God Gets Involved

Hebrews chapter 2. Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. But since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking.

It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honour, 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, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, 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. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself 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. For surely it is not angels that He helps, but He helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brothers in every respect so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted. It's a fantastic passage, a great piece of scripture, something I pray that will resonate over the coming days, weeks, and the lead up till Christmas. If I could sum the passage up in just three words, it would simply be this: God with us. And if I was talking to you in Hebrew this morning, it would be just one word, Emmanuel. We've been singing about Emmanuel earlier in the service.

And it means the same thing, God with us. It's about the most high God who is divine, supernatural, becoming natural, a human being born on the earth. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas. God became fully human in Jesus Christ. Theologians refer to it as the doctrine of the incarnation.

It's where we get our English word carnivore from, a flesh eating animal. The point is Jesus came in the flesh. He came as a newborn baby. What we're gonna learn from the text this morning is about the incarnation. Three things.

Sorry. What it is, what it does, and why it changes you and me. First of all, what it is. Let's take a quick overview of the passage. This is a rich passage, and we need to try and get a grip on it.

The text says there is a place, and we know it to be Psalm 8. And in Psalm 8, it's talking about creation. How majestic is your name in all the earth, the psalmist says. He's talking about creation, the heaven, the moon, the stars. But then the psalmist launches into a few verses on the discussion about our participation in creation.

And I know that ordinarily we'll be quick to read Jesus in these words, but just try and resist doing that for a moment. Here are the verses. What is man or mankind, the human race, that you are mindful of him, the son of man, humanity, or the representative of humanity, that you should actually care for him. You made him, the representative of your people, we could argue there the first Adam, a little lower than the angels, and you crowned him with glory and honour and put everything under his feet. It says that we, that is humanity, were crowned with glory and honour, and everything was put under our feet.

What that means is that at one time, this was a perfect world. The world was our servant and worked cooperatively with us. There was no sin. There was no decay. There was no curse.

Nature served us in every way. So there was no death, no disease, no natural disasters in this perfect world. But then, in what I suggest is one of the greatest understatements in the whole Bible, it says, however, or yet, at present, we do not see everything subject to him, meaning man, mankind, or the human race. And how true is that? Every week, we're reminded that we live in a broken world, a world that is far from perfect. And we do not yet see everything subject because of sin, because we've turned away from God.

And the result is that the world is filled with sin and sickness and disease and death. Nature is no longer our servant. It no longer cooperates with us, and there's conflict. And in many respects, this world has become a terrible place. But then in verse 9, a turning point, a change.

But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels. Now this is saying that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, also became human. He was made, like us, a little lower than the angels. That is because Jesus became one of us. He wasn't just made human.

We're told, as the text goes on, that He tasted death, that He suffered death. Look carefully at the screen for a moment. He tasted death for everyone, for you and for me. Why? So by the grace of God, the text reads, that He might taste death for everyone, for everyone who knows about this grace of God operating in their lives will be brought to glory.

Verse 10. Sons and daughters, we can describe ourselves that way, of God being brought into glory. That's why Jesus tasted death. So we could become His children adopted by the sheer grace of God, not through anything we've done, not through our performance, but because of what He's accomplished, what Jesus has accomplished for us. And therefore now, we can see Him crowned with glory and honour because He's raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and sits on the throne on high.

In other words, there is the gospel working its powerful, wonderful message. And then, verse 10 down to verse 18, the writer gives us a focus on the human side of this doctrine of incarnation, and we're told in verse 11 that Jesus, even though He was God, is not ashamed to call them brothers. That is to identify us as His sisters and brothers. He wasn't ashamed. He wasn't afraid.

He wasn't embarrassed to get involved with us or identify with us. That is despite the fact that we're told in verse 10 He suffered because He got involved with us. Verse 14, we're told that He took on our flesh and blood and shared in our humanity. He really did become a physical being. And we're told in verse 17 He became like us in every way so that He can be a great and a faithful high priest.

Let's say then that He can understand us, that He's sympathetic towards us, that He's someone you and I can go to. That is the doctrine of the incarnation. He is Emmanuel. God with us. God become a human being in the person of Jesus Christ.

Do you know how special that is? Do you know how unique it is? Of all the world's religions, this is the great distinctive about the Christian faith and the gospel. All the other religions of the world have a God who is out there, up there, away from us, distant from us. Their God remains aloof, remote.

Sometimes He's even cast as an alien being. And human beings, for their part, they have to strive to get up there to meet with this God. Even according to secular thinking, you often hear people say, well, I've lived a good life, therefore God owes me. He'll look after me. I will get there.

Muslims have the five pillars, and they must try to do all of them throughout their lifetime, at least once. Hindus have the responsibilities of their good deeds and bad deeds and follow the law of karma. Buddhists have their seventh state of consciousness to strive for. But none of them has this: a God who comes down, who visits us, who is with us. Not like this.

Took on real flesh and blood, and then certainly not as one who came as a baby, not as someone who wants to identify with us and even call us His sisters and brothers. What I want to do this morning is apply this to make this real in your life and in my life too. What does this actually do for you? How does it work itself out in your life? And then why?

Well, first of all, what it does. If you have a conversation today or tomorrow or anytime during the week and someone throws you a question, here's a question I suggest that you might likely be asked at Christmas time. Once a person knows you are a Christian and Christianity takes on special significance for you, here is what they're most likely to be interested in as they talk to you or me. Tell me, please, how does your faith affect you? How do you actually experience it?

How does your religion take on reality in your life? Show me how it actually works for you, and then I might have a reason to take it further myself. If you get involved in a discussion and a conversation like that, then what you've got to tell them is this: the incarnation. Don't use that word necessarily, but get them to see that God is really with you, Emmanuel, and how that changes you and me. And I think there are at least three ways that God changes us because of the incarnation.

And all three of them are mentioned here in our text. First of all, what we learn here is because God gets involved though it costs Him so much, so should we. We should get involved with others. In Jesus Christ, God got involved with you and me. So now can we.

We can get involved when any person wants to know about the changes your own faith has brought about in your life and in mine. Maybe it's helpful to think about it this way. Consistently, almost every week, there's a public appeal launched by the police or the victims of crimes. If you have dashcam footage or a video recording or if you know anything about a particular accident or a crime or the suspects involved, step forward. Step up.

Be a witness. How hard is it to be a witness, to identify yourself, and then give the video to the police or make a statement for the police for the record? Credible witnesses are hard to come by, and by and large, many people don't want to get involved. They're reluctant to get involved, and for good reason. There's always the risk of repercussions or reprisals.

People are scared. They don't necessarily want to be identified. And if you do step forward, or even if you just make a phone call to crime stoppers, then you're involved. And your involvement means you become vulnerable. And it's gonna cost you something, not least of which will be your time, emotionally, even relationally, or maybe much more.

Who knows? The Bible tells us that at the very start, at the very beginning, God is our witness. He's the ultimate witness to all that goes on. He sees the crime. He's prepared to step up, to get involved emotionally, relationally.

Even right at the beginning of history, the Lord God said to Cain, remember children of Adam and Eve? The Lord said, listen, your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. He hears the cries of the needy. He gets involved. He never hesitates even for a moment.

Although He always knew what it was going to cost Him. Over and over again, God says it throughout the Old Testament. I hear the cries of the oppressed, of the orphan, of the widow, of the poor and the needy. And I hear my people when they cry out to me. It's the reason Moses was called to lead his people out of bondage, out of the land of slavery, into the promised land.

And God hears our cries today. He's our witness. But God did not just step up and give a statement to the police or make a phone call to crime stoppers and report what He had observed. No. Think incarnation.

Think Christmas. God became vulnerable. In Jesus Christ, God came down. And Jesus was the ultimate witness to all our crime, and He did something about it. And though He knew what was coming, He was not like us, fearful, guarded, looking over His shoulder, aware of the consequences, cautious of the consequences.

Jesus didn't come down just at the risk of His life. No. Jesus came down at the cost of His life, knowing full well what it would cost Him. And because He came down, He got involved. He got involved with you and me.

That's what verse 11 is all about. He got so involved that He got to the point where He says, He's not ashamed to call them brother or sister. Abel may have lost a brother in Cain, but what he didn't know was that he gained a brother in Jesus. Jesus is not ashamed. He wasn't afraid to make Himself one with us.

That made Him vulnerable. That made Him killable. And He was killed. Now for a second, please think about that. We live in a culture and in a time that puts the highest value on individual freedoms.

And as soon as you get involved with someone, you lose that freedom. And as a result, we're fast becoming a culture that doesn't want to be involved with other people. We value our independence. Let me give you a couple of examples. Why would you live together and not get married?

You know, there are many aspects to love, but one aspect of love has to be this. You make yourself vulnerable to another person. When you say, oh, we love each other. We're living together, but we're not married. What you actually mean is we don't love each other enough to become vulnerable because getting married makes you vulnerable.

Legally and according to the law of the land, you have a responsibility to one another, and neither party can just walk away. You get involved with one another. Or let's say you give a little bit of money to charity or to a ministry even, but it really doesn't make you vulnerable because you've got plenty of money anyway. But if you give a lot, if you give sacrificially, and if you not only give your money, but you give your time, and you get involved prayerfully, and you get involved emotionally with the ministry that you're contributing towards, then all of a sudden, you become a vulnerable person. Potentially, you could become quite uncomfortable because whenever you get involved, you get vulnerable.

We're out there this week, and when someone wants to know how Christianity works for you, ask yourself this question. How involved are you prepared to be? What kind of witness are you and I going to be? Here is a person and you're having a conversation, and it looks like the person may even want to be your friend, but you're thinking, this is a needy person. This is a person who's not very well connected.

This is a person who, if he became my friend, it's going to be mainly me getting involved with that person. It's going to be draining. Potentially, it's gonna be costly. It's gonna suck up a lot of my time, and quite frankly, I'm not gonna get much out of it. Do it.

Invite them into your life. Show them the difference that your faith makes. Why? Because Jesus did. He got involved with needy people.

He got involved with you and me, didn't He? And with Jesus getting involved with us, it took a lot more than patient listening on His part. Remember, at Christmas, we celebrate the fact that He came down, left the glory of the presence of His Father in heaven to come in the most humble of circumstances, born to a virgin in Bethlehem's manger as a baby. The incarnation means Jesus got involved, and so should we. Secondly, Jesus, though He faced suffering, was victorious through suffering, and so can we.

This is the whole idea of the book of Hebrews, to expect suffering and persecution. Verse 10 says He suffered, and verse 17 says He was made like us in every way. What does that mean? It means that what we go through, He went through. Jesus was with people, even people that would cause Him grief, and eventually be responsible for His death.

And He didn't flinch. Like Jesus, we need to be with people like that without flinching, there for the long haul in their home, in their workplace, at the hospital, in the funeral home, in the prison. We've got to be there wherever they are. Because they suffer, we suffer too. Which leads to the big question, how?

How can you and I possibly do this? How can we be like Jesus in this respect? Well, lastly, let's think about why Jesus suffered. See number C.

Jesus had this going for Him. He was filled with patient, infallible hope and so should we. And here's what I mean by patient, infallible hope. All through these verses and in all the places where the Bible tells us about God with us, Jesus comes in two stages. He comes the first time, but He's promised to come again a second time.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons why the religious leaders who did expect the Messiah just couldn't believe it when Jesus fronted up as the Messiah. Because everything they'd read throughout the Old Testament about how the Messiah would come and put everything right led them to think that He was only coming once, and then everything would be put right. And, of course, their pressing need was to get rid of their oppressors, the Roman army and others. And then they looked at Jesus, and they didn't see much of a warrior or a fighter or a general, and it didn't look right. But the doctrine of the incarnation teaches this: that He came once and He will come again in His humanity, bodily, physically, in a way that we can see Him.

He has come the first time, which shows God is with us, but everything is not yet right. Jesus has come, but the kingdom of God is a coming kingdom. It is here already, but not yet. Therefore, we know that everything is not right yet. So on the other hand, we are not yet.

We don't expect everything to be perfect yet. Almost all of us are either a pessimist or an optimist. You know what I mean. We can all look at this glass of water, the same glass I have in front of me. And if you're an optimist, you're going to be telling me the glass is half full.

But if you're a pessimist, you're going to say the glass is half empty. Now we have to remember Jesus only came once. And if you're a pessimist, you need to be reminded this morning that Jesus is coming again. And what you see around you is temporary at best. The best is yet to come.

Because He came the first time, He will come back a second time. But if you're an optimist, you need to be reminded that, well, not everything is perfect yet. Far from it. And you shouldn't expect it to be perfect either. Because He came the first time, He's coming again.

And therefore, there's hope. We have to be patient. Everything's not going to be perfect, far from it, but it will be one day. He's going to come again. Now lastly, this incarnation thing, it changes you and me.

Remember the question we thought that we would most likely be asked around Christmas time. How does your faith work for you? How does religion make a difference in your life? And even if they're not actually asking in those exact words, it's precisely what they want to know. We've been saying what the doctrine of the incarnation is.

We've been saying what the doctrine of the incarnation does in your life and mine. It's causing us. It's making us into the kind of people who want to be involved, involved with others, people who are not afraid to be vulnerable, people who are prepared to have a conversation with others. In short, it's turning us into potential risk takers. I'm becoming someone who loves and serves in a way that I didn't before.

And I'm prepared to sacrifice and to suffer and to go as far as I can with you to be like a brother or a sister to you because I have Jesus as my brother. And I have patient hope that in this life, this world is not all there is. But now how? How is it possible? How does the doctrine of the incarnation do that?

And I can hear some of you thinking, yes, mister preacher, sir, what you are saying may be very inspiring, but I'm not sure I can handle that. The vulnerability I am feeling, I can't handle the stranger, the needy person. That's not just me. I don't feel like I have the strength or the courage to do the things you're saying that I could or should be doing. Okay.

Bear with me. One last look at verse 10. Here is a wonderful but difficult verse to translate. It says, in bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Other translations might not use the word author there, and they might substitute the founder of their salvation or the pioneer of their salvation, and still others the champion of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Well, I'd like to ask you the question this morning. Do you know the author of your salvation? The pioneer, the founder, the instigator, the champion even? Do you recognise that He was made perfect through suffering? And what is this suffering?

And how did this suffering equip Jesus for His saving work? That word for author is not just used here in Hebrews chapter 2, but there's the same word in chapter 12 in the book of Hebrews. And I think it's a verse that we're more familiar with. Verse 2, chapter 12. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, the champion, and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Fix your eyes on the heroism of Jesus, the courage of Jesus through all His suffering. Well, what was that? Consider what He did. He ran the race. He fought the good fight.

He faced the cross, and He didn't flinch. Why or how? The text says it: for the joy set before Him. For the joy set before Him He endured all those things. Okay, everyone.

Well, what joy would make Jesus Christ come to earth and do all of that? What joy is there in the incarnation? What joy is there in Christmas? What joy did Jesus not already have that He had in heaven with His Father in perfect fellowship with God? He had the joy of doing God's will.

What joy would Jesus Christ have come to earth for and then suffer and die for in order to get that joy? The only thing He didn't have was you and me because we were lost. And therefore, what makes Jesus our champion, the author and the perfecter of our faith? What gave Jesus His courage? Why did Jesus get involved?

What was Jesus thinking of when He was in the garden in agony, praying with sweats like drops of blood? Jesus had love in His heart for us, for the joy set before Him, and therefore He became our hero, our champion. And you know what? Quite simply, that means that you and I can face the cost, the price of getting involved with other people. We can do it because Jesus got involved with us.

You know what really takes courage, great inner strength? To admit that you are a sinner, to get to the point in your life where you can confess sin and then confess it to Jesus. And then when you see Him dying on the cross, and that He went through a brutal death for you, that He was brave for you, that He showed amazing courage for you, to the point where He died for you, well, that begins to change you and me. It begins to fill your heart with love. And it's what our family and our friends need to hear at this time of the year from you, from me.

They need to know that our faith really does make a difference. The difference to the way we love, the way we are prepared to get involved. And you know what? God allows it. He ordains it.

You could find yourself during this week at home or in a coffee shop or in a park or at a playground talking about Christmas. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning that through your Son, though He was invulnerable, He became vulnerable. And when we see that He came down and left His glory in heaven above, and when we witness the humility that He had to suffer and die for us, we recognise that that gives us a pattern for life, for our own living. But if it's only a pattern for us to copy, it will never be enough.

It will crush us. It's too high, too big a standard. This morning, Lord, our prayer is that His courage, the courage, is not just a model for us, but that it is our salvation. That we remember that He died for us so that we could be saved by grace alone. And when we see ourselves as sinners needing that, then that melts us, changes our hearts, and makes us bold, makes us someone who's prepared to become vulnerable and engage with others in ways and means that they can truly see the difference that you have made in our lives.

Lord, we pray that everyone in this room this morning would have the spiritual courage and strength in the face of suffering to do that. Be blessing us, we pray, with a good day, with a good tomorrow, and a good rest of the week as we look forward to a great celebration of what you've accomplished for us at Christmas. Thank you for Jesus, and together in His name we pray. Amen.