The Best Brother You Could Ever Have!

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Jesus is the great rescuer, but not as some distant, unattached hero. No, He makes you His brother. He became one of us to rescue us, then He makes us family. From Hebrews 2, 5-18, Pastor Rich lays out a clear account of the Gospel message, reminding us that Jesus is the main point. Let's listen to today's message titled, The Best Brother You Could Ever Have. This is the second part of a message preached on May 6, 2012 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What does He say? But now we do not yet see all things put under Him. What is that talking about?

It means there's a problem, something has happened, something's gone awry. This is the way God created it and set it up, but it's not what we see now. What we see now is something different.

What happened? Well, there was an insurgent. There was an insurgent and he is defined in verse 14, at the end of verse 14, him who had the power of death, that is the devil. Where did this death come from? It was the insurgent that introduced it.

Insurgent being defined as a dissatisfied creature who launches a rebellious uprising. He was an angel of God. He was a glorious angel of God. And in that context, when God first created him, Lucifer made a mistake. Here is the mistake, because in the Sunday school class I sat in this morning, we're talking about original sin.

Here was the original mistake. Lucifer, even in all of his glorious creation, that he was created himself as a glorious being, he was limited. And here's what he did. He took his eyes off the one who made him, the one for whom he was made to serve. He took his eyes off of him and he focused on himself and recognized his limits. And when he recognized his limits, what happened?

He wanted more. I will exalt myself above the throne of God. We find that record in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. So what happened is God says, I can't have a competitor.

No one shares my glory. And he was cast out of heaven. And he comes down to this physical kingdom.

And he's introduced then in Genesis chapter 3. And he comes to Adam and Eve and he says to them, it's a mistake to love God. He's holding out on you. It is a mistake to love God. He doesn't want you to enjoy everything you can to the fullest.

He's holding out on you. So what happens? Adam and Eve, God's loved ones, were swept away in the deceptive lure of something ostensibly more than what God could or would give them. And like a branch severing itself from the tree, creation falls under the curse of corruption and decay. This is death. Death is separation from the one who gives and sustains life. Remember that definition.

That's what it is. Death is separation from the one who gives and sustains life. That's why we read what we do at the end of verse 8. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. God's loved ones, listen to this, they were planted in a kingdom as physical beings planted to rule over a physical kingdom. But God's loved ones handed over the kingdom to the insurgent. And that's why he says now we do not yet see all things put under him. There's so much evidence around us in the creation that we see of that. There's a video that I want to show you here.

We're going to bring it up here shortly. This is at the Portland Zoo. Stop it at 13 right there.

Put the cursor on there on 13 there. How is that for a picture of the fallenness of creation? Okay, this is at the Portland Zoo.

Thankfully, there is a very thick piece of glass between that lion and that child. But what is this telling us? Things are not as they ought to be. There is a fallenness, there is a corruption in creation. Things are not under man's feet. So we are living in an oppression.

Thank you. There is an oppression that exists because creation has fallen and the insurgent has been granted the physical kingdom. God's loved ones have handed the kingdom over to the insurgent. And therefore, we have become victims of our own rebellion and we live under the oppression of the insurgent.

It's described in the text here. Look with me, if you will, at verse 15. Through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. That's the current corruption and oppression under which we live. Fear of death. God's loved ones now separated from the one who gives and sustains life. Fear of death means that we are driven by a God-shaped vacuum preoccupied with our own self-survival. Instead of being preoccupied with loving and serving God, we become preoccupied with our own self-survival. And that's what it means to live in the fear of death and then subject to bondage.

Bring those points up there. Subject to bondage ruled by the principle of sin. Bound for destruction.

Subject to bondage. Instead of creation supporting life, now there is much hostility to life like that video that we just showed you. That is hostility to life and there's so much of it in the world because we live under this oppression.

Creatures consume each other under this oppression. We have a big furry cat at home. It's been banished to the outdoors. It has been for several years now and the kids love the big furry fluffy black cat.

But you know what? There's something else out in the backyard. Cute precious little chipmunks. You know what that cat does to chipmunks? And you know what happened to our daughters when they were looking through our kitchen window one day and there was their precious cat chewing on a precious lovely little chipmunk? Traumatized them. For life they've been scarred, right?

What is that? Creatures consume each other because we live under oppression. We are victims of our own rebellion and all of creation is. There's a confession that I have to make. There's a particular phobia that I have. I am actually afraid of large dogs. If it's a large dog and I don't know the dog, I get tingles going all up and down my body. The problem is the dog knows that, right?

That's a problem. And so when I was a youth pastor, I was up in Virginia. This was what, 15, 16 years ago?

That was a long time ago. But I was going to visit one of the homes of one of the kids in our youth group, right? And so I pull up in my little black Nissan truck and I park and there's this bulldog sitting on the front porch. And I pull up, oh man, take a deep breath. All right, I'm gonna have to face this.

I'm just gonna have to go do it. So I get out of my truck and I start walking toward the house and the bulldog gets up and he's looking at me. And I stop in my tracks and there comes the tingling feeling and the dog knows it, right? And so I'm stopping right there and the dog starts growling and I turn around and I start walking away and now what's the dog doing? He's running after me, okay? And so what am I doing? There sits my Nissan truck in the driveway and what am I doing? I'm running around the Nissan truck and so is the dog. And I climb up into the bed of the truck trying to get away from this dog.

Absolutely utterly embarrassing. And I could just envision all those kids sitting in the window laughing at their youth pastor running around trying to get away from the bulldog. It's not only animal creatures that consume each other, is it? Because we live under the oppression. The loved ones have handed over the kingdom to the insurgent. It's not just animal creatures that consume each other.

People do. We read in James chapter 4, what causes fights among you? Is it not that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder, you covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

What is that? That is living under the oppression of the insurgent because we believe the lie that it's a mistake to love God. And so we live under the oppression of our own rebellion. And decay is the default direction of the physical kingdom. We can feel it even in our own bodies.

Decay is the default direction of the physical kingdom. The insurgent now has the oppressive rule. He is the one who is called the prince of the power of the air. He is the father of lives. He is described as a roaring lion roaming about seeking whom he may devour. The apostle John says in 1 John 5 19, the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

Any questions? You see the loved ones handed over the kingdom to the insurgent and now we live under the oppression of that fallen kingdom. God has given us a taste of death and death is separation from the one who gives and sustains life. And here's the truth. Here's the sad truth of the matter. Separated from God, life is hard and has lost its meaning. And separated from God, his loved ones are powerless to love and enjoy him.

That's tragic. The kingdom has become a mess. The physical kingdom. Enter the liberator. The story continues. Now the liberator comes on the scene and we find this look with me at verses 9 and 10. But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, might take us to heaven.

And we see Jesus God might taste death for everyone. 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. God longs for his loved ones.

That's you and me. God longs for his loved ones that are suffering under the oppression of their own rebellion. When he knows that he is the best thing for them because he made them for himself. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's Word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.