The book of Hebrews is a very challenging book to preach from, if not the most challenging of the New Testament, with the possible exception of Revelation.  Part of the difficulty in preaching it is that it is itself presented as a sermon, and so to bite off a passage and try to present it as a stand alone message is difficult.   The passages are designed to build upon the previous passage, and the whole book is series of arguments built one upon another, which reaches it’s grand summation in chapter 12.  

But if there is a constant theme to the book it would be to consider Jesus.  To look at Jesus intently.  To study Jesus.  He is the Message, He is the Messenger, He is our Creator, He is our Savior, He is our Redeemer, He is our High Priest, He is our example that we are to follow, and He is our Lord, to whom we must bow in obeisance and obedience.  He is the source of life, the source of wisdom, and the solution to all life’s problems.  So we must consider Jesus.

We have been looking in the previous two chapters at many of the characteristics of Jesus, and we will see even more this morning.  In the essence of time I’m not going to review all that we have said in previous messages, but I will point out that in the first word of our text, “therefore”, we know that this passage is built upon the previous arguments of the last two chapters.  You can read those chapters for yourself, or if you’re really industrious, you can read my previous messages on our website, thebeachfellowship.com, and you can hopefully learn all that “therefore” refers to.

In today’s passage, the Holy Spirit is telling us that Jesus is superior to one who was considered by the Jews to be the greatest prophet of all time, who was Moses.  And I’m afraid that some in the church might not be all that familiar with Moses and his ministry.  I’m afraid that a lot of people’s theology is informed by a movie called “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston who played Moses, or perhaps for our younger generation learned of Moses from an animated movie called the Prince of Egypt.  

And I would just recommend in passing that in cases of where Hollywood has attempted to portray some person or event in the Bible on film, I would highly recommend that you skip the movie and read the book.  I have yet to see Hollywood represent the Bible accurately.  And if you’re basing your theology on some movie you have seen then you are probably sorely misinformed.  So I urge you to read the Bible, of which the entire book, from Genesis to Revelation, teaches Jesus.  

But as my Dad used to say, I’ve stopped preaching and gone to meddling.  So let’s get back to our text.  However, if we are to understand the significance of what the Holy Spirit is saying in comparing Jesus to Moses, then it behooves us to know a little about Moses.  So as a refresher, let me say at the start that the Jewish people highly revered Moses above all other historical figures.  He was the man to whom God spoke face to face. He was a man who saw the glory of God. 

In Exodus 33 and 34 you may remember Moses saw the glory of God and it was reflected in his countenance so that when he came down from the mountain, his face shone so brightly that he had to put a veil over it. He was the one who led Israel out of Egypt. He was God’s chosen instrument to liberate His people from captivity. But beyond that, Moses was the one who gave the law.  Moses and the law were synonymous, and he is considered to be the author of the first five books of the Old Testament, called the Pentateuch. 

And as I said earlier some Jewish rabbis  even taught that Moses was greater than angels. Usually in the Old Testament we see that God spoke to prophets in visions, but to Moses, He spoke face to face. In Numbers 12, when God rebuked Aaron and Miriam for their jealousy of Moses, God said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;  With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?”

God spoke to him in the burning bush. He spoke to him out of heaven. He spoke to him on Sinai and wrote the commandments with the finger of God. God spoke directly to Moses almost daily in the Tabernacle. The hand of God preserved Him as a baby, and the hand of God dug his grave at the end of his life. And between these two points of his life, there is nothing but one miracle after another in the life of Moses. During the greatest time of Israel’s history, it was Moses through whom God worked and God spoke. It was Moses who led the nation of Israel out of Egypt. It was Moses who led them through 40 years in the wilderness. It was Moses who instructed them from the mouth of God.  And so no man was more highly regarded among the Jewish people than Moses, and arguably, no one more highly regarded by God.

Yet the Holy Spirit says through Hebrews that we are to consider Jesus as worthy of more glory than Moses. This word, “consider” is made up from the Latin term sidus which means, a star. In fact, combined with the “con” means to “observe the stars,” consider.  That’s the English translation. Now, the Greek word is different. The Greek word is katanoeō, which means to fix the mind upon.  The word means set your mind to gaze intently on Jesus. Consider Jesus.

The world, even the so called Christian world, offers us many things for our consideration. There are many things constantly battling for our attention.  Things that are appealing to us in our flesh. There are so many possible topics that I could preach on this morning which would find a greater interest perhaps in the congregation.  Things like “How to live your best life now.”  “10 steps to fulfillment.”  “Dealing with family problems.” Etc, etc.  But the problem with those kind of topics is that while they are appealing to us, they are all about us.  And oftentimes it is nothing more than spiritualized self help doctrine. 

This kind of self interest doctrine  is kind of like having underdeveloped taste buds.  Good taste is an acquired thing.  The world offers up all kinds of things for us to taste, to eat of.  But what the world offers never really satisfies.  It offers up sweet things that may give you a sugar rush, but in the long run will leave you searching for more.  The things of God are an acquired taste.  You have to be taught to appreciate them.  But the more you consider the things of God, the more you appreciate it. And the more you grow spiritually mature.  The more you feast on spiritual food the less you find you have an appetite for physical things. 

When you’ve got problems, when you’re discouraged, when you experience broken relationships, when you’ve got health issues, whatever the situation, whatever the heart ache, the answer is not to consider yourself, but to consider Jesus.  Set your mind on Him. There used to be an old hymn that we sung at church when I was a boy, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.” And a line in particular promised that when you turn your eyes upon Jesus  “ the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”  Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Fix your gaze upon Jesus.  Consider Jesus.

Hebrews 12 teaches that as believers we are running a race. And the key to running the race and finishing it well is to get  your eyes off yourself.  Fix your gaze on Jesus, and stay the course.  That’s what this author is really saying here, especially at the end of vs6.  Finish the course.  Stay focused on the author and finisher of our faith.  Run the race with patience and endure to the end.  Keep you eyes fixed on your captain. He has gone before us, so we can follow in His footsteps.  We know where to run, and how to run, by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Now in instructing us to consider Jesus, the Spirit is going to say that Jesus is superior in His office, superior in His work, and superior in His person as contrasted to Moses. Superior in His office, He is the apostle and high priest, whereas Moses was just an apostle.  Superior in His work, because He is the builder of the house, whereas Moses was a servant in the house.  And  superior in His person, because He is the Son whereas Moses was a servant.

Now let’s look at each point in a little more detail.  First of all, the Holy Spirit says Jesus is superior to Moses in His office.  Hebrews has said in the previous 2 chapters that we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for just a little while. He said that He’s the captain of salvation. He said that He’s the sanctifier.  He said that He calls us brother. He said that He destroyed Satan and death. He said that He could deliver us out of bondage.

Now He gives Him two titles and this is where we’re going to see His office. He says that we should consider Jesus because He is the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession.  But in getting to this point, the author incidentally gives us three things that characterize us as believers.  And I don’t want to brush over these, because I think that they are instructive. Notice first that He calls us three things; holy, brethren, and partakers of a heavenly calling.  

Let’s consider what it means to be called holy.  We are considered holy because we are considered righteous.  Justification by grace is that God has counted our sins towards Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to us, that by faith we might be righteous, holy towards God.  But as we said last week, being holy refers to being consecrated, sanctified.  All of those words simply mean set apart.  God has set us apart from the world, to be used for worship in the heavenly tabernacle.  

In the tabernacle of the Jews, the utensils and instruments used in priestly service were first of all sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice, which made them holy, set apart for temple service.  It was no longer to be used for common things, but holy things.  That is sanctification in a nutshell.  It is being set apart by our justification through Christ’s blood for holy things.  

And because we are sanctified, Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren.  Heb. 2:11 “For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one [Father;] for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Jesus also was sanctified or set apart for the work and purpose of God.  He came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him.

So Jesus’s work of redemption has made it possible for us to be part of the family of God.  Brothers and sisters of Christ. Children of God.  And that leads to the third characteristic that we have, which is partakers of the heavenly calling.  That means partakers of salvation.  We have answered the call of God by faith in Christ, and received the inheritance of the kingdom of God.  Now all of that comes through Jesus Christ.  Christ working for us, and in us, and through us. 

So seeing all that we are and will be in Christ, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.  He is the  Apostle, in bringing the message of God to us, and He is the  “High Priest,” bringing us before the Lord God and guaranteeing our acceptance.  Apostle simply means sent one.  Jesus sent out 12 apostles to preach the gospel.  But Jesus was the foremost Apostle, sent from the Father to bring the message of the gospel, the word of God.  John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment [as to] what to say and what to speak.”

And as our High Priest, Jesus is God’s representative to man, manifesting the exact nature and character and truth of God, and He is man’s representative to God, having become like us in all things, yet without sin.  He is the bridge from man to God, and from God to man.  Moses, you will recall, was God’s man through whom He spoke, but Aaron was the High Priest.  Jesus is better than Moses in that He fulfills both offices perfectly.  So Jesus is superior in His office.

Secondly, in vs2, the Spirit says that Jesus was superior in HIs work.  And here is a simple comparison of the work of Jesus with that of Moses to show Jesus is superior.  The most obvious conclusion is that Moses was a type of Christ, a picture of Christ, whereas Jesus is the completion of that picture.  He is the fulfillment of all that Moses prefigured. 

Notice first that He says in vs2, that Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.  Jesus was faithful to His mission from God.  John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” Jesus always did the Father’s will. He was faithful unto death.  I believe that we will be judged on our faithfulness.  I think one of the marks of sanctification is faithfulness.  Faithfulness in little things is a big thing in the eyes of God. Jesus said in Luke 16, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in great things.

It’s interesting that Moses is not compared to Jesus on his weakness, but on his strength.  He says that Moses was faithful. For 40 years, Moses was faithful to God as he led the children of Israel in the wilderness. And so the author compares Jesus to Moses in a favorable light, that both were faithful to God.  

But notice that it says Jesus was faithful to Him who sent Him, as Moses was faithful in all his house.  What is meant by all his house?  It means household. It speaks of the household of God, the believers. The Old Testament believers of Israel. Moses was faithful in God’s household. He was a steward or the keeper of Israel. It says in 1 Corinthians, “Moreover brethren it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” Now a steward is somebody who doesn’t own the house, he manages it for the owner. God owns the house of Israel, Moses ministered to the house. He was in charge of dispensing the word of God to the people of Israel. And Moses was found faithful. 

And Christ  also was faithful to His house. Who is Christ’s household?  The answer is found in Ephesians 2:19. “Now therefore you are no more strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.” The household of God then is the  church. We’re the house of Christ.

1Peter 2:4-5 “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,  you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  

What a tremendous thing it is to be a part of Christ’s household.  To be a part of the family of God.  We are made holy, righteous, even a holy priesthood, so that we might offer up spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God, all because of what Jesus has done for us.  So Jesus is superior in HIs work because His work is superior to that of Moses.  Moses was faithful to his house, Israel, but Jesus is faithful to the church universal.  And that’s far superior.

If Jesus has done a mighty work in you, that you have been made part of a royal priesthood, offering up sacrifices to God, then I trust that it might be said of you that you are faithful in your house. You are faithfully employing the gifts and resources that God has  given to you as  spiritual sacrifices to God.  

I am reminded of the story of DL Moody.  Moody was a poorly educated, unordained, shoe salesman who felt God’s call to preach the gospel. Early one morning he and some friends gathered in a hay field for a season of prayer, confession, and consecration. His friend Henry Varley said, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” Moody was deeply moved by these words. He later went to a meeting where Charles Spurgeon was speaking. In that meeting Moody recalled the words spoken by his friend, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” Varley meant any man! Varley didn’t say he had to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. Just a man! Well, by the Holy Spirit in him, Moody determined to be one of those men. Then suddenly, in that high gallery, he saw something he’d never realized before.  It was not Mr. Spurgeon, after all, who was doing that work; it was God. And if God could use Mr. Spurgeon, why should He not use the rest of us, and why should we not all just lay ourselves at the Master’s feet and say to Him, “Send me! Use me!”? D. L. Moody was an ordinary man who sought to be fully and wholly committed to Christ. God did extraordinary things through this ordinary man. Moody became one of the great evangelists of modern times. He founded a Bible college, Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, which sends out men and women trained in service for God.  And my prayer is that you too might be a person that is wholly consecrated to God, that He might do a mighty work through you.  

Thirdly, Jesus is superior in His person. His person is superior verses 5 and 6.  Verse 5, “Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant.” In Exodus 40, eight times it refers to Moses’ obedience to do all that God commanded him. That’s pretty amazing.  In Exodus 35 to 40, 22 times it refers to Moses faithfulness to obey all that God commanded him. Can you say that about your life? Could God say of you that He obeyed all that I commanded him or her to do?     

That’s the key to sanctification, by the way.  It’s obedience.  Obedience to the word of God. Rom. 6:19 “For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in [further] lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.”  Obedience to righteousness results in sanctification. 

So Moses was faithful. Moses was faithful as a servant to the house.  But Jesus is faithful because He is the builder of the house. Vs.3, “For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.”  And so we see that Hebrews declares that Jesus is God, and thereby greater for He created all things.

Notice verse 5. “Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.”  In other words, Moses was faithful as a testimony to those things which were yet to be said in Christ.  Moses was a type.  Jesus was the fulfillment.  We can learn a lot about Jesus through Moses.  But not completely.  Jesus is the completeness of the picture we see in Moses.

Jesus said Moses wrote of Him.  John 5:46, “For had you believed Moses, Jesus said, you would have believed me for he wrote of me.”  And so it is that the word of God tells us in Hebrews 3:5 that Moses was only a servant who pointed to something which would come after that. He was a steward of another’s house.

Verse 6, “But Christ,” “not a servant, but a Son” over His own house, whose house are we.” Do you know who Christ’s house is? You say this church  building or that church building is the Lord’s house. No, a building is not the Lord’s house. “Whose house we are.” We are the Lord’s house. We are built together, Ephesians 2:22 says,  for an habitation of the Spirit. We are the Lord’s house. 1Cor. 3:16 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and [that] the Spirit of God dwells in you?”

How can we be sure that we’re really His house? Verse 6, “whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”  Now this statement causes some concern to those who may not be familiar with the full teaching of scripture in regards to salvation.  But the truth of salvation is that you couldn’t save yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.  Salvation is by grace.

So in the same manner, you couldn’t keep yourself saved. If your salvation depends on you keeping yourself saved then none of us have a hope.  What is it saying then? It’s saying this, “whose house are you if you hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” That simply means that the continuance of your faith is the proof of the reality of your faith.The continuance of your faith is evidence that you are really saved. Falling away is evidence that you were never of the faith. 1 John 2:19 it says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us.” Listen to this, “For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not of us.”  You may stumble from time to time, you may get off track from time to time, but the fact that you continue to follow after the Lord is evidence that you are the Lord’s.

Now in addition to that premise, remember what I said last week about salvation.  We are justified, sanctified and glorified in our salvation.  All three elements are essential.  And in a kind of subliminal way I think this passage today we’re looking at is speaking of sanctification.  Sanctified is the second stage of salvation.  I think it’s possible to be saved, and yet fall away from our purpose, from our salvation, not to eternal destruction, but to a lost reward.  Not to losing our citizenship in the kingdom of God, our place in God’s family, but in losing our purpose; our sanctification.  And that is going to result in our being saved, yet though as by fire.

And part of the sanctification process is that God will discipline those that are HIs children, that they might be obedient, and that they might be kept from destruction. Heb. 12:6-8, 11 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.”  It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom [his] father does not discipline?  But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. … 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

So discipline is the means by which we bear fruit.  John 15:1-2, “I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch of me that bears not fruit, He takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.”  So the goal of sanctification is that we might bear fruit, that we might be faithful, that we might be obedient and fulfill our calling in Christ Jesus. 

So in conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, consider Jesus.  Consider Him first of all as your Lord and Savior.  If you have not truly become part of the household of God by faith in Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and to be made holy and a child of God, then I urge you today to receive Him as your Savior.  Salvation is the free gift of God.  Call on Him to forgive you, to remake you, and convert you, to adopt you into the family of God.  

Secondly, to you who are Christians already consider Jesus. Learn to live your whole life with your eyes on Him.  As we look steadfastly upon Jesus, the things of this world start to grow dim.  And we find that He is sufficient for every need.  He is superior to every temptation, to every trial.  He is worthy of our worship and our service.  He is worthy of all glory and honor.  Let us give Him our all, and may we be found faithful when He comes.

I presume that if I were to ask you why you came to church today, you would answer something along the lines that you are here to worship God.  The next question though I would ask is, what is worship?  And to that I suppose I might get a great variety of answers.  Worship seems to have a rather loose description today in ecumenical circles. 

I had a friend that recently passed away, and she had never been to our church, but she had heard of it.  She lived outside of DC, but never came to this area to the beach.  However, she did visit Naples, Florida during the winter a few years ago and while there she saw an ad for a worship service on the beach.  So being familiar in theory with what we do here, she decided to go and try it out.  And she said that it was a lot of fun. She said that during the service they had some music playing and a giant beach ball that the congregation kept bouncing up in the air.  

Now, I guess that might be entertaining.  But I doubt that qualifies as worship.  I commonly hear people asking, “What is the worship style of your church?” People tend to think that there are a variety of flavors available, such as at Baskin Robbins, and you just need to pick the kind that you like.  However, our worship should not be about pleasing us, but pleasing God.  The quality of your band, the quality of your meeting place, the quality of your congregation, or the quality of your speaker is not indicative of the quality of your worship.  God is the judge of what worship is acceptable to Him.  Cain and Abel both came to worship God.  But God accepted Abel’s worship, and not Cain’s.  It’s important that we know what is pleasing to God.

And by the way, that shows that sincerity is not a guarantee that your worship will be acceptable.  Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” So it’s essential that our worship is according to God’s truth.

Another question is what happens when we worship?  What is Jesus doing as we worship? I think this passage today reveals that Jesus is engaged in His High priestly ministry. In chapter 8:2 Jesus is described as a minister in the tent which God erected. “We have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” The Hebrews used to have a tent, a tabernacle, and then a great, beautiful temple, but in the New Testament they had someone’s living room, a river bank, or a beach.   But Hebrews tells us that this new covenant is far better than the rituals and ceremonies of the old temple service.

How is that possible?  How is this spiritual worship better than the pomp and ceremony, the costumes of the priests, the burning candles and incense, the aroma of burning sacrifices? The difference is as the author of Hebrews told us in vs.9, in spiritual worship we see Jesus.  We look at Him, we study Him, we obey Him, we serve Him.  We worship Him.  He is the physical manifestation of the nature and essence of God.  And the Spirit of Jesus is in the midst of the true tabernacle, His church.  He said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there  in their midst.”

So the first aspect of true worship is that Jesus is the worship leader; He is the Chief Shepherd, or the chief pastor of the church.  He is the captain of the church.  He leads HIs children into the presence of God.  To come before God we must be holy, righteous.  And we are made righteous by the author of our salvation, who is Jesus Christ. Vs10, “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.” Only by representative suffering may man regain his purpose of fellowship with God. It is necessary that our debt be paid and our Lord has paid the debt. And by paying the debt, God is freed to give to men what he has determined to give them, adoption as children of God, and by extension the inheritance of authority and kingship over the earth.

Conceivably, God could have engineered a way to save us that did not require the suffering of the Son of God. But it was fitting for Jesus to save us at the cost of His own suffering and death. This is the ultimate illustration of the fact that real love, real giving, involves sacrifice. As David said: “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing.”  (2 Samuel 24:24). God’s love for us revealed  itself in sacrifice and God could not make a substitutionary sacrifice unless He added humanity to His deity and suffered on our behalf.  And in like measure, our worship requires sacrifice. Love requires sacrifice. Worship without sacrifice is just empty flattery.

There is a principle of hermeneutics which is called the principle of first mention.  That is, if you are trying to understand a word of scripture, then it is often a good idea to go to the first place in the Bible that the word is used, and as you study it’s usage in that context, it will usually be an indication of how you should interpret it in later passages. 

And it’s interesting that the word worship is first used in the Bible in reference  to sacrifice.  Abraham, you will remember, was obeying God by taking his son Isaac to the mountain that he might sacrifice him to the Lord.  And as Abraham is considering what must have been the horror of that thought, that he would put to death his son, in hope that God would raise him up again from the dead in order to keep his promises to Abraham, he turns to his servants and says, in Genesis 22:5, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”  

Can you conceive of the word worship being used to convey the idea that you would offer up your son in obedience to the Lord in a sacrifice?  And yet that is the context of the word worship.  And I would suggest that sacrifice is what God requires of us in worship today.  Consider Romans 12:1,”Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”

So the author of Hebrews says, it was fitting for God, from whom are all things, and to whom are all things, to perfect the captain of their salvation through suffering.  Why was it fitting?  Because Hebrews 9:22 says that  without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. Because before the grace of God could be expressed, the justice of God had to be satisfied. Thus it was fitting that Jesus had to pay the ultimate price for our transgressions, so that we might receive the grace of God.  God couldn’t and wouldn’t wink at sin.  God didn’t stop counting our sins in the church age.  He just counted them against Jesus.  He punished Jesus so that we might be made righteous and holy.  So that we might become adopted into the family of God.

Notice that word “perfect.”  In no way does that infer that Jesus was not perfect.  He was perfect in all things, without sin, blameless, otherwise He could never be the spotless Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.  But perfect in this sense means complete.  He completed our salvation by becoming obedient unto death.  He completed the Father’s plan, He was faithful.  He persevered even unto death. He added something to His nature which made Him the complete, perfect Savior.  And that was human nature.  He became like us, that we might be made like Him. That we might be His brothers and sisters in God’s family.

And that leads us to another characteristic of worship which is presented here in this passage. 

Jesus is gathering us into worship as God’s family.  “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,.” We are all of the same human family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them (that is, us) brethren. He could not be our brother unless He was also human like us.

So that is what He means when the author quotes from Isaiah, “I will put my trust in Him.”  Jesus put His trust in God, that because of His righteousness He would not allow His holy One to see decay, that God would raise Him from the dead.  So we as His brothers, put our trust in God as well, that God will raise us from the dead because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ which He applied to us.

The next verse is another quote from Isaiah; “Here am I” says Jesus, “and the children you have given Me.”  The church of Jesus is designed to become family.  The principal perspective of  New Testament worship is that the church is a family.  That is how we impact one another, as family. We are to love one another as we love a family member.   Worship is the assembly of the family of God.   

We are coming to God our Great King, in all HIs glory, but we are coming as HIs children.  Accepted into the family of God by the atonement of Jesus Christ on our behalf.  Church programs can not change us, but our adoption changes us. Col.1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”  We have become children of God. Made like Jesus, with His nature, clothed in HIs righteousness, conformed to HIs image.

And that act of being conformed to His image is indicated in the phrase, “sanctified.” Sanctification is essential for worship.  I think it is really better to read it, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one…”  Jesus sanctifies us, but we are being sanctified.  Sanctification is a progression.  We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ.  But we are sanctified, or set apart to righteousness in obedience to our profession, as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Sanctified means to be consecrated, holy, set apart for service to God.  It was used in the temple worship to describe vessels used in service to the Lord which were first sprinkled with blood, and then set apart to only be used for holy service.  That is what we are to be; holy to the Lord. Set apart, consecrated.  We are no more to be consumed with common things, worldly things, but to be set apart for good works. 

Going back to Romans 12, after it says we are to present our bodies to the Lord for service, which is our acceptable service, it then follows, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”   Our worship then requires sanctification, being set apart from the world, to be ministers of God.

Not only does Jesus sanctify us for worship, but Jesus leads us in our worship.  The writer quotes from Psalm 22. “I will proclaim your name to my brethren, In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”  Notice first that our relationship to Jesus is emphasized again. Jesus did not divest himself of his humanity because he had finished his work on earth.  He was raised in that humanity, and ascended to heaven in his humanity, and remains in his humanity that he might forever be our brother. 

And then notice two things in this verse that Jesus does to lead us in worship.  He proclaims or preaches the name of God to His church, and Jesus leads the singing in the congregation. The word congregation there is the Greek word “ekklēsia” which is the word we get our word church from.  It means “called out ones.”  Ties right in with being sanctified, doesn’t it?  We are called out from the world, into the adoption of sons, that we might be the family of God.  And in that family, Jesus leads us in worship of God.  His word is proclaimed, and HIs songs are sung.

It’s interesting to remember that the songbook of Jesus was the Psalms.  That is what the book of Psalms was for the Jews, it was their hymnbook.  And everywhere you turn in the New Testament the Psalms are being quoted or referred to.  Jesus quoted the Psalms extensively.  

Paul said be filled with the Spirit as you are singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.   Our access to understanding the emotional life of Jesus is found in the Psalms.  This is where David expresses Christ’s personality and His emotions. Consider this Psalm that Hebrews is quoting, Psalm 22.  We find Jesus quoting from this Psalm while suffering on the cross.  Vs.1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”  The whole Psalm goes on to describe the sufferings of the cross. It’s interesting that the author just finished saying it was fitting for Jesus to have suffered, and then quotes from this Psalm to show our relationship to Him.

What’s important for us to remember about the Psalms is that they are scripture.  And so though we don’t often sing the Psalms today, but it remains that when we sing songs, we need to be singing scripture, and teaching doctrines of the gospel, even as the Psalms do.

I’m afraid that all too often our popular songs we sing in the church today do not really reflect the complete gospel as taught in the Psalms.  Some folks must think that for a song to be praise to God, it must be joyful and upbeat.  But I would suggest that is not what a study of the Psalms teach. The Psalms express worship in all aspects of life; not only in exuberance and cheerfulness, but also in fear, anxiety, heartbreak, loneliness, brokenness,  and repentance.  Unfortunately the church has abandoned singing the songs that Jesus sang.  But ironically the author of Hebrews talks so much about the new and better era of the church, but uses the Psalms to tell us about Jesus.

In God honoring worship, not only is Jesus the worship leader, but Jesus does the preaching of the word.  “I will tell of your name to my brothers.” In the preaching of the gospel it is Jesus himself who speaks.  In the power of the Spirit of Christ, Jesus preaches as He is preached. Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” 

It is oxymoronic that we can claim to worship God without the preaching of the word of God.  1Cor. 1:21 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”  To know God, is to worship God.  Jesus proclaimed the name of God means that He proclaimed the attributes of God, the wisdom of God, the plan of God. 

In Ephesians 2, Paul says that Christ preached to those who were near, and those who were far off. Those near were those who heard Him, those far away are those who heard the apostles preaching. For instance, Christ preached in Ephesus through the preaching of Paul.

Another aspect of worship is that Jesus delivers us from the power of sin and death and the devil. [Heb 2:14 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”  We can’t worship the Lord if we are held captive by Satan.  

David said in another Psalm, “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  Our bondage to sin keeps us from fellowship with God, which is the heart of worship. Jesus died on  the cross not only to deliver us from the penalty of sin, which is death, but also the power of sin. Romans 6:8-11 “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

The second part of this principle is found in our text in vs15, “and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Sin is addictive, is it not?  All sin has an addictive quality to it.  And whatever you are addicted to, you are enslaved to.  The unsaved person lives a life of sin because they believe this life is all that they can count on.  “Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”  The theme song of the 60’s generation was expressed by a band called the Grassroots, with a song called “Let’s live for today.” Sha la la la la la live for today, Sha la la la la la live for today, And don’t worry ’bout tomorrow, hey“ Live for today.  That’s the motto of the world.  As John Lennon said, imagine there is no heaven, there is no eternal life.  Get as much as you can because you only have one life and it’s going fast.  But Christ has come to show us a better way, a way to eternal life, a way to be set free from the lies of the devil.

The final aspect of worship is that Jesus has come to help us in our need.  The goal of worship is not to meet our needs, but the wonder of worship is that when we worship Jesus, He also meets our needs.  Vs16 “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.”  I said last week that angels are not offered salvation.  Those angels who rebelled against God are condemned to eternal punishment.  But God has made it possible to reconcile man who rebelled to come to Him.  

And specifically that is those who are descendants of Abraham.  We are told in the scriptures that to be a descendant of Abraham is to be of the faith of Abraham. Galatians 3:7 “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.”

Jesus is able to help us because He is One of us, He is fully human and fully God.  He is able to help us because He suffered in all things as we have suffered, yet without sin.  Vs17 says, “Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” 

When we come to Jesus in worship, believing in Him as our Lord and Savior, coming to Him in our time of need, in our time of loneliness, or abandonment, or suffering, or sickness, or temptation, or depression, or anxiety, coming to Him no matter what the trouble may be, we can find in Him an ever present help in time of need.  He is able to empathize with our weaknesses, having experienced the same temptations and trials of humanity that we experience.  Yet because He is also the sinless Son of God, our great champion who has defeated the enemies of mankind,  He is able to help us, to be our faithful High Priest, to be our Mediator.  Because of the surpassing greatness of His atonement, God has adopted us as sons, and we share in the inheritance of sons, even in the inheritance of Jesus Christ.  

Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  We have a tremendous inheritance, in which God has promised good to us, He has promised life to us, even eternal life, and an eternal inheritance in glory with God.  

The final question for you today in light of all this, is are you a son or daughter of God?  Have you been made holy and righteous through faith in Christ Jesus?  Have you received the adoption that is offered as children of God?  Worship of God is only possible as we have been made holy by faith in what Jesus has accomplished for us.  Trust in Him today as your Savior and Lord, that you might be made a child of God and receive all that God has desired for us.

In ancient times, there was a type of warfare that was often employed, which is illustrated in the familiar story of David and Goliath.  Everyone here I am sure is familiar with this story.  But what I want to emphasize from the story is the manner in which the battle was fought between the Philistines and the Israelites.  Goliath was the dread champion of the Philistines.  And everyday he would come out and taunt the army of God and challenge them to put up a man who would fight him.  And if you remember, he offered the Philistines to be the slaves of Israel if their champion should win, and said that if the Israelite lost, then they Israelites would serve the Philistines.  

Now that was a popular method of combat in those days; to allow your champions to duel together which decided the fate of the battle.  It meant much less cost and loss of life for either side.  But if you remember, the Israelites had no one that wanted to take on the giant.  Goliath was such a formidable, powerful warrior that defeating him must have seemed impossible and a sure way to an early, inglorious death.  But of course you know the story, and David, who was a type of Christ, (those of you who have been coming to Bible study knows this) David who was a type of Christ offered to take on the champion.  And by the strength of God, he prevailed.  

Though the Bible teaches this is an actual, historical event, it also serves as a metaphor of what Christ did on our behalf.  We as the church are the army of God, and the devil is the ruler of this world, who taunts us, and tempts us, and has enslaved the world through his deceit.  But Christ came to our rescue, and as our champion, as the Captain of the hosts of the Lord has fought against evil and prevailed, and we that are his have prevailed as well.  We are no longer enslaved to the devil and the world, but we are victorious over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Martin Luther, the great reformer who lived in the 1500’s, wrote a hymn called “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” in which he speaks of this victory over Satan.  

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;

Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:

For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;

His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,

On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;

Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:

Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;

Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,

And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him.

Now that is what this passage we are looking at today is teaching us.  Jesus has been presented in the preceding verses as superior to the angels in every way.  The author now goes to the next logical step, which is that not only is Jesus superior in position and authority, but also in power, and has defeated the angelic powers that rule in the heavenly places.  Ephesians 6:12 tells us this is so; “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  And in defeating these angelic powers and overcoming sin and death, He has set free man from his enslavement to sin, and restored to man what he lost in the fall, which is his dominion over the world.  

Jesus is Superior, He is our Champion, He is the second Adam, He is the representative Man, He is fully God and fully Man, the hypostatic union of divinity and humanity in perfect fellowship with God, because He is the Son of God and perfectly able to intercede for men, because He is the Son of Man. So Jesus avails for man, as man’s champion, as man’s perfect representative, as foreshadowed by David triumphing over Goliath on behalf of the people of God.

Now the author of Hebrews broaches the subject of man’s favor of God by saying as his introductory argument what we read in vs5, “For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.”  Note carefully what he says here; God did not subject to angels the world to come…”  The key is understanding what he means when he says, “the world to come.”  He is referring to the new heavens and the new world which will be remade at the consummation of the Kingdom of God, when Jesus Christ returns in judgment and to claim His church.  Peter says in 2 Peter 3 that this present world and it’s works will be burned up with an intense heat, but we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

The point that is being made, is that though we don’t see our destiny being fulfilled now, man was created to have dominion over the world.  Angels were not created for that purpose. But let me preface this by saying that I believe the Bible teaches that God has created man in two stages. The first stage was the physical creation in which the world was to be our dominion.  The second stage is the spiritual creation. In the spiritual creation we have been promised restored dominion over the world, or worlds.  But in the physical creation when man fell he relinquished his dominion to the devil and his angels.

Now let me try to explain. In Genesis 1:26 it says, then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Now there is a month of sermons in those verses, but let me just focus on my point; God said man was to rule over the earth, to rule over all of creation, to subdue the earth.  We were made in the image and likeness of God, to be a fitting companion for God.  To rule and to reign with God.  But at the fall, man sinned, sin entered into the world, and death by sin.  And because man listened to the serpent’s lies and deceit, Satan usurped the power to rule this world which was rightfully ours.   Consequently, I John 5:19 says, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

A theologian named G. K. Chesterton once said, “Whatever else is, or is not, true, this one thing is certain. Man is not what he was meant to be. Instead of having the mastery, he is mastered. Instead of ruling, he is enslaved. Instead of being characterized by strength, he’s characterized by great weakness. Instead of being an ally of the Lord God, subject to Him, the Scriptures tell us that he is a rebel against God. Instead of being characterized by glory, he’s characterized by shame. Man seeks his destiny by tyranny and cruelty. There is still something planted within the nature of man that leads him to want to rule.”

So the present condition of man, mastered by sin, but he’s promised dominion. Martin Luther said, and I paraphrase, “man was tied in a knot, which only God can unravel.” What’s the solution? Well, after saying, “But now we do not see yet all things put under him,” the author goes on to say, “But we see Jesus.”

But it is not immediately as the Son of God which the author describes, but as the Son of Man.  And he quotes from Psalm 8, a psalm of David. The psalm is speaking regarding man, but it can also be interpreted Messianically, as the Son of God.  But literally, it speaks of man, and the author of Hebrews is interpreting it that way, though seeing it fulfilled in the representative man, the Man Christ Jesus.

In Psalm 8 which is quoted in part here in Hebrews, David speaks in wonder at the consideration which God has given to men.  He says, “What is man, that You are concerned about him?”  David finds it astonishing, as he considers the grandeur of the heavens, or looks out at far distant mountain ranges, and recognizes the smallness and insignificance of man in comparison to the magnitude of creation.

As David considers the creation of man, and God’s purpose in putting all things in subjection to him, David asks, “What is man, that you are concerned about him?”  David realizes that man was intended for so much more. I’m reminded of the song by a popular band called Switchfoot which has the line, “we were meant to live for so much more…”  We were meant to live with God, to be like God, to be one with God, and to rule with God. And David is astonished as he considers this.

The psalmist goes on to say, “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS.”  The key to that sentence is “for a little while.” It can actually be interpreted two ways, and both are true; We were made a little lower than the angels, and we were made or a little while lower than the angels.  That is, until the world to come comes in it’s fulfillment.  This, I believe, is the reason for the jealous anger of Satan towards the church.  He wanted to be like the Most High.  But chapter 1vs14 says that God chose to make angels His ministers for the sake of those who would inherit salvation.  And salvation belongs to men, not to angels.  Angels who have rebelled against God are eternally damned.  But for man, who has rebelled against God, He has prepared a way for us to be reconciled to Him, and to escape our condemnation.  

In fact, in 1 Cor. 6:13 Paul said that we who are Christ’s will one day judge angels.  Angels are superior to us now in power, and in the fact that they are spirit beings, and not subject to natural limitations of the body such as we have.  But at the consummation, when Christ appears, 1John 3:2 says we shall be like Christ, for we shall see Him as He is.  At that time, we will no longer be lower than the angels, but we will be exalted, and glorified, and share in the inheritance of Christ.  What a magnificent thing to consider.  No wonder David said, “What is man, that you are concerned so about Him.”

David says, “You have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of your hands, you have put all things in subjection under his feet.”  Now as I have already said, man lost his crown.  Man lost his glory at the fall.  Man no longer has dominion over the world, but the world has dominion over man.  As the scripture says, “in Adam all died.”  As Adam our forefather sinned, so sin passed to all men, and therefor all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But God raised up another Adam, the Second Adam, to take the place as the representative man, as the author of a new creation, even Jesus Christ.  He as our champion was able to overcome the world, and triumph over sin and death, and He is exalted in heaven to sit at the right hand of the throne of God.  And through His victory, we are victorious.  Ephesians 2 tells us that we are spiritually seated with Christ in the heavenly realm.  Listen to this; Eph. 2:1-7 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.  Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus,  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

So for now, the author of Hebrews tells us in vs.8, though we were intended to have dominion, we do not yet see all things subjected to him.  The world is still in darkness.  Death and sin still exist in the world.  The angels of the rebellion still have a measure of power on this earth.  We do not yet see all things subjected to man. 

But we do see Jesus.  He is our champion. He is our representative. We do see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for a little while, but now He is no longer so, but He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High, God having put all things under His feet.

We see, as we look out over the world, creation is not subject to man. Man is not what he is going to be. All things are not yet put under him. But if we  look up and see Jesus, what do we see? We see the guarantee that these promises will be ours, because he is our great representative. He is the Champion that has defeated sin and death for all men.

There is something interesting which is inferred here, I believe, and verified elsewhere in the scriptures, that Jesus in making Himself a little lower than the angels, in taking upon himself human nature and human flesh, became one of us, and remains one of us.  He took upon Himself human nature, and remains so, for our sake. He betrothed human nature to Himself, forever. That He might be our great High Priest, the perfect Mediator between God and man.

Charles Spurgeon said, “We know that had (Jesus) only been God yet still he would not have been fitted for a perfect Savior, unless he had become man. Man had sinned; man must suffer. It was man in whom God’s purposes had been for a while defeated; it must be in man that God must triumph over his great enemy.” So Christ is forever wedded to human nature. He ascended into heaven in human flesh, and will in the same manner come again. 

Now that is love that is incomprehensible. Imagine a king of a great country, of great wealth and power, falling in love with a peasant girl in a far away country.  And because of his great love for her, laying aside the privilege and rank of his own country, to became a peasant in her country.  Or in a more contemporary setting, imagine a super hero movie where the supernatural, immortal hero falls in love with a mortal young woman, and somehow relinquishes his immortality for the sake of having his love on earth.  Such illustrations pale in comparison to what Christ has done for us in taking on human flesh and human nature, that He would forever be our bridegroom.

Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor.  Because He was willing to humble Himself even to the point of death, to subject Himself to torture from His own creation, to being reviled and yet silent, to being whipped, to being spit upon, to being naked and hung up for the world to walk by and shake their heads.  What humility was Christ’s.  And because He committed Himself to suffer death, He was crowned with glory and honor.  He was exalted to the right hand of the Father.  And because He is at the right hand of God, we can rest assured that His sacrifice was considered acceptable to God. 

As Paul says in Phil. 2:8-11 “Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Notice in our  text the last little statement, “That He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone,” which outlines the spiritual significance of His death.  In other words, the spiritual application of His death was to provide the means for the new birth to everyone who believes in Him. In dying, He died for us.  He died so that we might live.  He paid the price that was due to us, so that we might have life through Him. His death wasn’t merely His own physical death, but was the substitutionary atonement which was applied on man’s behalf.

Now that is the grace of God that the author speaks of.  Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.  Mercy is not getting what you deserve.  Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.  It’s a gift of God.  God gave His only begotten Son to die, so that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.  That is the love of God.  It required a satisfaction of God’s justice.  But in addition to that, God gives us life by transferring to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  That results in new life.  Spiritual life.  We are a new creation.  Man’s second birth is by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ who tasted death as the representative man, as our Champion. Though He triumphed over sin, He suffered unto death, for our sakes.

And as He is now exalted on high, so we shall be.  We who believe in Him, who worship Him for who He is and what He has done, will be caught up together to be with Him, in the new heavens and the new earth, as His new creation, that we might receive glory and honor with Him.   O Lord, What is man, that you are thus concerned about Him?  I can hardly fathom this tremendous inheritance that you have procured for us.  The question remains, what is your response to this grace?  What is your response to Him today?  Will you bow your knee to Him, and worship Him, and exalt Him, and live for Him today?  He has given an invitation to all, to come to Him, to find remission of your sins and to have the new life which is eternal, in which we will find our fulfilled destiny as sons and daughters of God.  Do not delay.  Come to Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation.

Today I just want to examine these first four verses of chapter 2.  I don’t want to rush over this very important application and the question that Hebrews provides here in this section.  And so we are going to go word by word and line for line, to make sure that we get the full import of this message which was written to the early church, because it is applicable to the modern church as well, if not even more so.

Chapter 2 starts with the phrase “for this reason” or depending on your translation, it may say “therefore,” which points back to the argument given in chapter one, which was that it is the last days,  or the last era, and God has spoken in these last days through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The argument made the point that word or gospel which He has spoken is greater than that of the prophets of old.  They spoke having seen through a veil, not having the full revelation at that time.  But in these last days, God has spoken completely and perfectly through His Son.  Jesus is not a messenger from God, He is the message from God.  He has spoken perfectly through His Son. 

The other point made in this opening argument is that Jesus is far superior than the angels.  Angels, for all their supernatural power, are created beings.  And Jesus made all things, thus He made the angels.  Furthermore, He is the Son of God.  He is seated at the right hand of God.  And no angel was ever asked to sit at the right hand of God.  They were created to be ministering spirits for the sake of those who inherit salvation.  That is those of us who are saved.  Angels are messengers of God.  Jesus is God, and thus His message is superior not only because of His message, but because of His position.

Therefore, in light of all that preceded in the previous chapter concerning the superiority of Jesus as the Son of God, in light of the superiority of His word which He has spoken, the author then says, “For this reason, we must pay closer attention to the things which we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”

Now let’s break that down.  “We must pay closer attention to the things which we have heard…”  The KJV says we must pay more earnest heed.  The idea there is a danger of not paying close attention.  Earnestness indicates not only sincerity, but also a sense of intensity, and perhaps even urgency.  There is a very real and present danger to becoming complacent about the things of God.  The gospel is not just about a future salvation from hell, though it is definitely that.  But it is also a way of life.  Jesus said it was the words of life. It is the truth and the life.  It is the way to God.  It is the way of abundant life. It is the water of life that washes us clean.  It is the light that lights our path which keeps us from stumbling or even worse, from the  destruction that is on either side. 

It says specifically we must give more earnest heed to the things that we have heard.  Give heed to the word. Give heed to the preaching of the word.  Give heed to the reading of scripture. Give heed to the assembling of yourselves together.  The gospel, the word of God, is the things which we have heard.  They are like signposts on the road of life.  They are warnings to keep us from straying, to keep us from falling.  Bind the word of God upon your heart.  Write them upon your doorposts and put them on the back of your hands and upon your forehead.  In other words, take heed of the word.  Give earnest heed.  Pay closer attention.

We must pay closer attention because we are so easily distracted.  I think that the enemy has so designed the world so that there are  many distractions that keep us from the word. The world was a distracting place as it was, and then they invented cell phones.  People are so distracted now days that they are completely unaware of anything going on around them. People are routinely run over by cars or trains because they are distracted by their phones. The world is a distracting place.  And we need to renew a sense of urgency about what we have heard, lest we drift away from what is important.

That phrase, to drift away, speaks to the subtlety of falling away.  To drift is to be without an anchor.  To be without markers.  To be unaware of your bearing.  Sometimes I like to go to Assateague Island to surf.  And it’s a pretty neat surf spot if the wind and swell are in the right direction.  But one thing I don’t like about it is that sometimes it can be a little disorienting.  Especially during the winter time when there aren’t a lot of other people around.  I’m used to surfing at Indian River Inlet on the north side, and there is a jetty there which kind of keeps you in position.  But at Assategue there are not a lot of landmarks.  And a lot of times the current can really move you along without you realizing it.  I’ve often been out there for a while and then looked back at the beach and it looks totally unfamiliar.  Ive drifted so far along the beach, either because of the wind or currents, that I am not able to tell where I am.

And that tells us something about drifting.  Drifting is characterized by not realizing that you are moving.  It’s such a slow, imperceptible movement, and yet it is relentless. There is a danger in drifting in the Christian life. Let me tell you something that is very important.  Salvation is not obtained by our works, but salvation is worked out.  Phil.2:12 says, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”  In other words, the life of the Christian requires work.  

There are the currents of the world which are pulling at you, and moving you away from the Lord.  In surfing sometimes it takes a lot of paddling to fight against the current. And likewise it takes a lot of effort to keep from being swept along by the world. The winds of the spirits are doctrines of demons that toss you here and there, like the waves of the seas, causing you to drift away from the truth.  Perhaps the tides of life are causing you to drift, the rise and fall of fashions and trends and popular things which cause you to be distracted from the earnestness that is essential to faith.

Make no mistake, folks, faith is not easy. It’s not easy believism.  Theologians tell us that faith is comprised of three elements, which in Latin  are  notitia, assensus, and fiducia, which means “knowledge, assent, trust.”  Knowledge is important in that you have to have knowledge of the truth, and then believe in the truth, that is assent.  To recognize and believe that something is true.  But to have saving faith, you need the third element, which is trust.  And trust, ladies and gentlemen, is not simply an intellectual exercise.  It is faith in action.  It is putting your actions to  faith.  True faith is  swimming against the current. It is persevering.  It is holding on tightly. It is standing firm. Standing firm against the schemes of the devil.

There is an old story about an ungodly, evil farmer that died.  And it was discovered in his will that he left his farm to the Devil. So the estate ended up in court, and they didn’t quite know what to do with his bequest – how do you give a farm to the Devil? Finally, the judge decided: The best way to carry out the wishes of the deceased is to allow the farm to grow weeds, the soil to erode, and the house and barn to rot. He concluded, “In our opinion, the best way to leave something to the Devil is to do nothing.” We can leave our lives to the Devil the same way – by doing nothing, by drifting wherever the currents drive us.

So how do we protect against drifting away?  First, we need a sure anchor.  Hebrews 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.”  Jesus Christ is our anchor, He is our Savior, He is the strength of our life.  When we stay close to Him, and keep our eyes fixed on Him, He will be an anchor to us, to keep us from drifting. 

And again in chapter 10, we see that devotion to the Lord extrapolated to the devotion to the church. Hebrews 10:23-25 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;  and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another;] and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  Hold fast, that is to hold on tightly. Persevere.  To physically put yourself in the place where you are encouraged, where you are strengthened.  A place where you are exhorted, and if necessary, where you are corrected.  You need to be in church on a regular basis if you want to keep from drifting.  The devil will attempt to distract you from devotion to church with every strategy imaginable.  I urge you to make going to church and Bible study an essential part of your week.  Just the physical act of putting yourself in church is an act of surrender to the Lord.  And it is an act of war against the devil.  And I will tell you, it’s an encouragement to other believers, and a testimony to those who are weak.  We need to stop thinking of church just as something that is for our benefit, and realize that it is in church that we can encourage one another.  As it said in chapter 10: let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

Now let’s consider vs2, “For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty, how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”  What the author is referring to here is that the law in the Old Testament was conferred to Moses through angels.  There are three passages in the Bible that confirm this, I don’t have time to turn to them.  But in Deuteronomy 33:2, Acts 7:53, and in Galatians 3:19 they all speak of the angels of the Lord acting as messengers to Moses in delivering the law.  

And what he is saying to this primarily Hebrew audience is that you know the consequences and repercussions that were built into the law, and how the law given through angels was unalterable, or unchangeable.  Going against it was accompanied by dire consequences.  So if that is so with the word of angels, then how much more is it so with the word of the Lord Himself? Jesus came to earth and delivered this gospel in person.  Considering the significance and magnificence  of that, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

Now let me speak a moment to the idea of how shall we escape? What are we escaping?  The idea of salvation infers that we are being saved from a calamity.  We are being delivered from condemnation.  We are being rescued from the judgment and wrath of God that is coming upon the entire world.

And I want to emphasize that coming judgment by turning your attention to a few verses in which it is talked about. Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgement.”  There will come a day when God will judge man, and every word and deed will be called into question.  It’s not very popular today to talk about the judgment to come, or the wrath of God, but if it were not so, then why did Jesus have to die?  What are we saved from, if not from the condemnation of the world?  So I want to just read some verses that talk about the judgement to come and what we that have believed have escaped from.

Ecc. 12:14 “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether [it be] good, or whether [it be] evil.”

John 5:28-29 “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

Romans 14:11-12 “For it is written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
2Cor. 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things [done] in [his] body, according to that he hath done, whether [it be] good or bad.”

2Tim. 4:1 I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.” So without question, the Bible speaks of coming judgment.  And this judgment is often referred to as the wrath of God.

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” But thanks be to God, Christ has made a way to be saved from this coming wrath, when God shall judge the world.

Romans 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath [of God] through Him.”

2Peter 3:9-10 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

And then one more finishing up in Hebrews 10: 26 “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES.  Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses.  How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?  For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Now that is what we are saved from; the judgement that is coming upon the world. But as the author here speaks, “how shall we escape this judgment if we neglect so great a salvation?” The word ancient Greek word translated neglect is amelesantes, also used in Matthew 22:5 (they made light of it). This refers to those who disregarded the invitation to the marriage supper. It means to have the opportunity but to ignore or disregard the opportunity.

Our salvation is great, because we are saved by a great Savior, we are saved at a great cost, and we are saved from a great penalty.  What a tragedy if we should neglect it.  I think that this speaks not only to the one who has heard the truth, but has not yet come to saving faith, but it also speaks to those who are saved, who have neglected their salvation in that they are not living as Christ died to enable them to live. They neglect their salvation because having been delivered from the corruption and condemnation of the world, they go back to be being enslaved to the weak and worthless elemental things of this world all over again.  They are caught up by distractions.  They are corrupted by lusts of this world, the lust for money, the lust for power, the lust for possessions.  And being corrupted in their minds, they become enslaved to their temporal passions, and neglect the things of God. 

Let me explain something about this great salvation.  There are three parts to our salvation. There is first of all justification.  Justification is imputed righteousness.  It is having our sins forgiven, and the penalty of our sins paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ who died as our substitute, in our place. That justification is by grace, that means it is by a gift of God, through our faith in what Jesus did for us, and faith in who He is.

The second stage of our salvation is called  sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Of being remade in His image.  Of dying to self and sin and living for Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now this sanctification I think is where drifting most often takes place in the life of the believer.  A man can be justified by faith, yet the process of sanctification has been interrupted by being distracted, by being caught up in the rise and fall of the tides of the world, by being swept from your moorings by the winds and currents of worldly affairs. 

There is a third stage of our salvation which is glorification.  That comes when Christ returns and we are given a new body, when this sinful world is burned up and every thing is made new. But what I think Hebrews is warning us about is that it is this process of sanctification that is in peril because we are prone to drifting away from our purpose; to be holy, blameless, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And folks, do not be deceived, this sanctification is essential.  It is not an option.  Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

Now the author emphasizes the urgency of this gospel which we have heard by reiterating the origins and confirmation of the gospel.  Note first that it was announced by the Lord, that is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus speaking in HIs first recorded message read from Isaiah and said, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,  TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”(Luke 4:18)  Now there are many other places where the Lord is recorded as speaking of the gospel of the Kingdom which He was preaching.  But that will suffice for now.  He announced the gospel of salvation.

Secondly, the author says it was confirmed to us by those who had heard Him.  That means that this author was probably not an apostle, because he is not placing himself in the position of having heard Jesus directly as His apostles had.  But he is saying that he had heard it confirmed through the apostles, those who had heard Him.  And that is the record we have in the gospels, the record of eyewitness testimonies.  Those who were with Him, wrote it down, that we might have the confirmation of eyewitnesses.

Thirdly, he says that God also testified to their truthfulness by signs and wonders with gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His will. 2Cor. 12:12 says “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.”  So the authentication of a true apostle was the signs and wonders and miracles which God used to show that they were His apostles.  

There is a lot of interest today in signs and wonders and miracles.  But I believe the scriptures teach us that these miracles performed by the apostles were given to authenticate their message.  Consequently, when the scriptures were completed, there was no longer a need for authenticating miracles.   And furthermore, when the apostles passed away, there was no longer a need to authenticate their message.  There are no new apostles today, and there is no new revelation today.  However, that doesn’t mean that God cannot do miracles today.   I believe He does, but according to His will, as it says there in the fourth verse.  But the idea of the gifts of miracles to be given to a person today I think is no longer valid, in that the scriptures have been completed and God has spoken completely in His word.  And a thorough study of the scriptures will reveal to you that they are self authenticating.  They do not need authenticating miracles, except the authenticating miracle of a changed life.  

You either are a living testimony to the miraculous power of the gospel to save, or you are a stumbling block to the testimony of the gospel.  Your life is the greatest sermon many people will ever hear.  Do not neglect this great salvation.  Live it and share it, that God may get the glory for the great things He has done.

In conclusion then, I will reiterate the question; how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?  For those here today who may have never trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, to live for Him, how else can you escape the condemnation of the world?  How else will you escape the judgment from God? Someone said the most dangerous word in the English language is tomorrow.  Don’t put off until tomorrow making a decision to surrender to the Lord. Tomorrow may never come. Don’t neglect to take up the offer of this great salvation.

And for those who have been justified by His grace, by the sacrifice and substitute of Jesus Christ for the penalty of your sins, how can you neglect such a great salvation? How can you neglect the purpose for your life, for which Christ died?  I pray that regardless of which camp you find yourself in today, that today you will not drift away, but draw close to Him, and come to Him, that you might fulfill your salvation.

I close with the benediction found in the last chapter of Hebrews, chapter 13:20-21. “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,  equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

A noted theologian said that Hebrews is one of the three New Testament commentaries on a single Old Testament verse: “The just shall live by his faith,” found in Hab. 2:4 The book of Romans talks about what it means to be considered as just; to be justified is one who has been declared righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. The just shall live by faith. The book of Ephesians expounds on the words “shall live,” and it tells us about life as a justified person — the new life in the Spirit. Finally, the book of Hebrews takes up the last two words, “by faith,” and it shows us how what constitutes saving faith.

The concept of faith is sorely misunderstood today by many people. Great faith is presumed to be conjuring up an intensity of believing in something; something you want to see happen. But it’s not the size of your faith or the intensity of faith that matters. Jesus said “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed” in Matthew 17:20, you could move mountains. So it is not quantity that is essential to faith – it is the quality of your faith. It is what you faith is founded on that is important. What is the object of your faith? The strength of faith is directly related to the strength of what you believe in. What are you believing in? Or better yet, who are you believing in? What kind of a person is he?

When Hebrews talks about faith, the author wants us to see the object of faith, because our faith will be strong if we believe and understand that the object of our faith is strong. That is why this is the most Christ centered book in the New Testament. It focuses on Jesus Christ. If we see him as he is, we cannot help but be strong in faith. Ironically, in addition to be the most Christ centered book in the New Testament, it also quotes more from the Old Testament than any other book. Which shows us that Christ is the theme of all the scriptures.

Again and again in scripture we are instructed in phrases such as, “Looking unto Jesus,” “we would see Jesus,” “keep your eyes upon Jesus,” and so forth. All instructions to see Jesus, to look unto Jesus, to focus on Him. And yet how do we see Jesus? He is the word of God made flesh. And during His life time you could see Him in person. But after His death He ascended into heaven, as it says in vs.3 and now is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So how do we see Him now? Can we see Him now? Or is He just a figment of our imagination? Does this mean that we should conjure up a mental image of Jesus and let that be the way we see him? Maybe we should find a picture or statue that some artist thinks represents Jesus, and we should hold that image in our minds, so that we might “see” Jesus.

On the contrary, if we are to see Jesus, in all of His glory, then we must see him in the word of God. Only in the word can we be certain that we see Jesus in truth. If we are here this morning to worship Jesus, then we should remember that He said, “God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” You cannot see a spirit, they are invisible. But we can see Jesus, because we see Him in HIs word, and His word is truth. The word of God is how we see the complete manifestation of Jesus Christ. And let me add that it is a more complete picture found in the word, than even was seen by the eyewitnesses of his incarnation. They saw a man in the flesh. In order to see Jesus for who He was, that is God, they had to hear His words. We have the full revelation of His words which they did not have. So we can see Jesus even more clearly than they did.

In fact, in his flesh, it is very likely that it took even more faith to see Jesus as God. The flesh would have gotten in the way. Isaiah 53 says that in His flesh he was not good looking. In His flesh he had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him with favor. Isaiah even goes so far as to say that in His flesh, He was the kind of person who you would naturally want to turn away from. Such a person would be hard to imagine as being the Son of God. We would imagine that he would be handsome, rugged, built like a Greek god. In all the ancient artistic works of pagans, and even many Christian art works, the figures of deity are well formed, attractive, muscular. But Isaiah says that he was nothing like that. And so we find in the scriptures the most complete picture of Jesus.

The author of Hebrews wants to give to the Christian Jews a more complete picture of Jesus, in order to strengthen and inform their faith. In the first three verses, he has told us that God has spoken in these last days, most completely and finally in His Son. God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. And as the word made flesh, he is superior to every other word that was spoken in times past by the prophets. Jesus is far superior to the prophets, in that he is not just bringing a message from God, but He is God, and He is the Word of God. He is not just a messenger, He is the message; the word made flesh, the word manifested.

Then, in the section we are looking at today, still on this subject of messengers, he says that Jesus is greater than the angels. Angels are messengers of God. That is what the word aggelos (an-ga-los) means, a messenger. In vs14 speaking of angels it says “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” So now the author contrasts Jesus with the angels, and shows us through the scripture that Jesus is superior to the angels. In vs3 and 4 he says, “When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.” And he is going to tell us in the next verse that more excellent name, which is the name Son. And we will look more fully at that in a moment.

Now in order to show the superiority of Christ, he gives seven Old Testament quotations. Note that he doesn’t give their reference. There were no references in the scriptures at that time. References came many years after the Bible was completed. References and superscriptions are not inspired, by the way. They were added by early transcribers of the scriptures to aid in studying. So when the author quotes from the Old Testament, he doesn’t give a reference, he just begins to quote, as if the recipients were well familiar with the texts.

And yet the underlying purpose of his writing is that the Hebrews had grown dull in their faith. They had grown lazy, and were in danger of slipping back into formulaic Judaism, of going through the motions, of relying on rituals, of becoming religious, but having lost their first love. And yet they knew the scriptures to the point that he scarcely has to give any sort of reference, knowing that they were well familiar with these texts. I wonder, by contrast, how many of us find the following verses even the least bit familiar. Have we also become formulaic, do we rely upon rituals and the practice of external religion, but inwardly perhaps we are drying up?

The answer to our hard hearts, to our lost love, to our lack of zeal for the things of God is that we need to see Jesus. We need to look at Him in all His glory, and we need to see all that He has done for us, to make us His own. Let’s then look at these seven quotations, and let’s pray we see Jesus more clearly, that we might be conformed to His image.

So the author begins by saying: “For to which of the angels did he ever say, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You?” It’s a quotation from Psalm 2:7 which says, “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’”

The contrast the author wants to show is between a Son and a servant. Angels are servants, but Christ is the Son. Christ is greater because of his relationship to God, the fact that he is the Son of God. Angels collectively were sometimes called in the scripture sons of God. But no angel individually was ever addressed as the Son of God. Now the Hebrews understood that this Psalm spoke of the future Messiah, in which the fullness of the kingdom of David would be found.

And by the way, here is the answer to the cults. Both Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ was nothing more than an angel, the highest created angel. They identify him with Michael, the Archangel. But this passage in Hebrews destroys that theory, for Christ is a Son, and not an angel. To what angel did God ever say, “Thou art my Son.”

The second quotation comes from 2 Samuel 7:14,. “I will be his father,” says God, “and he shall be my son.” In 2 Samuel 7, after David aspired to build a house for the Lord, the Lord pronounced a blessing on David, and upon his house and kingdom, that is called the Davidic covenant. It consisted of promises that God would bless David’s heirs, and would establish his throne forever. Though Solomon would be a son to David, and God would bless his kingdom, it was understood that in the Messiah the promise would be fulfilled.

In this covenant, David is told that he’s to have an eternal throne, an eternal house, and an eternal kingdom. Now if he is to have an eternal throne, an eternal house, an eternal kingdom, then obviously it’s a descendant of David who’s going to sit on that throne. Now, what kind of a descendant must David have if he is to have an eternal throne, an eternal house, an eternal kingdom? The answer of course, is he is going to have a Son who is immortal, begotten of God, yet who will be of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David.

Now the question arises, in what sense is Jesus begotten? In what sense can God say, “today I have begotten you?” As Christians we believe that Jesus is eternal, that he existed in the beginning with God, as it says in John 1. “He was in the beginning with God.” He coexisted with God. So how was He born of God? Well, I believe he was begotten of God when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she became with child. The Word of God, the eternal Son, became flesh, was born of a virgin, and dwelt among us. The eternal Son laid aside His glory and took upon himself all the vicissitudes of humanity.

When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would have a son, he revealed that Jesus would be fully God, born of a woman, and of the line of David. Gabriel said in Luke 1:32, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” So, Christ is the Son of God, the name above every name.

The third quotation is found in Verse 6, “But when He again brings in the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all the angels of God worship Him.’”

“When he again brings the firstborn into the world,”is a reference to the Second Advent. The second coming of Jesus Christ. The author has just spoken of the first advent of Christ, when He is born a Son. Now he speaks of the second advent, when the Son returns to earth for His church.

Note that He is called “the firstborn.” In Psalm 89:27 God says, ““I also shall make him My firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.” Christ is called the firstborn because he exists before all creation and because creation is his heritage. Then in our text he says, “when He again brings the firstborn into the world…” The term for world is the inhabited world. Not cosmos, but oikoumene, the inhabited world. In other worlds, into this world of which we are a part.

Now, consider the term “worship.” “Let the angels of God worship Him.” This text comes from Psalm 97:7. Since he’s already been said previously here in this passage to have been appointed heir to all things, it would be natural then to speak of Him being introduced to His inheritance. And part of his inheritance is the worship of the angels of God; that is his legal heirship. All the angelic host is to render him divine worship. We only worship that which is superior to us. The worship of the angels at Bethlehem is testimony to the deity of the baby in the manger. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress said, “If Jesus Christ be not God, then heaven will be filled with idolators.” In Revelation and Daniel, as books that give us a view into the heavenly realms, we see ten thousand times ten thousands of angels engaged in worshipping the Son. So he is seen to be greater than angels by the demonstration of their worship.

The fourth quotation is taken from Psalm 104;4 which relates to the ministry of angels in the kingdom of God. Angels are spirits, according to vs14. Yet though their ministry is on a supernatural plane, and conducted in the spiritual realm, yet it is inferior to that of the Son of God. “Who makes the winds His messengers, and flames of fire His ministers.” Metaphorically the angels are said to exhibit characteristics of fire and wind, things which have immense power. But nevertheless they are created things which God controls and uses for His purposes.

Contrast that ministry to the next quotation, the fifth, which is taken from Psalm 45:6 which speaks of the Messiah. “Thy throne O God, is forever and ever.” And then vs7, “Therefore, (O)God, thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” In a greater sense than could ever be attributed to the successors of David’s throne, this Messiah is addressed not only as God’s Son, but also as God. He is both God’s Son and God.

Now this is not the only place where this designation is given to the Son. Besides John 1:1 which I quoted to you earlier, I would remind you of Isaiah 9:6; “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of [His] government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

The throne of the Messiah God, the Psalmist says, is forever and ever. His Kingdom will never come to an end. His kingdom is characterized by righteousness. Therefore God has anointed Jesus with an office far above His companions. His throne is exceedingly great and eternal. HIs throne is above all things, all powers, and all principalities.

The sixth quotation is taken from Psalm 102:25-27. As the Psalmist reflects upon his own mortality, and the brevity of his life and his reign, he extols the eternal nature of the kingdom of the Son. He says the Son of God laid the foundations of the earth, and all the heavens are the work of HIs hands. Though the heavens and the earth grow old like a garment and one day will be made new, yet the Maker remains. His days will never come to an end. His kingdom endures forever.

The seventh quotation, which concludes the argument, comes from Psalm 110. The author says, “But to which of the angels has He ever said, ‘Sit at My right hand, until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.” Already we have seen reference to Christ sitting at the right hand of The Majesty on high, in vs3. Now he expands upon that theme, asking which angel was ever given that position? The answer obviously is none of them.

Jesus Himself claimed at His trial that from then on they would see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father. The Council condemned Him to death for blasphemy after hearing that. But it has stood since that time as a principle doctrine of Christianity, that Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father where He ever lives to make intercession for us.

The most exalted angels are those whose privilege is to stand in service to God around His throne. But none of them has ever been told to sit on the throne next to Him. The angels, in vs14 are described as ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. They stand ready to speed to help those whom God has claimed as His own.

This salvation was purchased for us at such a tremendous price. The very Son of God became flesh and took on humanity. The Creator would lay aside His glory and put on the vesture of humility, to offer His life as a substitute for the sins of His creation. What a fearful thing it must be to reject such an incredible sacrifice by such a magnificent Savior. These Old Testament scriptures speak to the supremacy and sovereignty of Jesus Christ. Even the mightiest arch angels must bow to Him. And yet He has given mankind the choice to believe in Him or reject Him. The question today is will you bow to Him? Will you submit to Him in faith and obedience as your Lord and your God? That is the means by which we inherit salvation. The just shall live by faith in the Son of God.

As the second chapter asks us in vs3, “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? I pray no one walks out of here today without bowing to Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, and trusting in Him for the gift of His righteousness. The just shall live by faith. Simple faith in who Jesus is, and what He came to do, results in His righteousness being transferred to us, and our sins put on Him, that we might be justified, and have life in His name. Worship the Son. Psalm 2:12 gives both a blessing and a curse, as a divine response to either your faith in Him or your rejection. “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish [from] the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed [are] all they that put their trust in him.”

Today we are beginning a new study in the book of Hebrews.  Hebrews is one of my favorite books of the Bible.  I preached through it years ago, I’m not sure how long ago now.  In fact, I can’t find my old notes.  So I’m approaching it this time with a completely fresh perspective, hopefully one that has been enriched after preaching through the whole New Testament which we just finished with the book of Mark last week.

Many, many years ago, I used to have a part time job on the beach right over there every morning for a few hours. My job, for which I hope I was over qualified, was to chase people off the beach who wanted to walk their dogs.  It was not a very fulfilling job to say the least.  But I was attempting to supplement my income while I was starting this church and that seemed to be something I could do.  The good part of it though was I was able to spend a lot of time talking with the Lord and meditating on his word.  I used to bring my Bible and read it between canine interlopers. And for some reason, as I was reading and praying, I felt moved  to try to memorize the entire book of Hebrews.  

Well, I was unsuccessful.  Ambition alone is not a guarantee of success, I’m afraid. But I did manage to get about as far as chapter 4.  Chapter one is not that tough.  In fact, the first few verses are considered as some of the greatest prose in the Bible. But as you move along, and start encountering all of those Old Testament quotations, which seem to repeat themselves, it can be quite a challenge to keep it all straight in your mind.  And I’m afraid that my mind has been scrambled a few too many times back in the days of my youth. 

Today, I think I would be lucky to even quote the first three verses correctly.  But still, I think there is great benefit to memorizing scripture.  I can’t tell you how often I have called up some phrase or even a complete verse by memory that perfectly fits into a situation that I am experiencing. I think God can use that to speak to you.  And I believe there is a special blessing of God that accompanies memorizing His word.  I would encourage you to make a practice of it as part of your regular devotions.  Psalm 139 says, “your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” 

I would also encourage you over the next few months to read the book of Hebrews through.  It is a phenomenal sermon that teaches so much doctrine, and connects the story of redemption in the Old Testament with the New Testament in a way that other books of the Bible do not. There are more Old Testament quotations in Hebrews than in any other New Testament book.  About 29 quotations and 53 allusions from the Old Testament.  I believe you will be particularly blessed if you read through this book as we are studying it.  We are going to be in it for a number of weeks, perhaps about a year or so.  So you will hopefully have read it through many times during that time period, and I think you will get a lot more out of the messages. 

Now I could spend the whole time today introducing the book, but I don’t want to do that.  I will say by way of introduction that the author of Hebrews is unknown.  Who the author might be has been the subject of intense debate sense the second century.  Conservative commentators agree that it was probably written around AD 67, before the destruction of the temple, because the author speaks so much of the temple, and he does so without any indication that it has been destroyed.  The temple was destroyed in 70AD, so it would seem from that, as well as from other internal as well as external evidence that it was written before that time.

As to the question of who wrote it, I can only tell you who others have thought was the author. Clement of Alexandria said that Paul wrote it in Hebrew and Luke translated into Greek.  But many commentators believe that the language does not suggest Paul’s style.  It seems to be someone who was educated in classical Greek.  Paul was a Hebrew, and his Greek, by his own admission, was considered as rough. 

Others have suggested that Apollos wrote it, I believe that was Martin Luther’s suggestion.  That sounds intriguing, but no other writings exist from Apollos to compare it to. Barnabas was another very early suggestion.  My favorite, I suppose, would be Luke.  As a doctor, he would have had the classical education, He was a natural born Greek, and He would have been uniquely equipped to the style of argument that was popular with Paul, since he was the constant companion of Paul for many years. But the fact is, we do not know who wrote it.  However, we do know that the book was widely accepted by the earliest of the church fathers as part of the canon of inspired scripture, and thus ultimately authored by the Holy Spirit. 

Now there is much more that can be said in introduction, but I am going to leave that as it stands this morning, and dive into the book.  You can do your own homework and pursue some of the background information further if you want.  But I want to get into what God has said in this book of Hebrews in the short time we have left  this morning.

Jesus said in John 4:24, “God is Spirit, and they that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”  But how do we know the truth about God?  Paganism is man determining god as he imagined him.  Virtually all religions, ancient and modern, ascribe to God an invisible nature, at least as far as mere mortals are concerned.  And so recognizing that He is invisible, immortal, they then imagine various attributes of God, according to their own imagination, which is nothing more than superstition.  The point is, unless God chooses to reveal himself to us, we cannot know him.  We may realize certain invisible attributes of God by studying what the creation reveals about it’s maker.  For instance, we might learn a little about the nature of an artist by studying his artwork.  And the greater the amount of art  we have to study, then the more we might infer regarding the artist.  And such is true with God.  Romans 1 tells us that creation itself teaches us certain attributes of God, mainly his eternal nature and that He exists.  Some people stop right there.  They essentially worship nature, rather than the Creator.  And that too is paganism. But even if we have all of creation to study, we will still fall far short in really knowing God, so that we might worship him in truth.  The only way we might really know Him, is if He decides to reveal himself to us.

The author tells us that God spoke in ancient times to the fathers in the prophets, in various times and various ways.  God revealed himself partially, progressively down through the ages, successively adding revelation upon revelation.  Undoubtedly, the greatest father was no less than Adam, who after the fall must have been able to relate to several generations after him the glories of God. Adam actually lived 930 years, within a generation of the time of Noah. And then God spoke through Noah, then to Abraham,  to Moses and then a host of minor prophets, adding revelation upon revelation. God spoke in various ways, through dreams, through a burning bush, through smoke and fire, but always through His prophets. However, for thousands of years, this revelation was still only a partial revealing of God, and of His plan to redeem man from the fall.  There remained a better way, a more complete revelation of God, and that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  God spoke most completely, through Jesus Christ.

What the author of Hebrews is telling us in these opening verses, is that God has chosen to reveal himself, and He revealed Himself in His incarnation in human flesh, who is Jesus Christ.  God has spoken to us in His Son.  John makes the same argument in his gospel in chapter 1 starting in vs 1, identifying the Son as the Word, who was with God in the beginning, who was God, and through whom the world was made, and then who came to the world, revealed in human flesh, and dwelt among us on earth.  It isn’t so much that Jesus brought a message from the Father; He is a message from the Father. The idea is that Jesus is far more than the latest or best prophet. He has revealed something no other prophet could.

Also we should take note that the author says, “in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son…”  Don’t be confused by the phrase, last days.  It’s as if it is a two act play, the first act, and the last act.  Jesus Christ ushered in the last act, or the last days.  God’s word, God’s revelation to man is complete, given to us in these last days.

Notice also, that God does not bother to argue for his own existence.  He simply declares to us that He is.  That He has existed from eternity past.  God does not stoop to defend His existence.  The author simply begins with God’s existence and then extrapolates from that fact; “God, comma, after He spoke to the fathers in the prophets, in many portions and in many ways, in these last days have spoken to us in His Son…” The author presupposes a belief in God, but then what he does is he gives us an argument for believing in Jesus Christ. 

Why?  Because Jesus Christ is the way we come to know God. John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”  And because Jesus Christ is the means of salvation. John 14:6, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” So Jesus Christ is the way we come to know truth, and to worship God in spirit.  John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

Now there are seven reasons given in these opening three verses that compel us to listen to the Son, and believe that He has the authority to speak the truth of God.  These seven attributes elucidate the greatness and the character and the nature of the Son of God.

The first one is that God has appointed Jesus the heir of all things.  We believe in One God. But we believe the one God subsists in three persons; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The great historic creeds of the Christian Church affirm this. This is what Christians believe the Bible teaches; one God, who exists in three persons. So the Son possesses the nature of the Father; one divine nature in our Godhead, but he’s a different person, and He has a different role.

So we read, “He, the Father, has appointed Him heir of all things.” Heirship rests upon sonship.  Only a son can be an heir. Individuals who are not in the family can receive bequests, but heirship and sonship go together. And, later on in the epistle he will make that very plain. All things are eternally His, because the Father, the first person of the Trinity, has appointed

him heir of all things. So the inheritance of all things belongs to the Son of God, all things are eternally his.  All things belong to Him. He is King of all, Lord of all.

Secondly, all things were made by Him. And in John 1:3 we read “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” Worlds not only refers to the planets, to the universe, but also to the ages. The ancient Greek word here translated worlds is aion, from which we get our English word “eons.” It means that Jesus made more than the material world, He also made the very ages – history itself is the creation of the Son of God.

Colossians 1:16 says virtually the same thing; “all things were made through Him and for Him.” So that means all things, all physical things in the universe, and all the history of the ages, is made through Him and for Him.  That means we were made for Christ.  We were made to be the bride of Christ, to have fellowship with Him, to be in communion with Him.  And so it stands to reason that we will not find contentment or fulfillment in life apart from Him.  Some of you here today may see a relationship with God as a hindrance to fulfillment and happiness in life.  But in fact, the scripture says the opposite is true.  We cannot find fulfillment apart from Him because He made us for a relationship with Him. As Paul preached to the Greeks in Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and exist.”

The third attribute of Christ the author says is “And He is the radiance of His glory.” Athanasius, a preacher who lived in the third century said concerning the Light of Christ; “Who does not see, that the brightness cannot be separated from the light, but that it is by nature proper to it and coexistent with it and is not produced after it.” In other words, you cannot separate the source of light from the light it radiates.  We don’t think of the sun as having been created and then given light later on.  Light is inherent to the sun. It’s part of its being. Another early church father, Ambrose said, “Think not that there ever was a moment of time when light existed without radiance.”  So we read here that the Son of God is the radiance of the glory of God. There never was a time in which the glory of God did not have brightness. Jesus is the visible expression of God’s glory.

Jesus himself said of this light in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John’s gospel says the same thing. John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” And there we have a clear indication that light represents truth and life.  Jesus would say, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except by Me.” Light is the wisdom of God, revealed in Jesus Christ, which gives us eternal life.

Fourthly, “He is the exact representation of God’s nature.” He is the very image of the essence of God.  Just as an image on a coin is the exact imprint of the die, so Christ bears the very stamp of God’s nature.  As Jesus himself stated; “I and the Father are one.”  And again He said to Philip, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.”

What this means is that though God is invisible, a Spirit, we have the image, the exact representation of the invisible God stamped in the earthly flesh of man, that we might know Him as a person.  That we might know His personality, that we might know that He understands our frame, who emphasizes with us, because He became one of us. 

The fifth attribute of Christ is that “He upholds all things by the word of his power.” He is the One who bears all things along, that’s the meaning of the Greek word. He’s the Lord not only of history, but of prophecy. He is the Lord not only of the past, but the future. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is bringing about the completion and fulfillment of God’s plan and prophecy concerning the world.

Col.1:17 says, “by Him all things hold together.” I firmly believe that the only reason this world does not detonate like an atomic bomb is because Jesus Christ holds it together. “By Him we live and breathe and exist.” Scientists have developed something called The Large Hadron Collider which is a 17-mile  underground ring between France and Switzerland.  The purpose of this underground tunnel is that it speeds protons to within a hair’s breadth of the speed of light before they crash into each other.  Scientists then comb through the debris field of these micro particles in hopes of finding the source of life in the universe. What they call the God particle.  Well, the Bible tells us the source of life, and that is Jesus Christ.  By Him all things exist and have their being and hold together.  Just think of the billions of dollars that could be used for greater things if they just believed the Bible.

In the sixth attribute, the author moves from the cosmic functions of the Son of God to His personal relationship with mankind.  “He made purification of sins.”  God has now accomplished something that man was unable to do for himself.  After the fall, man inherited a sin nature, which resulted in sin, and sin brought forth death.  God through Christ has provided a divine substitute, to die in our place, that we might be saved.  1John 1:7 says “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.” Christ has performed the high priestly function of purging away sins, but not as the high priest of Israel did, year after year, but He has made a once for all sacrifice, and sat down at the right hand of God, because His sacrifice was so much better than all the other sacrifices which were done year after year by the earthly high priests. Such a sacrifice speaks beyond the eternal, immortal and potentially aloof attributes of a Holy God, to declare other marvelous attributes of His character, that of His love and mercy towards His people, that He would lay down His life for His friends.

On this Memorial Day holiday, we recognize and remember the sacrifice men and women made for this country in laying down their lives.  How much more should we memorialize the greatest sacrifice of the Son of God, in laying down His life for us.

The seventh attribute we already made mention of, “He has sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”  Majesty on high obviously refers to God.  However, it’s not necessarily  a reference to a location.  God’s throne is in heaven, in the spiritual realm, above all other power and authority.  At his right hand denotes the supremacy and exaltation of Christ to the place of authority and favor.  That Christ is seated there speaks to the excellence of His high priestly work, and the fact that His atonement was sufficient and complete and contrasted as so much better than that of the Levitical high priests who continuously stood and made sacrifices again and again.

At the Father’s right hand speaks to His authority, and position, and supremacy, as stated in Eph. 1:20-21 which says God “raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”

So the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is expressed to us in seven affirmations, that we might know that He possesses all the qualifications to be the perfect mediator between God and man.  He is the greater prophet through whom God has spoken His final word, He is the great High Priest who has accomplished man’s reconciliation with God through purification from sin, and He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who ascended to the Father’s right hand, far above all rule and authority.  

What then must our response be to Him?  If we believe in who He is, and what He has accomplished for us, there should be a response of worship and a duty to serve Him.  To have faith in Him, to believe in Him, is to worship Him as Lord God.  To submit to HIs authority over our lives, and live in service to Him.  Romans 12:1-2 tells us what this worship looks like. Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Jesus said that whoever believes in Him would be saved.  Belief or faith in Christ incorporates accepting all that the author of Hebrews has said concerning who Jesus is, and what He came to do.  Believing in Him is trusting in Him, that He can save you, if you will just submit to Him as Lord and God.  Romans 10:8-11 says, “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):  that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

You can receive forgiveness, you can receive righteousness, and you can receive eternal life through believing in Jesus Christ.  God has spoken in HIs Son. Believe in Him and be saved.  

It has been our policy to preach through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, for many, many years now, even long before we officially became The Beach Fellowship. I started preaching through the New Testament way back in the day when we were Christian Surfers meeting at Salt Pond. And so today is a special day, because today is the day when I finish preaching through the entire New Testament. I haven’t figured out exactly how many years it has taken me, but it’s about 15 or 16 years. Along the way we also preached through Genesis, the Psalms, most of 1 and 2 Samuel, Daniel, and a few of the minor prophets. We have preached through Ephesians twice now, and starting next week, we will begin a second tour through the book of Hebrews on Sunday mornings.

So it is amazing, really, that God has given me the opportunity to preach through the New Testament, and that I stand here today after 16 years, still doing what we started out doing all those years ago. However, let me say in clarification that preaching through the Bible is not just some academic exercise that helps us to feel superior to other churches which don’t study the Bible. We preach the Bible because we believe it is the inspired Word of God, which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, and that it’s doctrines equips the church with everything necessary for life and godliness.

Mark began this book by calling it a gospel, in ch.1 vs 1. He now concludes it, in chapter 16, with the Lord Jesus sending His disciples out to preach this very gospel in vs 15. And we stand before you today preaching this same gospel, as evidence of the power of the gospel, and the eternal purpose of the gospel.

The gospel simply means the good news of Jesus Christ. That Jesus was God, revealed in the flesh, who came to bear our sins, to be our substitute, that He was crucified, buried and rose again, and now lives to make intercession for us, and to be with us in HIs Spirit, until He returns even as He was taken up, to claim His church as His bride. That is the gospel, and those who have believed it, and accepted Jesus as their Savior and Lord, have been born again to a new life in Him.

There is a move today in Christianity that no longer really preaches the gospel. They may sound like they still espouse faith in God, but they are teaching a new gospel, which Paul says is not really the gospel at all. They eliminate all the thorny doctrines like sin and hell and judgment, and just talk about love, which has been reduced to some kind of sentimental euphemism for embracing diversity. I read recently about a new kind of Christianity that is becoming popular in Colorado, and the traditional church has been replaced by coffee shops and craft beer infused get togethers to talk about social issues. That’s not the gospel.

The royal wedding this weekend was yet another example of the popularity of the social gospel. The Episcopal priest speaking at the wedding was given kudos by the left leaning media for his embracing, socially unifying message of love, which quoted from all sorts of liberal sources, but avoided the true message of the gospel. Listen, love means that God sent Jesus to be tortured and beaten and nailed to a cross to pay the penalty for your sins and mine. In spite of what the bishop said that we need to love ourselves, the first and foremost commandment is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And the only way we can know how to do that, is if we preach His word faithfully, and obey His word. Jesus said if you love Me, you will keep My commandments. We will keep His word.

Now last week we looked at the first eight verses of chapter 16 concerning the resurrection. And some of you might notice in your Bible version that the remainder of the chapter is set apart in some way, and there may be notes which say that the following verses are not found in the oldest known manuscripts. Many Biblical scholars have debated for centuries as to whether or not these verses were actually penned by Mark, or were appended at a later date by various editors.

I am not a Biblical scholar, nor a Greek language expert. And there are men on both sides of the aisle that I look up to who take opposing views concerning these last eight verses. However, I feel a certain reluctance to discount a passage of scripture on the basis of most modern criticisms. I would tend to think that though there may be problems with this text from certain perspectives such as style or terms used, or older copies versus less older copies, yet I would tend to believe that God has intended these verses to be included in Mark as accurate and reliable.

It is true that the oldest copies of the Greek manuscripts do not contain these twelve verses, but it is also true that the overwhelming majority of the Greek manuscripts that we have today do contain these verses. And it is also true that two of the earliest church fathers, writing from the beginning of the second century, quote from this passage. So it is clear that, from the very beginning, the church has accepted these twelve verses as authentic, even though there is some dispute today that they may not have come from the hand of Mark.

My personal opinion is that it’s likely that Mark’s original letter continued after verse 8. Ending at vs8 would be an odd way to end a book, and it’s at odds with the way the other gospel writers ended their books. But probably something happened to the end of the original manuscript, and the early church fathers wrote a summary of what Mark had written as a way to finish off the book. It’s also a good possibility that these last 8 verses are original to Mark, but there were other verses that were interspersed in this passage which were lost for some reason or another. And so what we have sounds a bit disjointed, and seems different stylistically, but it may be due to the fact that some connecting verses were lost.

Irregardless, many very early Christian writers refer to this passage in their writings, such as Papias, AD100, Justin Martyr, AD 151, Irenaus, AD 180, Hippolytus, AD 190, Vincentius and Augustine also wrote concerning this passage in the around AD 200-250. This shows that the early Christians knew about this passage in the Gospel of Mark and accepted it as genuine.

So we are going to accept it as genuine, as something that the early church accepted as the gospel, and now let’s move on and look at what it says. There are three divisions of this passage; the first verses, 9-14, deal with the basis of apostolic belief; verses 15 and 16 deal with the commission of apostolic preaching; and the final verses 16-20, deal with the confirmation of the apostolic witness.

Let’s look first at the basis of apostolic belief. In vs 11, Mark emphasizes that initially the apostles, when told of Mary Magdalene’s experience, did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. You will remember at the beginning of the chapter how the women had come to the tomb early in the morning, at the first light of dawn, and found the stone rolled away and saw the angel. The angel told them that Jesus was not there, but He had risen. But they did not see Jesus then.

According to John’s gospel, Mary Magdalene had gone ahead of the others and, seeing the empty tomb, she ran to tell Peter and John immediately. Evidently she did not hear the angel’s explanation. Peter and John both ran to the tomb. Peter went inside and saw the grave clothes lying there still wrapped as though they were around a body, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head was folded and placed aside. This convinced Peter and John that indeed Jesus was risen, but they still had not seen him.

Mary Magdalene returned more slowly to the tomb and as she stood weeping in the garden she saw what she thought was the gardener, she asked him where they had laid the body of Jesus. Jesus spoke her name and she then recognized Jesus. This was the first appearance of the risen Lord to a disciple. He came first to Mary Magdalene. She ran and told the other disciples. But Mark tells us that when Mary told them that Jesus was alive and that she had actually seen him, they did not believe it.

In vs12, Jesus appears to two other disciples on the road to Emmaus. “After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country.” Notice that Jesus appeared to them in a different form. He disguised Himself to them in some way. Luke 24 tells that as they walked along with Him discussing the things that had recently happened concerning His crucifixion and resurrection, He began with Moses and the prophets and showed them from the scriptures all the things that referred to Messiah. Later as they sat at table with him and saw his hands as he broke bread, they recognized their crucified Lord. Then He disappeared.

These two disciples came back to Jerusalem immediately and told the eleven what they had seen, but, in Verse 14, Mark says the eleven did not believe them. “Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.”

It’s interesting that the disciples are having such a hard time believing that Jesus had risen from the dead. They don’t really even want to believe other eyewitnesses. And yet that is exactly what their own ministry would be founded on. They were eyewitnesses to HIs majesty, to His miracles, and they would be eyewitnesses to His resurrection and ascension, and so it would be incumbent upon the hearers of the gospel to believe their eyewitness testimony. Yet they themselves were slow to believe.

Jesus himself expected the eleven to believe before they saw him. He wanted and expected them to believe the reports of the eyewitnesses who had seen him. They were trustworthy persons and were reporting what they themselves had actually experienced, and that should have been enough to convince these disciples that Jesus was risen from the dead. So concerned is Jesus about this that He rebukes them. Even as He did in the days of His ministry, so now, He, as their living, risen Lord, rebukes them for their unbelief. He takes them to task because they refused to believe those who had seen Him. You can see the importance Jesus attributes to this matter of believing eyewitnesses.

Because that is what one of the pillars our faith is to be founded upon; the testimony of credible witnesses. Paul wrote later that 500 people saw the risen Jesus at one time. We have reliable testimony. The apostles were reliable witnesses, and we are required to believe their testimony. When we have adequate, trustworthy witnesses who report to us what they have seen, we are expected to respond with belief. These men saw the risen Lord. They were granted a privilege that we are not granted; but nevertheless, our faith can rest upon solid foundation. Even though we have not seen him, we believe because of the eyewitness accounts recorded in the word. And as Jesus would tell doubting Thomas later who persisted in disbelief, those who do not see and believe will receive a greater blessing. John 20:29 “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Next, let’s look at the apostolic commission starting in vs15. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” Notice that there are two main points in the command which Jesus gives here. “Go” and “preach.” Just as the Savior seeks and saves those that are lost, so are we to seek the lost. To go into the highways and byways and invite the lost into the kingdom of God. To go into our neighborhoods, our communities and preach the gospel. To go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel. Not all of us are called to be pastors, or missionaries, or as in this case, apostles, but we are called to be ambassadors to a lost world, to tell them the good news of Jesus Christ. Preaching is proclaiming the good news, the news of Christ’s life and death and resurrection through which believing we are saved, converted, changed, and we receive eternal life.

The good news is that the power of evil in your life and mine can be broken! Sin no longer controls us and ruins and robs us of life. The bondage of sin is broken by the power of the resurrection of Jesus. The living Lord Himself lives within us and imparts to our life the power of Christ. This is the good news, and this is the gospel we are to preach. That is what Scripture calls being saved. That is why Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Notice the order there. Belief comes first, baptism follows. Believing is the means of justification, we are justified by faith, which is believing, trusting in the Lord to save. Then baptism is the evidence of salvation, being obedient to what the Lord says. What Jesus means is that belief ought to be real, and the reality of that inward belief is demonstrated by the outward action of baptism. Only that belief that changes us and converts us is real saving faith, and the way that we can demonstrate it is by being baptized. In other words, belief is action, not just an intellectual exercise. It changes your life, and as Jesus was raised to life, so we die to sin and are raised to new life in Him which results in righteousness. That is what baptism symbolizes, new life after dying to sin.

Maybe some of you here today may have never liked the word saved. But what it means is that we are hopeless and helpless, drowning in our sins and the condemnation of that sin, and the good news is that Jesus Christ has come to rescue us, save us. The late RC Sproul said, “God doesn’t just throw a life preserver to a drowning person. He goes to the bottom of the sea, and pulls a corpse from the bottom, takes him up on the bank, breathes into him the breath of life and makes him alive.” Being saved is being delivered from death, but also being changed from a life held captive to sin, to a new life through the power of Christ in us.

Knowing the unbelief that would face these apostles as they testified to the gospel, the Lord now goes on to give them certain signs which will accompany and encourage them in preaching the gospel. This climate of unbelief is the setting in which Jesus promises these signs in verse 17, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; If they pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Now of all the verses in this passage that are problematic, from my perspective these are the most problematic. And I think it really comes from a popular misunderstanding that what Jesus is saying is that all future believers will experience these signs. But I think that the context of the passage indicates that Jesus is saying the apostles will exhibit these signs, as a testimony to their witness. These signs were testimony to the authenticity of the apostles’ message. God would confirm their word by signs and wonders. And Paul speaks of that in Second Corinthians 12:12: “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” Hebrews says the same thing; Heb. 2:3-4 “how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”

These, then, are the signs of an apostle. They were authenticating signs to accompany those who first went out with the gospel into an unbelieving and hostile world. Consequently, I believe that these apostolic sign gifts expired with the apostles. The word of God which they have spoken has all the authentication that it needs. It has stood the test of time. It has stood the test of thousands of critics through the centuries. But even more importantly, it has changed millions of lives. It has proven to be powerful to save millions and millions of people through the centuries. And furthermore, scripture authenticates scripture. The scriptures authenticate themselves as you study it and read it. You find it proves itself over and over. There is no more need for signs and wonders to authenticate new revelation. The revelation is complete, and it is in our hands as the Holy Scriptures, the word of God, which was given to us through the agency of the apostles.

So what were these signs? Well, they would cast out demons. We see evidence in the scripture that the apostles did this before the ascension of Christ, as well as after Pentecost. They will speak with new tongues. This was a sign that was fulfilled at Pentecost as everyone heard the gospel in their own language. And it continued for a time as the gospel reached the Gentiles. Peter, preaching at Pentecost, says that the new tongues were a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28, “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.” Peter says in Acts 2:15-16 “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel.” So that was fulfilled at Pentecost. It’s not something that is prophesied for the end of the age as is often taught. It was a sign of an apostle.

Furthermore, the disciples would have power to survive physical attacks upon their lives. Bitten by a poisonous serpent, they would not die. If they accidentally drank poison, they would not die. They would have power to survive, that the gospel might go out. This would be one of the authenticating signs given to them. You remember that Paul endured a snake bite when shipwrecked on an island, and he did not die. And consequently, he was able to share the gospel with the people there. He survived stoning, and also he survived being thrown to the lions. Peter was released from prison. So God was able to providentially protect the apostles until their mission was finished here on earth.

The fourth sign is power to heal, to lay hands upon the sick, and they will recover. Acts records many examples of the apostles being able to heal the sick and even raise the dead. Again, this was to authenticate their message as being from God.

So God gave these authenticating signs to the apostles as confirmation of the word that they were preaching. And the last paragraph tells us that after the Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven, the apostles confirmed the power of the gospel by going throughout the world preaching the gospel and God working through them in establishing not only the scriptures, but the universal church. As Ephesians 2:19 says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

So Mark closes this gospel of his with the Lord ascending into heaven, living as Lord in the midst of his church, directing its events, planning its strategy, carrying it unto the farthest reaches of the world. And the apostles, scattered throughout the known world of that day, preached this good news, their witness being confirmed by these great signs. They thus laid the foundation of the great building that Paul calls the church, the body of Christ, that has grown through all the centuries since.

Listen, the gospel has been preached to you today, just as it was 2000 years ago. As Isaiah the prophet spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” You can receive the good news, believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ, and be saved, receive new life, abundant life. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is able to remake you, and make you into a child of God, if you will just repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. I trust that you will trust Him today, and call upon Him to save you. The Lord is mighty to save all who come to Him in faith.

Today we are looking at the last chapter of Mark, particularly the section of scripture in which he records the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  The chapter begins early Sunday morning.  We ended our message last Sunday speaking of the burial that happened after the crucifixion which was on Friday afternoon.  You will remember that Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus were in a hurry to bury Jesus’s body because the Sabbath was quickly approaching.  The Sabbath was counted by the Jews from sundown on Friday, to sundown on Saturday.  We count our days from midnight to midnight.  But without clocks, it was more feasible to count the day as ended at sundown and a new day continuing until sundown the next day.  

During that time, on the Sabbath, Jesus’s body was in the tomb.  If you were here last week, then you may remember that I attempted to describe what may have transpired while Jesus’s body was in the tomb.  1Peter 3:18 tells us “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.”  

Now I am not going to preach that message again.  Once was painful enough, I suppose.  I told my wife later that I thought last week’s message was probably the worst message I ever preached. And I said, “What did you think?” Hoping she might reassure me.  But she said, “Oh, I’m not sure, there have been so many!”  

The point though is that during this dark interval between the cross and the resurrection, though His body was in the tomb, yet Jesus was alive in the Spirit, and as the Apostle’s Creed declares, in His Spirit He descended into Hades.  In some mysterious way, in every respect, Jesus paid in full for our sins through His death.   Someone has well said, that the death of Jesus on the cross was the payment, but the resurrection was the receipt, showing that the payment was perfect in the sight of God the Father.  The fact that Jesus was resurrected is proof that God considered the sacrifice of Jesus as fully acceptable and perfectly fulfilled for our justification.

Now I want to briefly make a few notes on the record of Christ’s resurrection as recorded by Mark.  I don’t feel the need to try to fill in all the blanks in Mark’s account from the other gospels.  I think it’s sufficient to note certain points that he wanted to make concerning the record of the resurrection.  Then I would like to show the relevance of the resurrection.  What does it mean for us?  It must be more than just a historical record.  And I believe that the relevance of the resurrection is central and crucial to  biblical Christianity.  Without it, there is no good news.  

The resurrection is the cornerstone of gospel promise. It is the primary theme of worship and praise because the resurrection is the source of eternal life for believers; because He lives, we live also. Without the resurrection, the cross, the death of Christ, would be meaningless. Without the resurrection, the cross would be powerless. If Christ is not raised, according to 1 Cor.14, then your faith is in vain, the gospel is worthless and you are still in your sins…if Christ is not raised.  So we need to understand the resurrection’s relevance.

And then, finally, I want to show our response to the resurrection.  It’s not enough to simply believe or accept it in some superficial, historical way, but it demands a response.  And that response involves an invitation and a proclamation.

So let’s begin first with the record of the resurrection.  Mark’s account is the briefest of all the gospels.  He begins with the same people he left off with at the end of chapter 15 on Friday evening.  With the women who witnessed the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ.  These women were those who had followed Him from Galilee.  They had ministered to Him during His travels and ministry, perhaps with financial support, and caring for His needs during His preaching.  They supported Him.  And though all had forsaken Him, these women were faithful through the crucifixion, the burial, and now the first at the tomb early Sunday morning.

There is a principle that is taught in 2 Samuel during the time of David’s wars.  Some of the men stayed behind with the baggage while the others went on to fight the battle.  And after the victory, some mean spirited men wanted to keep the spoils from being shared with the ones who stayed behind.  But David wisely made a tradition, established a principle, which said that the ones who stayed behind with the baggage should share as fully in the spoils as those who fought on the front lines.  And that principle remains  true for these women, who were in the background, serving the Lord, and who gave a great service to the Lord, even though it was unheralded.  So much of the important work of the Kingdom is done by people who are out of the limelight, who support the ministry in the background.  But in the consummation of the Kingdom, they will receive the same reward as those who were on the forefront of the battles.  

The next item of note is that it was early on Sunday morning, what was called the first day of the week. You know, this message would seem to be better preached on Easter, when we formally celebrate the resurrection.  But we also celebrate the resurrection every Sunday.  We meet on Sunday because Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week.  Sunday became known as the Lord’s Day.  And since the earliest days of the church, Christians met on the Lord’s Day in worship.  The Sabbath was the day of rest which God instituted for man during the Old Testament times looking forward to the rest from our labor that we would have in Jesus, but with the resurrection of Jesus Christ that was changed to the first day of the week, in celebration of the new life we have in  Jesus Christ.  We are no longer under the law of the Sabbath, as Paul said in Colossians 2:16, “no one is to act as your judge in regards to a Sabbath day.” So the fact that it was early on Sunday morning is important to our theology.

There is another item in the record which bears pointing out, and that is the extremely large stone that the women were aware was blocking their access to Jesus body.  It was beyond their ability to move.  And so, to a certain extent, they went to the tomb in faith that somehow they would be able to access the body.  They probably were unaware that Pilate had commissioned a detachment of soldiers to guard the tomb, and that they had put a seal on it, so that it could not be opened.  But the other gospel’s tell us that God had sent an earthquake and an angel to roll away the stone, so that the soldiers ran away afraid.  

The point that needs to be made, is that Jesus did not need the stone rolled away in order to be able to get out of the tomb.  In John 20, we see Jesus in His risen body walking into a locked and closed up room to visit the disciples.  In His risen body doors and walls did not hinder Him.  So He had  already left the tomb before the stone was rolled away. The angel rolled the stone away so that the disciples could enter and witness that He wasn’t there.

But in that early morning darkness, the thought of the great stone across the door to the tomb must have been a great deterrent to the women’s desire to tend to body of Jesus. They could have given up before they ever even started out.  And what a loss they would have if they had not ventured out in faith, in spite of the perceived obstacles. 

There are a lot of perceived  impediments even today in coming to Christ.  There are all sorts of obstacles that we think hinder us from coming to faith in Christ.  But the lesson here is that we come in faith, in spite of the darkness, in spite of our lack of understanding, but believing that God can remove those obstacles, that He can move those mountains that seem to be impeding us, and when we come in the little faith we have, we will find that God has already provided a way, and our little faith will give way to a greater faith. Psalm 36:9, “In thy light we see light.”  As we walk in faith in the light we have been given, God grants greater light for the path ahead.

Notice also when they entered the tomb they saw an angel sitting at the right side of the tomb.  Mark describes him as a young man in a white robe.  The other gospels tell us it was an angel.  I think Mark is also obviously describing an angel, but in appearance he resembles a young man, though in a glorified state.  The women are amazed, frightened.  Angels are a messenger of God.  That is what the word means, messenger. Hebrews 1:14 tells us concerning angels, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? And God wants these women to know what has transpired, not to speculate, not to wonder what happened to Jesus.  But to know, by the word of God, that Jesus of Nazareth was no longer in the tomb, but He had risen from the grave, and would go before them to meet them in Galilee. 

So the angel declared that Jesus was risen.  And that they would meet Him in Galilee.  Some of them would in fact see Him later that very day.  But the point is, that the death of Jesus was not the sad end of a tragic tale of a good man.  The resurrection offered hope of a new life, a new relationship with Jesus who lived, to whom death had no power, and because He lived, we might live.  Because He was resurrected, we too have the hope of resurrection.

You know, in a court of law, there is no greater evidence that can be given than that of eyewitness testimony.  A person can be sentenced to death on the basis of two eyewitnesses testimony.  The fact of Jesus’s resurrection is something Paul said was attested to by more than 500 eyewitnesses.  So the credibility of the record of the resurrection stands as a historical fact.  There are many other details of the events surrounding the resurrection that we could review.  Some of those will be discussed next week as we look at the remaining 8 verses.  But for now I would like to leave the record, and move on to the second point, which is the relevance of the resurrection.  What is the meaning of the resurrection, and what significance does it have for me?

First, the resurrection means that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God.  We read in Romans 1:4, (Jesus) “was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  If Jesus was not resurrected, then He was just a man with delusions of glory.  But because He was resurrected, and ascended bodily into heaven, it is evidence that He was who He claimed to be, the Son of God.  And only because He was the Son of God, was His sacrifice acceptable. Because Jesus bore all our sins in His death and because His sin-bearing satisfied God, God gave to us all His righteousness. Justification is God crediting the righteousness of Christ to us, imputing the righteousness of Christ to our account. Because God raised Him from the dead, God was affirming the completeness of His sacrifice for sinners.

Secondly, the resurrection means that we have assurance of our own resurrection: 1Thess. 4:14 says, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” That means that those who are asleep in Jesus, that have died in faith, will be raised from the dead, raised from Paradise to glorification with Christ.  We will be given new bodies, to live in a new heaven and new earth, forever with the Lord. That’s the hope of the resurrection. Because He lives, we live.

Next,  the resurrection teaches us that God has an eternal plan for our lives. The resurrection means that death no longer has any power over us.  Jesus said, “he who believes in Me will never die.”  This life is but a foretaste of what is in store for those who are in Christ.  In the life to come, we will judge angels, we will rule and reign with Christ.  There may be worlds upon worlds out there in the cosmos that God will give to us to reign over.  I don’t know.  Paul said “eye has not seen, and ear has not heard.”  We can’t imagine the life that God has prepared for those who love Him.

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul relates our bodies to a seed, which as it dies is put into the ground, and comes up in the resurrection as a new body.  1Cor. 15:42-44 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;  it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;  it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Vs. 53 “For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 

Fifth, the resurrection means that Jesus has a continuing ministry: Hebrews 7:25 says, “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.”  We have a great high priest, positioned at the right hand of God, who ever lives to make intercession for us.  We have an advocate in the heavens, a mediator between God and man.  He who gave His life for us, how will He not freely give us all good things that we need?  That’s the continuing ministry of Jesus Christ who ever lives. 

6, The resurrection means that Christianity and our God are unique and completely different than other world religions.  There is no other religion which claims that their God became man, who died for their sins and rose from the dead, so that He ever lives to help them and minister eternal life to them.  

7, The resurrection proves that though the world considered Jesus as a common criminal, worthy of death, God considered Jesus as the righteous substitute who took our sins upon Himself, to bear the penalty of our sin.  As I said earlier, the death of Jesus on the cross was the payment, but the resurrection was the receipt, showing that the payment was perfect and complete in the sight of God the Father.

Now let’s consider the last point I want to make in this sermon, and that is the response to the resurrection.  It is not enough to hear the facts of the resurrection, to learn the doctrines of the resurrection, but it is also necessary to respond to the resurrection.  It is the climatic conclusion to the gospel which demands a response from all who hear it.  And so we see in the passage two aspects to the response, first an invitation, and then a proclamation on the part of those who have accepted the invitation.  

First, let’s consider the invitation.  As spoken through the angel, the women received a message from Jesus they had to deliver. He says, “Go and tell the disciples…” We might think of this message as an invitation, because through this message the disciples were invited to meet with Jesus.  The angel says in vs7 “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.'”

This illustrates that the invitations of Jesus are invitations based on grace. The disciples had completely failed Jesus. He had every right to be done with them, but in grace He extended this kind invitation to them.  None of us have an invitation from God based on our own worthiness, but on HIs worthiness.  He is worthy of our devotion because He is faithful to love us to the end, to love us even when we desert Him, and to call us back to fellowship with Him.  God wants complete fellowship with us.  That is why we were created.  The fall broke that fellowship.  The resurrection restores that life with God that we were designed to have.  But it is in the form of an invitation to come to Him, to believe in Him and trust Him with our very lives.

This invitation illustrates for us that the promises of Jesus are always fulfilled on His part. He said that He would meet them in Galilee and according to John 21:1 He did just that.  And the Lord has given us many gracious promises as well. He says if we believe in Him, then one day we will see Him in glory, and having seen Him as He is, we will be like Him.  Jesus not only prophesied concerning His own death, but He also promised His resurrection.  “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”  He fulfilled His promise, so that we might be certain that He will fulfill HIs promises to us.

Jesus’s invitation shows us that Jesus want’s to reveal Himself more fully to us.  The angel said, “He is going before you into Galilee, there you shall see Him.”  The main objective was to see Him, for Jesus to reveal Himself to His people.  And the main goal of our faith is that one day we will see Him face to face.  And as a result of that great experience of seeing our Lord in all of His glory, we will be changed to be like Him.  I can’t imagine what that will look like.  But we know that He keeps His promises.  As we were made in His image, in HIs likeness in the first creation, then how much more so will we be like Him in the new creation, when He makes all things new.

When Jesus invites us He always remembers His promises. “As He said to you,” the angel added to the invitation. What Jesus says, He will do, and He can never fail in any promise.  I would ask you today, have you ever accepted Jesus invitation?  He has promised life, forgiveness, peace, joy, eternal life to those who believe in Him.  But if you never accept the invitation, if you never act on it, then you will remain dead in your sins. Jesus has extended to you a personal invitation, to be saved, to be forgiven, to receive eternal life, based on repentance from sin, and faith in Him.  Have you responded?  

Then for those who have responded in faith, there is one more aspect to that response, and that is to go and tell, to proclaim the good news. Until He returns that is our job one, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.  People are perishing all over the world, without hope, and Jesus provides the antidote.  But He wants us to be the ones to administer it.  

Mark says “and they said nothing to anyone:” This does not mean that they made no report of the resurrection because we know plainly from the other gospel accounts that they did (Mark 16:11 and Luke 24:9). What he probably means is that as they left the scene of the empty tomb, they did not immediately do what they were told because of the fear and trembling that they felt.  Maybe it means that they did not go home and tell their families or neighbors at first, because of the amazement that overwhelmed them.  But we know eventually that they did tell the disciples.  And gradually word spread about the resurrection of Jesus, so that as Paul reported, at one point more than 500 people gathered to see the risen Savior. 

We too have been given a mandate to go and tell.  But I’m afraid we too are often amazed and fearful and trembling.  The sad thing is, that we aren’t afraid because we have seen an angel, we aren’t trembling because we have witnessed the power of God in resurrection.  But we are afraid because of men, and what they might say about us, or think about us.  

I pray that we might be more like David, who said in Psalm 56:11, “In God I have put my trust, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?”  If we really believe in the power of the resurrection, then we have no reason to fear man.  If we really trust in the power of God to raise men from the dead, then we have no reason to be afraid.  We can be bold because we know the truth that leads to salvation.  We have the antidote that a dying world is in dire need of.  I pray that we will not keep to ourselves what God has done for the benefit of the world.  Let’s go forth with joy and confidence that we have the good news of salvation, and may the God who raised Jesus with power from the grave go before us.

Death is something that is inevitable, it comes to us all.  And yet I suppose, for something that is so universally common, considering it on a personal level is studiously  avoided.  At the risk of sounding overly morbid, the reality is that all of us are dying.  When we are young, death seemed like such a distant, otherworldly concept, that scarcely concerned us.  We live like we will live forever.  But as we get older, as we see more and more of death, and as we see considerably more of the sands of time in the bottom of the glass than is left in the top, the reality of death becomes something which seems more inevitable.

Still, I think most people try to avoid thinking of death right up to the bitter end.  There is no other reason that explains why people live the way they do.  Right up to their last breath, it seems many people continue in their amusements and enterprises as if they will live forever.  

Funerals are a mechanism which can cause people to stop and think about death and dying.  However, I think there is even a tendency today to do away with funerals because people don’t want to think about it.  A big trend today is to cremate someone and then at a more convenient time have something often called a celebration of life.  

But I would suggest that death is something we need to think about, and even embrace, to a certain extent.  I suggest that the scripture talks a great deal about death and burial because it is a vital part of the sequence of life.  It is a vital part of our existence, and it’s a vital part of our salvation.  For this reason I believe we are given details of the burial of Jesus Christ.  In fact, I think that God deliberately planned for the burial of Jesus Christ, that He might teach us certain important principles.  There could have been other ways in which Jesus could have died, and satisfied the wrath of God, but not have included a burial.  But the burial of Jesus Christ is an essential link in our salvation, which God orchestrated down to the smallest detail. 

As we look then at the death and burial of Jesus Christ, we need to understand the necessity of His death.  As I said a moment ago, in reality all of us are dying.  Ephesians 2:5 and Colossians 2:13 says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins.  This deadness that we are born with we inherited from Adam.  1Corinthians 15:22  “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”  The curse of death began at the fall, and it came upon all of creation.

Adam and Eve sinned, and as a result, they incurred the curse of death.  Now you will remember that even as God pronounce the curse, He also promised there would come One from the woman who would break that curse.  Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

Satan bruised Christ on His heel, by nailing Him to the cross.  But through the death of Christ, God crushed Satan’s head, by doing away with the sting of death.  1 Cor. 15:54, says, It is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

This victory over death was accomplished in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In life He was innocent, He was the spotless, righteous Lamb of God.  In His death He took the punishment for sin that was meant for us by offering Himself as our substitute.  And in His burial He fulfilled the penalty for sin that was due to all men.  “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 

Isaiah 53:8 says in the NIV, “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.”

Now I want us to consider more fully the theological implications of His burial, but let’s do so as we look at the details that Mark gives us here in this passage.  Note first of all that in vs 40 and 41 we see these women who were His followers from Galilee, who Mark says used to minister to Him. It’s interesting that these women, who themselves were far from home,  who were in Jerusalem with the Lord, and though all of His disciples had deserted Him, yet they stuck with Him.  These women were witnesses of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We see them here at the cross, then at the end of this passage in vs47 we see them watching to see where Joseph buries Jesus, and then in the next chapter, we see them as the first to visit the empty tomb, and the first to tell the other disciples that He had risen. Their  faithfulness and testimony was critical to the faith of His followers.  God gave them the opportunity to witness everything concerning His death, burial and resurrection firsthand.  And I believe that was because of their faithfulness.  They continued, when everyone else had deserted Him.

And I think that there is a possible lesson in that for us here today.  God rewards faithfulness in the little things by giving you greater faith to do larger things.  And we could also say that God confirms your faith when you are faithful in little things.  Being stedfast, persevering even in the face of persecution is promised a great reward.  Jesus promises a reward to the church of Philadelphia because of their faithfulness. Rev. 3:8 “I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”  As Jesus was faithful unto death, so we are called to be faithful even unto death.

The second person that we see here is Joseph of Arimethea.  Mark tells us that he was a prominent member of the council.  That means he was a member of the Sanhedrin, perhaps a leader.  This is the very institution that arrested Jesus and put Him on trial and condemned Him to death.  Luke tells us though that he did not consent to their plan.  Either he wasn’t at the trial, or he abstained from the proceedings. Mark goes on to tell us that he was looking for the Kingdom of God.  That means that he was looking for the Messiah.  And the indication is that he recognized Jesus as the Messiah. In fact, in John’s gospel, he describes Joseph as a secret disciple.  And the other gospel writers also tell us that Joseph was a rich man. 

So this secret disciple, knowing that the Sabbath is quickly approaching, wants to ask for Jesus’s body so that he might give Him a proper burial.  In fact, he gives Him a burial fit for a king.  He puts Jesus’s body in his own tomb, in which no man had laid.  This was a very expensive tomb.  It’s big enough for people to stand inside, it’s big enough for angels to sit down inside of, and Mark tells us in the next chapter that it had a very large stone rolled across the opening.  This was a burial vault fit for a king.  And I think that is indicative of Joseph’s faith, in that Mark says he was looking forward to the kingdom of God.  I think that is an indication that he was looking forward to Christ reigning in His kingdom.  

I think we see the same idea conveyed in the answer of the thief on the cross to Jesus.  He said in Luke 23:42 “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”  Jesus is dying on the cross, and the thief is confessing the faith that Jesus will come back in His kingdom.  That’s pretty incredible faith when you think of it.  He believed in the resurrection of Jesus, that He would come back as the King of His kingdom.

And perhaps Mark indicates that Joseph believes that as well.  Because if he believed that Jesus was the Messiah, as is indicated by the gospel writers, then he would have also believed the prophecies concerning the eternal reign of the Messiah.  He may not have understood the timing, but I think he believed the promises.  Something perhaps in the manner in which Jesus died, made him move from fearful faith to being willing to take up his cross and follow Jesus.

That’s evident because Mark says that Joseph gathered up his courage and went to ask Pilate for Jesus’s body.  Like the centurion who also saw the manner in which Jesus died, he decided that surely this was the Son of God, and so whatever gain he had as a member of the Sanhedrin, whatever gain he had because of riches, he counted but loss, for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ as His Messiah and Lord. 

Undoubtedly, this public confession of being a disciple of Jesus Christ would have resulted in his being excommunicated from the Sanhedrin.  Quite possibly, it also would have meant that he would be barred from attending the synagogue.  So for Joseph to publicly proclaim Jesus in this fashion would have meant his social, political and eventual financial ruin.   

The same can be said about another secret disciple, and that is Nicodemus.  You will remember Nicodemus who came to see Jesus at night in John 3.  Jesus called him the teacher of Israel, indicating he was an important rabbi.  John tells us that Nicodemus accompanied Joseph in burying Jesus, and he brought a great wealth of myrrh and spices to anoint His body for burial.  So ironically, we see the women and the fearful, secret disciples becoming bold at His death, while the ones who were closest to Him had abandoned Him.

At crucifixions, it was a common practice for the soldiers to either leave the criminal’s bodies to rot on the cross, to be eaten by birds, or to dump them on the nearby garbage heap which was called Gehena.  It was a place of continual burning garbage outside the town, which the Lord alluded to in a sermon about hell.  But the law of the Jews required that the bodies of one hung from a tree be taken down before dark, and the fact that it was also the evening before a high Sabbath, meaning during the Passover, they wanted the bodies taken down.  Joseph, was the only friend that was willing and able to see to it that Jesus was buried.  

And as we will see, it served God’s purposes that Jesus be buried.  There are a lot of questions that could be raised concerning the death and burial of Jesus Christ.  For instance, why did God choose to crucify Jesus?  Why not some other death?  Why did God choose to torture Jesus on a cross as opposed to a more normal death?  Why did God choose to bury Jesus for three days?  And there are even more questions that could be asked.  

Well, concerning the method of death, ie, crucifixion, it satisfied the wrath of God towards sin.  Hebrews 2:10 “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.”  Isaiah 53:10 says,  “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.” 

God’s judgment against sin, His wrath against sin, is measured by the affront of sin to a Holy and Righteous God.  As I said last week, We have too small a view of sin, and too mild a view of God’s wrath against sin.  When we understand the enormity of our sin, then we can understand God’s wrath against sin. Crucifixion was the Roman government’s harshest punishment for the vilest offenders.  And so God satisfied the law by crucifying Christ.

The second question is why the burial of Jesus?  Why not raise Him up immediately upon death? Why was He buried and in the grave for three days?  Well, again let’s look at Hebrews chapter 2, this time in vs9, “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”

First of all, His burial attested to  the certainty of His death.  He was attested to by Joseph to Pilate.  Pilate couldn’t believe that He was already dead, and so he sent for the centurion.  The centurion attested to His death.  We have already seen that the Jews attested to His death, and also that the women from Galilee witnessed His death and burial.  So God made sure that He was dead, and that everyone knew that He was dead. Pilate then gives the body to Joseph.  And when he does so, Mark records that he uses the Greek word, ptōma, which means a corpse. 

What the author of Hebrews tells us though is that Jesus tasted death for everyone.  Now that gets to the theological underpinnings of the burial.  Hebrews again, this time in chapter 9, tells us that Christ was manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and then in vs27 “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,  so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”  

What that means is that we are appointed to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ died on our behalf, so that we might escape judgment, having been justified by faith in what He accomplished for us.

And what did He accomplish for us through His death and burial?  One thing we know for sure, He satisfied the wrath of God in fulfilling the complete punishment for sin, but also He was considered righteous before God, and thus God delivered Him up from death through the resurrection.

In the Apostle’s Creed, which some of you might be more familiar with than others, there is the following statement. It is not scripture, nor inspired, but it is a synopsis of the doctrine of the apostles as recorded in about the third century.  It is an early Christian statement of faith.  And in it, we read, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary,

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Now notice that phrase concerning the burial of Jesus Christ, “Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead…” That raises an important point.  Jesus’s body was buried, the corpse was buried, but His Spirit was not dead, and neither was it in the tomb.  The Apostle’s Creed said He descended into hell.  Now a lot of people are offended by that, or don’t know what to make of it.  

Let me try to explain.  Remember when Jesus was on the cross, He cried out with a loud voice, “it is finished!” and then Luke 23:46 says, And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last. 

Now “into your hands” simply means into your care, and then notice that Jesus commends His Spirit to pass out of His body, signaling death to His body. He had the power to lay down His life, and He entrusts His Spirit to the care of the Father.

Now remember also that just previous to this, He told the thief on the cross who confessed faith in Him, in Luke 23:43 And Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” 

Jesus Himself described Paradise by using the familiar phrase “Abraham’s bosom,” in telling the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and Lazarus was being comforted in Abraham’s bosom, while the rich man was being tormented in flames.  And Abraham said to the rich man, that between them was a great gulf which no man could cross.  Jesus was giving a picture of Hades, called Sheol in the Old Testament, which the Jews understood to mean was in the center of the earth, with an upper and lower chamber, and in between a great chasm which separated the two, being Paradise and Hell.

Now the Apostle’s Creed gets it’s phrase, descended into hell, from 1 Peter 3:18, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”

Now I could preach a message or two on these verses and we don’t have the time this morning, so suffice it to emphasize that Peter says, “having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison…”  What he is saying is that though Jesus’s flesh was in the tomb, His Spirit was alive and went to what he calls prison, particularly of those who had died during the days of Noah. Now there could be a lot said concerning what and who Jesus preached to in Hell.  But that is not our point this morning.  However, Jesus clearly was not in the tomb.

But also note vs 22, where Peter says that He is at the right hand of God having “gone into heaven, AFTER angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”  So sometime between the crucifixion and the ascension, the angelic powers and authorities, which is how Paul refers to demonic powers in Ephesians 2, are subjected to Him.

Paul also refers to this ascension and descension in Eph. 4:8-10 “Therefore it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”  (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) Paul says that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth, ie, Hades.

Now I confess that we can’t know all of what happened to Jesus during those three days in the grave.  But I do know that Jesus fulfilled all penalty and punishment for sin, and He fulfilled all righteousness so that according to Psalm 16:10 “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”  God punished Jesus unto the full extent of the law, even unto Hades, having been made sin for us, but God also raised Jesus because He was innocent of any sin, being righteous in all things and having fulfilled perfectly the punishment for sin.

Going back to Isaiah 53 again, looking at vs 9 “His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.  But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

Most commentators believe that vs 9 is speaking of Joseph of Arimethea’s grave, in the phrase, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death.”  And I will agree that on the surface it may fulfill that prophecy.  But is it also possible that in speaking of the grave, Isaiah is speaking of Sheol?  His grave was assigned with wicked men, having been made sin for us, but with a rich man in His death, could that not be a reference to Paradise?  When the poor man Lazarus died, He was taken to Paradise, whereas the rich man was consigned to torment.  

I think that theory has some credence because Isaiah says it was because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth,  meaning because He was righteous, He was with a rich man in His death, He was in Paradise, even though He was assigned the penalty for the sins of the world.  But that there is a possibility that Christ did suffer punishment in hell for the sins of the world could be construed from the phrase that says, “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

Well, we must leave this for now.  But I want to impress on you one more aspect of the burial of Jesus Christ that is for our application.  The burial of Jesus Christ speaks to the mortification of the flesh.  Putting to death the flesh.  Paul says in Romans that our baptism is a picture of dying to the flesh. Romans 6:4 “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Christ died for sin, so that we might die to sin.  Christ overcame sin through death, so that we might have life through His righteousness.  We now walk in the Spirit, by putting to death the passions of the flesh.

The flesh and the Spirit are diametrically opposed to one another.  Repentance is recognizing the need for dying to the flesh, so that we might live in the Spirit.  That’s what it means to be conformed to the death of Christ.  I said earlier that Joseph was an esteemed member of the Sanhedrin, a rich man, a man of social standing in the community.  Yet those things which were of great fleshly value to him, he counted as loss for the sake of knowing Jesus as Lord.  

The apostle Paul was also once greatly esteemed by the Sanhedrin.  And yet he came to know the surpassing value of counting such things as dead, that he might have life in Christ.  He said in Phil. 3:7-11 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;  in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

May we have the same attitude as Paul, and be conformed to the image of His death, that we might walk in newness of life in the Spirit.  And that life we have in Christ is everlasting life, because as He lives, so we will live.  Jesus said in John 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

I believe, without question, that the greatest pivotal event in history is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  The Old Testament saints looked forward to it, and the New Testament church looks back to it.  But not only is it central to Christians, the cross is the monumental centerpiece of the history of the whole world.  Even our calendar reflects the fact of Jesus’s life and death.  I know, AD does not mean “after death.” It means “anno domini”, which means “in the year of our Lord.”  However, even though historians now use BCE or CE, meaning “before common era,” and “common era,” the determining crux of the eras is still the life of Jesus Christ.

Jesus whole life purpose was to come to offer Himself as our substitute, to die on the cross for our sins, that we might be made righteous by the grace of God and be given spiritual life.  But in order to accomplish that, He also had to be God incarnate, He also had to be the Messiah, He also had to be the Son of God, and He also had to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And I believe that as Mark describes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, he is instructing  us in this tragedy of errors, as the world fails to recognize Jesus Christ as it’s King.  In fact, they scorn Him and ridicule Him for claiming to be the King of the Jews. If this event were a fictional work of literature, then this story would easily best the greatest Shakespearean tragedies.  The King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, rejected, despised, scorned by His own people, and to add injury to insult, they crucify Him, having failed to recognize His rightful claim to the throne, nor His mission of mercy towards the very ones that assailed Him.

I think it’s very interesting that Mark gives merely four words to describe the actual act of the crucifixion; “and they crucified Him.”  Mark does not tell us all the grisly details of crucifixion.  He leaves out even many of the events that the other gospel writers include. Mark obviously wants to focus our attention on this event, but on what exactly?  Volumes of books have been written on the crucifixion.  Movies have been made, poems written, songs composed, and yet Mark, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, gives us four words.  What gives?  If not the torture of the cross, then what should we be considering here?

Well, I want to suggest that what Mark wants us to consider the humiliation of King Jesus.  He is humiliated in that He has put aside HIs robes of glory, His heavenly splendor, and for our sakes became poor, for our sakes became garbed in human flesh, and yet He was despised for it, He was ridiculed for it, He was flogged for it, and then  hanged for it.  Paul says in 2Cor. 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” 

Mark emphasizes again and again that He was the King of the Jews.  Notice how many times the phrase turns up in this section of scripture.  Notice in vs2, Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He *answered him, “It is as you say.”  Then notice vs9, Pilate answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” Then vs12 Answering again, Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?” Next, let’s hear the words of the soldiers in vs18 and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then notice the charge they crucified Him under; vs26 The inscription of the charge against Him read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.”  Notice next they join the title Messiah, or Christ, with the King of the Jews, in vs32 “Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” 

Now that’s a pretty interesting perspective on the crucifixion, I believe. Jesus claimed to be the King of the Jews and the Son of God. Jesus was condemned, crucified for being the King of the Jews.  He was ridiculed and scorned and beaten for being the King of the Jews.  He was taunted to come down from the cross if He was indeed the Messiah and the King of the Jews. 

Now to be clear, to claim to be the Messiah was to claim to be the anointed King of the Jews by God Himself.  The Messiah, by many prophesies, was to be a descendent of David, of the line to the throne of David, which indicated that the Messiah would restore the kingdom of Israel. So in the last chapter, when Jesus is brought before the High Priest in a midnight trial, they ask Jesus pointblank, “Are You the Christ (that is the Messiah), the Son of the Blessed One?” And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

So Jesus claimed to the religious leaders of the Jews that He was the Messiah, that He was the Son of God, and that He would be sitting on the throne of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.  That’s a pretty heavy claim.  He is claiming not to be just the King of the Jews, but the Supreme Ruler of the Earth.   And then to Pilate, the face of Roman civil authority, who asks  “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Jesus answers, “it is as you say.” 

Now Mark left out the remainder of the remarks that Jesus said to Pilate.  But it behooves us to consider them because it’s reported in John 18:36 Jesus continued to answer Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

What Jesus is claiming is pretty clear; His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, not of this world.  Not of the physical, material world.  It is a kingdom of the spiritual world.  And those who are spiritual are part of His kingdom.  Though Jesus had every right to claim the physical, material benefits of being the King of the Jews, the Messiah, He was not setting up a physical throne in Jerusalem but through the royal line of David is establishing a spiritual sovereignty over the world.  And so as Paul would make very clear later in his epistle to the Romans said in chapter 2:28-29 “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.  But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

Now that death of the flesh, which Paul says is pictured by circumcision, is described for us here as the cross.  The cross is the means by which the flesh is put to death, and righteousness is revealed, so that sinners might be made spiritually born again. Folks, there is something missing today in modern Christianity.  And that is the cross.  Not the historical details of the crucifixion.  I think we are all well familiar with them.  But taking up our cross and following Jesus.  We have to take up our cross, we have to crucify the flesh, we have to be reborn, transformed, converted, so that we have new life.  Gal. 5:24-25 “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

I’m afraid for the church today because we have millions of people who are claiming to be Christians, claiming faith in Christ, but most cannot be characterized as having been reborn, they cannot be described as all things becoming new, they cannot be thought of as having been converted.  As a result of their Christianity, they may be able to make the claim that they are improved. but not changed.  I’m afraid it is because they have been taught a watered down gospel, which says you can retain all the corruptness of the flesh and still have salvation. 

The truth is, that the flesh and spirit are diametrically opposed. Rom 8:5-8, 12-14 “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,  because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. … 12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh–  for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

I’m sure you have all seen the products which have become familiar in the grocery store, and then they come out with a new color scheme on their packaging, and they write in bold letters, “New, Improved!”  Yet when you taste it, it tastes the same as it ever did. I’m afraid that is what a lot of Christians are like.  They claim to be new and improved, but what’s inside still seems to the same.  The problem is perhaps that they have never been converted.  They have just changed some things on the outside, but not the inside.  

Now that change comes from recognizing that you are a sinner in need of changing, number one.  It is an appeal to the One who is able to change you to forgive you of your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  To make you into a new creature. And that conversion can only come from the One who has the authority to give life, and to take it away.  It comes when we renounce our will and bow down and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has the power and authority to forgive sins, and to give new life.  

I think there is some difficulty in recognizing what it means to be a King in today’s culture.  We live in a culture of independence, of personal rights.  We live in a time when democracy claims to be the rule of law.  The rule of the people.  But that is not what a King or a kingdom represented in history.  A King had complete authority over life or death.  A King owned all the land, and all the people of the land.  Everything was under His dominion.  The King granted land to certain nobles.  He appointed certain people to certain tasks.  He gave permission for people to do various things.  Everything existed by His decree.  Now that is an outmoded form of government today.  But it was very much in play for the first 6000 years of the history of the world. And that kind of sovereignty is what is referred to in the title King of the Jews.

Now Mark gives us a long list of folks that are at the cross during the crucifixion.  And the overwhelming response of them all towards the idea that Jesus was the King of the Jews is that of scorn and ridicule.  But not all of them. I want to briefly address each of these groups as they are recorded as encountering the Lord Jesus as He suffered, and in the process we will see how they came to see the cross and it’s significance for them.

The first person we see after the sentencing by Pilate an scourging by the soldiers is a man called Simon of Cyrene. As Jesus is being led to the cross, He is forced to carry His cross.  And the suffering He has already endured, and the lack of rest or sleep has had a tremendous effect on Him.  So as He is carrying His cross, Mark tells us that He stumbled, and so the Roman soldiers requisitioned a passerby, who was coming into Jerusalem from the country, to carry the cross of Jesus.  

There is a picture here that I think is illustrative for us as we labor under the load of our sin. Notice the phrase in vs21, that Simon was chosen “to bear His cross.”  The cross is a picture of sin.  And our load of sin causes us to stumble.  The picture here is that we need someone to carry our load for us.  Our sin is too much for us to bear.  But Jesus bore our sins on the cross, that we might be made righteous.  And I believe that Simon came to see this for himself at some point.

Now there is a tradition that Simon actually became a Christian as a result of witnessing the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.  We don’t know exactly how it happened, or when it happened, but notice that Mark tells the reader that Simon was the father of Rufus and Alexander.  The point being that they were known to the church in Rome at the time of Mark’s writing, presumably because their father Simon had first become a Christian, and then led his sons to become Christians.  Many believe that Paul writing much later to the Romans mentions Rufus as a leader of the church of Rome in Romans chapter 16.

The next group we see in this passage is the soldiers once again.  They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha.  There are a variety  of explanations why it was called the place of a skull, we are not sure which is the real reason.  But that definition is not the point of this lesson.  We see the soldiers offered Him a drink mixed with wine and myrrh, which was a form of narcotic that was given to help those being crucified to lessen the pain somewhat.  But Jesus refused it.  As I said last week, He had no desire to escape the cross, nor even it’s suffering.  He willingly suffered for sin, because that was the penalty for sin that was due to us.  

You know, the cross is a terrible way to die.  But it may not be the worst possible way to die. I don’t know what is, and I prefer not to think of it.  Thousands of people have been crucified, however, down through the centuries.  However, God chose the torture of the cross as a just recompense for the affront of our sin. A Righteous Judge must give an adequate punishment suited to the severity of the crime.  And the agony of the cross illustrates for us the severity of our crimes against God.  We may think of our sins as being too terrible, but to a Holy God, they deserve not only the horrors of the cross, but the beatings of the trial, and the terrors of Hell.  We have too small a view of sin, and too mild a view of God’s wrath against sin.  

Then after the soldiers had crucified Him, Mark says they divided among themselves His garments.  This is all in fulfillment of prophecy found in Psalms 22:16-18 “For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.  I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me;  They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.”  Written roughly 1000 years before Christ, this is an amazing fulfillment of prophecy.  That He was crucified, and that they cast lots for His clothing.

The illustration though that needs to be seen in this event, is that the soldiers are natural men, physical men, and consequently are blind to the spiritual.  Thus they crucify the King of the Spiritual Kingdom of the whole earth, and focus only on His clothes. They completely miss the point of the crucifixion, that God has prepared a righteous robe for them to wear through the death of Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews. Instead, they are focused on the physical parts of His clothing.  How many people come to Christianity today looking for the physical benefits to the cross, and completely miss the spiritual blessing.  The prosperity gospel that glosses over the blessing of new life in the Spirit, while emphasizing your best life now, is but a caricature of what we see these poor blind soldiers doing.

These callous men who are gambling over Jesus’s clothes, are the very ones of whom Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They are looking down at the clothing and the dice on the ground, when they should be looking up, where above Christ’s head is the inscription written in Aramaic, Hebrew and Latin, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.  The Creator of life, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the source of true riches, hangs above them, while they focus on the rags below.

The next group that Mark shows us at the cross is the robbers who were crucified with Him.  Mark doesn’t give us the details that the other gospel writers do concerning these men.  He seems content to say in vs.32  that they were also insulting Him.  But Mark does tell us that this fulfills the prophecy that He would be numbered with transgressors which is found in Isaiah 53:12 written about 700 years before Christ.

Luke tells us that one of the robbers in particular was hurling abuse at Jesus, but the other rebuked him and then said, Luke 23:41-42  “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”  And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”  Jesus answered Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” One robber despised Jesus as a victim, saw only a convicted man dying upon a cross, the other saw a King, dying to give men life.

Then there are the passersby.  It was typical of Rome to crucify criminals beside the main roads, in order to be a warning to others of a criminal intent.  And as it was the Passover, many people were undoubtedly passing by to enter into Jerusalem before the Sabbath.  And those who passed by were blaspheming Him , shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuilt it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.”

The thing that these passersby failed to recognize, was that Jesus was intentionally hanging there to save them.  He had no interest in saving Himself.  He would not come down from the cross to try to save Himself.  He went to the cross to save them. Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” The Lion of Judah became a lamb that was slaughtered for the sins of His people.

These naysayers are fulfilling prophecy again from Psalm 22:6-7 “But I am a worm and not a man, A reproach of men and despised by the people.  All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,“Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”

There is another group of scoffers that Mark describes, the chief priests and the scribes.  The very ones who demanded that Pilate crucify Him.  The ones who arrested Him and demanded that He be killed for the charges of blasphemy and treason.  Now they come to the cross for their pound of flesh, and say, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” 

Notice first of all, they recognize that Jesus has saved others.  They cannot dispute His miracles.  So what they do is just add more requirements in order for them to believe.  The problem is that they don’t want to believe.  They hated Him without a cause.  Notice also that they call Him the King of Israel, the Christ, or the Messiah.  They are saying it in sarcasm, of course.  

But by their words they condemn themselves.  “Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!”  They say that if they see, they will believe.  But salvation is by faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen.  I’m afraid that a lot of people today, even many so called Christians, are guilty of making this charge against Christ.  “Manifest yourself and we will believe!  Show us a sign and we will believe.  Why doesn’t God reveal Himself?  I would believe if He would show Himself.”  Such sentiments are not of God, but of the flesh. Jesus said God is Spirit, and we must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The Bible tells us that the just shall live by faith, not by sight.  Jesus said concerning Lazarus and the rich man, that even if a man were to come back to earth from the dead, they will not believe.  And even if Jesus was to have come down from the cross, these men would not have believed. 

Now there would come a time when it says in Acts that many priests came to faith.  But I think it was because of the preaching of the Word of God, in conjunction with the working of the Holy Spirit. And that was poured out on the church with power after Pentecost.  Acts 6:7 “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”

This speaks volumes of the love of God towards sinners, that after the resurrection, Jesus did not send the apostles to hunt down and put to death or condemn to death the priests, but to preach the gospel so that even the very ones who persecuted Christ to death, might live in the Spirit by faith in the gospel.   What a great testimony to the patience of God when we are living in rebellion against Him.  God is continually wooing us, and seducing us by His mercy and grace that we might turn to Him.  The gift of salvation is available to everyone, even to those who hammered the nails in His hands.  Even to those who cheered His crucifixion.  Even to those who deserted Him at His trial.  Christ came to save sinners, even the chiefest of sinners.  The only people that cannot be saved, are those who will not be saved.

Well, Jesus had been crucified at about 9am.  For three hours He endured not only the torment of the cross, but the ridicule and scorn of His people.  But then at high noon the lights went out.  God caused darkness to come upon the land for three hours.  Some translations say it was an eclipse of the sun.  But the full moon would have prevented a natural occurrence of an eclipse.  I believe it was a supernatural event, signifying God’s judgment upon the sin of the world.

For three hours of darkness God’s judgment rained down upon Jesus in a way that we cannot imagine. But it obviously caused great torment and a sense of desolation to Jesus.  Vs.34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” which is translated, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Once again, this is a direct fulfillment of Psalm 22, which says in vs 1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.”  We have already seen the disciples forsake Jesus, the Jews forsake Jesus, and now it seems even God the Father forsakes Jesus as Christ becomes sin for us.  

But some bystanders hearing Jesus, seems to misunderstand Him as asking for Elijah.  And so they say, “Behold, He is calling for Elijah.” Someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink, saying, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to take Him down.”  Perhaps they referred to Elijah, having been familiar with the prophecy that Elijah would come first before the Messiah, to prepare the way for Him.  So they are sarcastically saying that maybe Elijah will come and help Him come down from the cross.  Right up to the end some of them are slandering Christ.  

And you know, the same is said to be true of the  generation of the last days. 2Peter 3:3-4 “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,  and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”  I believe we are living in the last days, in dark days of spiritual blindness and hardness of heart.  And the Bible teaches that God will bring judgment upon the world during that darkness, but men still will not repent.

Right up to the second coming of Christ, men will curse God, and ridicule Him, and mock God. 

Mark then tells us in vs37 after this one last mockery that “Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.”  We know from the other gospels that He cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.  It is finished!”  Jesus gave up HIs Spirit to the care of the Father, as His body died hanging there on the cross.  And Mark tells us at that moment, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  This veil being torn from the top to the bottom is another supernatural occurrence by God showing that the way to Him was made possible to all men.  The chief priests had been the only one allowed in to the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year.  Now that was rent, the high priests office is no more necessary, as our Great High Priest fulfilled the role of both the mediator and the eternal, perfect sacrifice for sin. The curtain that separated the natural from the spiritual was opened up through the death of Jesus Christ, that we who were condemned flesh, might be given spiritual life.

Finally, there is one last person that we will look at today.  We see the centurion, who witnessed the entire proceedings, from trial to the darkness, to the way that Jesus gave up His Spirit to die, and who seeing all of that comes to the conclusion, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

This centurion, who took part in the torture and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, suddenly sees in the death of Jesus the evidence of Christ’s divinity.  He who had participated in nailing Jesus to the cross, now confessed Him as the Son of God, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.  And by such faith, he was given forgiveness, he was given repentance, he was given new life by faith in Jesus Christ.

Listen, what we need to take away from this is that regardless of your rebellion, or how grievous your sin might be, or how horribly you may have blasphemed against the Lord, He died to save you.  He died to change you, to make you a part of His kingdom.  Repent and be converted.  Call upon the Lord to save you, and give you a new life.  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and be saved today.