God Became Your Brother

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, our sermon text is Hebrews chapter 2, verses 10 through 18. This is the, liturgically, this is the first Sunday after Christmas, and that's why we have that reading from Matthew about the very early story of the life of Jesus. And in Advent, we've been preparing for the coming of Jesus. We spent a lot of time sort of preparing our hearts, preparing, understanding what it means when Jesus comes, what that would mean. And now that Jesus is here, the question is, really, what does that mean for us? What does it mean for us that Jesus has come?

[0:36] And it means a lot. I mean, we're going to talk about some of it, but one of the things it means is that God is with us. God is Emmanuel. He's with us. And another thing is that he came in the flesh. We're going to be talking about that more today, which is this idea of the incarnation. And just as sort of an introduction, if you haven't heard that word before or if it's a little bit new to you, the incarnation. It is our Christian theology or philosophy belief that God came into the world in the flesh. And this is different than other religions. We'll talk about that. God came into the world in the flesh by being born as a child at Christmas. So you can't pull Christmas and the incarnation apart. It's impossible to pull those two things apart. And it means that Jesus was more than just a man. He definitely was a man. But the incarnation. The teaching of the incarnation is that he was also God at the same time and not half man, half God, like maybe in a Greek sort of like a Greek myth or something like that. But really, all man and all God at the same time, which is hard for us to understand. But the incarnation is a bit of a mystery. It's a bit of a paradox, just like the Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Spirit is also a bit

[1:50] of a paradox and a mystery to us. And they're kind of related because the son is. Is God in the flesh and God is God, the Father is God, the Father and the Holy Spirit is there is the spirit, right? So this is how Jesus comes into the world. And that really means something for us.

[2:12] And the why we're not going to really talk about the why, but just to recap the why Jesus came into the world. We talked about that last Sunday. You may not all have been here. The angel told Matthew. I started the angel told Joseph.

[2:26] Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? From what? Well, all sorts of things, but mostly sin and the brokenness of this world. Other people thought it was other things. They thought he would rescue them from a difficult political situation they were in with the Roman Empire. But he never promised that, and he did not deliver on that at all because it was not what was on offer.

[3:09] So, we understand the why. Jesus came to rescue his people. And you can even kind of think of it as what Paul says in 1 Timothy 15. Paul says this, and this is one of my favorite ones to quote. It's a good one to memorize. Paul says this, Here is a saying that's worth full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to rescue sinners. And he adds, and I think we all can, we can say with him, Jesus came into the world to rescue sinners, of which I am the worst. Do you ever feel that way?

[3:44] If you don't, you're not doing this right, okay? Whenever I think about my own sin, I feel like I must be the worst sinner in the world. Now, I don't, honestly, I don't always think that. I can probably think of a few people who are worse. But when I'm in the understanding and the regret of my own sin, I do feel, as the Apostle Paul does, of which I am the worst. But that's why Jesus came. He came to rescue sinners. But today we're going to look at the how. How did he come into the world? And so, as we go through, as we go through this reading, I'm going to ask you to kind of keep your ears open to the how. How did Jesus come into the world? And it has to do with the incarnation. So go ahead and listen to this reading from Hebrews chapter 2, starting at verse 10.

[4:36] And the author of Hebrews writes, God, for whom, for whom, and through whom everything was made. He chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

[4:58] So now, Jesus and the ones he made holy have the same father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. For he said to God, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will pray for you. I will praise you among your assembled people. He also said, I will put my trust in him. That is, I and the children God has given me. Because God's children are human beings, made of flesh and blood. The son also became flesh and blood.

[5:34] For only as a human being could he die. And only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

[5:58] We also know that the son did not come to help angels. He came to help the descendants of Abraham. Therefore it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters. So that he could be our merciful and faithful high priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested. Let's pray.

[6:30] Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for this word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, what did you hear? I think I kind of gave it all away, right? Kind of slowed down. Trying to... I'm trying to guide you a little bit. I'm probably failing, you know. You never know.

[6:49] But what did you hear? How Jesus came and why it matters. And this is really very clearly laid out in this section of Hebrews. This is a very important passage that helps us in our understanding of what the incarnation is.

[7:02] God enters the world in the flesh. And that's what it says. The son also came... The son also became flesh and blood. That's what it says right there in verse 14. And we get to see the why of it too. And we talked about the why that Jesus came to rescue sinners. It had to be this way because as we see also in verse 14 and 15, it says, For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. And I think that's beautiful. Because we can live that way. We can live as slaves. We can live as slaves to the fear of dying. I think one of the most beautiful things that I've seen with Christians especially is people who are facing a terminal illness. And the calm that sometimes comes with them where they say, God will take me home to be with him. I'm not afraid of death. I've lived a good life. And I'm going to go and be with the Lord and with my loved ones who have gone on. And I'm going to go and be with my loved ones who have gone on before me. And so we don't need to fear death. And we don't need to fear the devil. We are rescued from that fear. But also we are rescued from the power of sin, death, and the devil.

[8:25] So we understand that Jesus had a human life and he had a human death. But it's also important to realize that he had a God life and a God death. And this is an interesting area of theology we could talk about more some other day. Is that when Jesus died on the cross, some people think that just the human part of him died. But you can't really even see. It's a mistake to say the human part of him. You can't pull them apart. So there's no human part of Jesus. He's all human and all God. I know that doesn't make sense. So that when Jesus died, God died. And that's hard to wrap our heads around because how could God die? He can die because he went to the cross. He can die because he entered into human life. If you read Philippians, it talks about Jesus emptying himself and being found in the form of a human being. And so you get this idea that God, in essence, when he came into the world as Jesus and into the incarnation, gave up or limited some of his own power, some of his own ability, and went into Jesus. It came into the flesh. But these two things could not be pulled apart. And so God died on the cross. And man died on the cross. And that's why the cross has such power. Some people would say, oh, it just seemed like he died.

[9:48] No. There's this actual death. But we can actually disagree on that one. We could talk about it some other time, too, as I say. But anyways, the big thing to take away from the incarnation is that God enters our existence by becoming human.

[10:06] And God then shares our existence. And God shares our experience of humanity. Now, you would think that God could share our experience of humanity because we're made in his image. And that's absolutely true. And that God is perfectly omniscient in a lot of ways. So he can see and understand what we're feeling. But this goes deeper. When God enters the world in the incarnation, he then becomes susceptible to all the things that humans are susceptible to. And so God learned what it was like to laugh. Not that he couldn't laugh, but to laugh as a human, right? And God learned what it was like to cry as a human. God learned when Jesus was a little boy and he was learning to be a carpenter at the feet of Joseph, he learned what it was like to hit his finger with a hammer. Like, he learned pain. And he was going to learn much more pain on the cross. All that pain on the cross was real pain. God felt it. Now, if you really think Jesus was perfect, you might say he never missed with his hammer. You know what I mean? Like, he always nailed it. He didn't even need to learn how to be a carpenter. Like, he had it all up there. But I don't think that's right. I think as part of his human existence, he had to learn and he had to grow.

[11:29] And he had to learn to be a carpenter. And so, you know, I can just imagine a blister on his finger. I can imagine... ... ... ...you know, tripping on a root walking through the forest, you know. It's all possible that God knows what it's like. But there's more. And this is something that we understand from the gospels and elsewhere, that God knows what it is like to be tempted to sin. God knows what that's like. Because Jesus is tempted to sin by the devil out in the wilderness. But also, we know that Jesus is tempted to sin by the devil out in the wilderness. But also, we know that Jesus was able to resist temptation because he was obedient to the Father. But also, we know that Jesus was able to resist temptation because he was obedient to the Father. And so, yes, there is a difference. And so, yes, there is a difference. The comparison between Jesus as the incarnation of God in human form is similar to us in all sorts of ways. But the similarity ends at a certain point. And the point at which it ends is that Jesus is, yes, tempted to sin, but he doesn't sin. So that's a divergence. Because we are tempted to sin. And unless you're not human, you have sinned when you were tempted. Maybe you were tempted to sin when you were tempted.

[12:39] Maybe you were tempted to sin when you were tempted. Even sinned without being tempted. You found a way to do it all on your own. It's quite possible. So, but what does that tell us? Even here in Hebrews, we're told that because of that, he is able to help us when we are tempted. Because he himself experienced temptation. Didn't give in, but he himself experienced that temptation. So there's all these things that he has shared with us because of the incarnation, because he is God entering the world in human flesh. Now, just one short excursion here. And I want to get a little bit of feedback from you all. But this idea of the incarnation is very important to Christianity. And it's something that very much differentiates Christianity from other religions in the world. Because other religions don't have incarnation in quite the same way. Some other religions have incarnations. Hinduism maybe has certain kinds of incarnations, but it doesn't operate. And so, if you look at the Bible, it's written in quite the same way. But if we were to compare, for example, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, only Christianity has this idea that God came into the world in the flesh, in the incarnation, as Jesus Christ. Only Christianity has that teaching.

[13:57] And only Christianity has sort of that, sort of the parallel or kind of related idea that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our concept of the triune God or the Trinity. Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? But the answer to that question is you have to kind of think about what people are saying. Because when we say God, we use the word God, it means something. It means the incarnation. It means the Trinity. When somebody who's in Judaism says God, it means something different. And when somebody who's in Islam says God, they mean something different again. So we could use the same word for a thing. But if our understanding of what that thing is is different from each other, are we worshiping the same thing? No. We're worshiping the thing that has the same name, but they're very different. So one example would be with the Trinity. We believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[15:21] Intensely monotheistic religions like Islam, they would not agree with that at all. They would say, no, there's only one God. It's very clear. And Muhammad is his prophet. That's all there is. This is not to put any other religion. It's important that we can talk about other religions and compare. That doesn't mean we're putting them down. We're just talking about what they believe and what we believe.

[15:42] Same thing with Judaism is very monotheistic. And so this idea of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all being God, that's not something that they would agree to. But the other thing that is sort of beyond other religions' ability to agree to is who Jesus is. And for these other two religions. Jesus is a man. He's just a man. In Islam, Jesus is one of the prophets, not the greatest by any stretch. In Judaism, there's really no official rule for Jesus. But the opinion about Jesus is that he was a rabbi and he started sort of an offshoot of Judaism that became Christianity. But he was not. He was in no means anything more than just simply a human being. But Christianity, obviously, this is everything we've been talking about this morning.

[16:33] We believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. That's the incarnation. He's all God and all man at the same time. And other religions can't agree to that. And so the quick answer to that question is we all might use the word God and we might spell it the same way. And we might even talk in sort of abstract ways about God in the same way, like God's always watching over me. Well, we could all say that. And God loves me and God loves you. And that's all true. But if you were to say, who is God? What are his attributes?

[17:07] You would get different answers from each religion. And thus, I think it's fair to say that they don't all believe in the same God. Does that make sense? Okay. And so we are different. And the biggest differences, again, are the Trinity and our big topic for today, the incarnation. Now, that was an aside because I think that's every now and then it's important just to kind of highlight that.

[17:29] But it doesn't mean we can't have conversations with other people. It doesn't mean that we can't sort of learn from them and grow. But I think when you get into some sorts of, I guess, ecumenical situations where it's proclaimed in some way or another that we all worship the same God, then I personally would go, well, no, I don't feel comfortable saying that because I don't think it's true. And some very devout people in those other religions would definitely not agree with it. So I don't feel like I would go along with that. Okay. You're like, well, he is really going on about that one. Okay. I'm done with that one. I promise. Okay. But let's get back to how God and Jesus relates to us in the incarnation. And I mentioned one thing, and that is that God knows sorrow, deep, deep sorrow. The shortest verse of the Bible is simply Jesus wept, right? Jesus heard the news that Lazarus had died and he wept. You know, he was just overcome with sadness, right? So the incarnation is important because God can't just say, well, I'm sorry.

[18:36] Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? We're children of God. He's our brother. And we are his brothers and sisters. And so to me, the most helpful way I have of thinking about this, as I mentioned, to Joel, thank you, Joel, for being so brave coming up here alone, is I do remember a time. I remember many times when my brother beat me up. That's all very, very memorable. But one other time that was memorable was when my brother stood up to me, stood up for me. There were some bullies at the school. We happened to be in the same, not in the same grade by any stretch, but, you know, we didn't overlap so much that we weren't in the same school. And he found me in the schoolyard, and some kids were coming after me. And luckily, he was bigger than them, you know, because we were outnumbered. But they backed off. So my brother stood between me and some bullies, and he protected me. And this is just the smallest and most incomplete picture of what Jesus does. Because he does so much more. He stands up to the devil himself. The devil's the one who accuses us of sin and insists that the penalty is death. And our big brother stands up and says, be gone. Like, go away. Get behind me. Get lost. This one is mine.

[20:07] You can't have him. You can't have her. I'm standing up for them. I'm coming in between you. I'm going to rescue you from sin and death and the devil. So let's wrap this up. In our book. The book that we have, God is defined as the God who comes into the world in the flesh to rescue us. Which means we can't do that ourselves by being good enough. This is really important. We remember what St. Paul said. Christ Jesus came to rescue sinners of whom I am the worst. And he said of his sinful nature. This is in Romans. Paul says, I cannot do the good I want to do, and I cannot avoid doing the sin I don't want to do. And then he goes on to ask this question, which is really part of the desperation. That he's feeling. He says, who will rescue me from this body of death? He's talking about his own sinful nature. But in the very next verse, he tells us, he says, thanks be to God for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so there's this idea that if we're being rescued, it means we can't rescue ourselves. We can't stand up to the bully ourselves. Only the big brother, only the good big brother can do that. Not the bad big brother. I'm thinking of George Orwell right now. But only the good big brother can really stand up to the devil for us.

[21:28] And you know what? You may not feel like you need rescuing today, right? You probably have all you need. You have a roof over your head. You have food on your table. But you know, when you really get down to it, and if we're honest with ourselves, I'll be honest with you. I am in bondage to sin, and I cannot free myself.

[21:47] That's just the nature. That's human nature. I am not. I am not able to do the good things that I know I should do. And I'm not able to avoid doing the bad things I know I shouldn't do. I need rescue. I need rescue from the one who has experienced everything that I've experienced and yet has lived without sin. He is the one who can stand in between me and harm and claim me as his own. And he can do the same for you. So.

[22:19] He does this by going to the cross. Jesus goes to the cross. On the cross, our sin dies there with him, and he makes us new. And as for doing the things that we really should be doing, then we get the whole working of the Holy Trinity starts coming together. Because then it's the Spirit that carries that load and enables us to do the things that we know we should do. So that's the big picture. This is what the incarnation means. This is what Christmas is really about. This is what Christmas is really for and about. Let's pray.

[22:54] Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for our big brother who stands between us and harm. And thank you for Jesus coming to the world. God in the flesh.