Sermon Cloud

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

Here is a wonderful verse that speaks to us of the Grace of God.

Jesus has been described in the previous chapter of Hebrews as the one who is above everything since He is the Creator of all things and has received authority from God the Father, having taken the form of a man and lived with us in order to become our Savior.

• Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, ²has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; ³who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

• So this Jesus, This Son of God is the one who made the worlds and He is the brightness of God's glory and express image of of God's Person.

• He is the physical representation of the invisible God. They are one and the same and yet Jesus receives an inheritance and an excellent name that is far above the angels as a result of His work before the Father.

• Jesus is God the Son, not just a son of God.

This Jesus, God the Son was made a little lower than the angels.

• King David says to us in Psalm 8:4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? ⁵ For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. ⁶ You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,

• In David's original psalm he was talking about Adam. The first man created.

• God made him less than a god or an angel but gave him dominion over all of His creation.

• What did Adam do with the great responsibility???

• God put them in this perfection, this EDEN

• God put them in this garden of delight or garden of pleasure with everything imaginable.

• He provided for his physical needs.

• He provided companionship

• He gave him responsibility to tend and keep the garden

• There were no negative aspects:

• No self-consciousness because there was no sin.

• No unworthiness

• No doubts

• Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— ¹³(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. ¹⁵But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

• Adam was the head of the human race and as our representative he gave us the sinful nature. - Sin entered the world through him.

• We are regarded as sinners because we are Adam's descendants.

• Not to mention that we have all sinned in reality as well.

• Adam is a type of Jesus, “Him who was to come.”

• Jesus is also a representative head to all who believe in Him for justification.

• The writer of Hebrews tells us that this passage from the 8^th Psalm is interpreted as a prophecy of Christ

• God has become for a time, less than God, not in essence, but for the purpose of accomplishing our redemption He has veiled His deity and lived for a time as a man; a little lower than the angels.

• Philippians 2:6 Speaks of Jesus; who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, coming in the likeness of men.

• Jesus “made Himself of no reputation. The word in the Greek here is kenosis. That means that He voluntarily emptied Himself of His divine attributes, veiling them in human flesh and submitting obediently to the father for the purpose of dying for our sins.

• The author of this letter to the Hebrews is trying to help them get God out of their box.

• These Jewish Believers have always understood God from an Old Testament perspective. He is the Lawgiver and Judge.

• Somehow they have forgotten His grace.

• He is the One who led them out of Egypt and gave them the spoils of the land.

• He is the one who fed them in the wilderness.

• He is the one who passed over them and punished the Egyptians just because they obeyed and put the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorways.

• How has God's grace affected you in your life, how many times has He withheld justice and extended mercy?

• The writer of Hebrews says that we can forget this too. Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.

• Literally here it could read “lest it leaks out of us.”

• Have you ever developed a slow leak?

• I have a tire like that. I put some stopleak in it last summer, but it still seems to get low from time to time.

• The writer of Hebrews is giving us some stopleak for our faith.

• He goes on and says in Hebrews 2:2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, ³how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, ⁴God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?

• These guys (The Hebrews) understood the Law. Every transgression got what it deserved.

• The Law was a message that was delivered by a messenger.

• Our message comes straight from Jesus' own mouth.

• The one, remember, who is God and took on Human flesh just for the purpose of not only giving us the message, but He actually died as the Sacrifice for sin Himself.

• How will we escape if we neglect this “So great salvation?!?!

• If we don't care about this message from God.

So, What is the Apostle's “stopleak?”

Again our text, Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

• We see Jesus, the Creator God!

• Who was made a little lower than the angles, He voluntarily veiled His deity.

• For suffering of death death crowned with glory and honor, Because He has done this He has been honored above everything!

• That He might taste death for everyone, That is everyone who trusts Him has no reason to fear death or punishment because He took our portion.

• Why did He do this?????

• By the grace of God! That means that God has given us something that we don't deserve!

• Grace is the stopleak.

• We know the laws that we broke, don't we??

• Don't steal, Don't lie, Don't commit Adultery. Honor God and our parents.

• We deserve the just punishment, don't we.

• Yet God came out of heaven and lived and died as a man, even a slave, Who was cruelly punished for sins He did not commit just so that you and I could be forgiven and live with Him, in a right relationship now and forever!

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ¹¹For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

• It was right that the one that made us was consecrated by His suffering. He was made to be that most special person, the one who gives grace where wrath is due.

• That makes Him quite unique

• He suffered in order to take that office, that makes Him even more unique.

• As a result of this He is not ashamed to call us “brother.”

• I don't know about you. But if I did that for someone I would be saying, you owe me big time!

• Isn't that our mentality? Even when it comes to God we somehow think that we need to earn God's favor and if He gives it we have to be worthy somehow.

• Harrison??? Last December.

Be warned. I am not telling that you are under grace and so it doesn't matter how you live. Paul already dealt with that wrong attitude.

• Romans 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. ¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. ¹³And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!

• Grace also gives us the desire and ability to do God's will. When we understand God's goodness it will motivate us to live for Christ!