 “grace of God He might taste death for everyone”

• Taste death for everyone

• • • Everyone still is going to die
    • “My wife said I’m almost 40”
    • All of us are going to die, but Jesus’ death freed us from the power of death
      • Jesus’ death took the sting and the fear of death
        • Because we don’t have to fear the nothingness and meaninglessness of life that ends in a final death, nay, its just a doorway!  Jesus shows us that death is temporary and we will be raised like Him!
        • We don’t have to fear death because we know that our reward is eternal life in paradise with the family of God
  • Read verse 9 again

• By the grace of God

• • • Jesus dying and tasting death was a grace of God, not for Jesus, but for us
    • This was the generosity of God to send His own son who is equally God to live a perfect life of obedience and humility and die by the hands of mankind He created
    • By dying, by tasting death for everyone, he became the only worthy sacrifice, a peace offering, a substitute for our deserved death and punishment
    • In dying, He also raised.  
    • If we repent for our sins, believe in Jesus and follow Him, we get freedom from the sting of death, we get to also be raised to heaven instead of hell, and during our time in this world we get to be part of the kingdom of God, His church, and a real relationship with God.
    • This is what Jesus accomplished.
    • This is what Christianity is about, the free gift of salvation, it costs you your life that is yielded to Him.

Sermon Notes for Hebrews 2:5-9