The Best Brother You Could Ever Have, Part 3

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 fourth part of a message preached on May 6, 2012 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Sons of God, meaning, I am put in right relation to God. I am now reconciled to God, no longer in death, separated from the one who gives and sustains life. I am now brought back to and united to the one who gives and sustains life.

And therefore, being in right relationship with Him, I can love Him and enjoy Him and serve Him with delight. We are called holy ones. So we're being sanctified.

We have been sanctified. We are holy ones. We are set apart to God. We are God's people.

We no longer march under the oppression of the insurgent. We march to God's drum beat, because He has put His Spirit within us, sons of God. And so then, we have entrance to God's presence to love and enjoy Him. We have entrance to God's presence. Verse 17, therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest, a high priest. What does a priest do? He enters into the very presence of God.

Now get this. Because my brother came to me and he took the blow of the Father's wrath that I deserve and he broke the power of the curse and he made me a son of God through faith. He made me a son of God. I now have entrance into the very presence of God.

Now think about this. An infinite, holy, sovereign being, your Creator, who is absolutely holy, perfect, and infinite. And I, a fallen, created, finite being, stepping into the entrance of awesome God.

How could I? I look to my brother and I say, I'm with him. It's the best brother you could ever have. You see, if you're not with him, you cannot step into the presence of God.

Can't happen. But my brother is the one who said, I am what? The way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.

Clearly the best brother you could ever have. This is a God thing. This is what we read in verse 10. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Fitting simply means it's in line with his character and his purpose. This is something that God would do just because he is God. It's his nature to do this.

It is his character to do this. And when it says that he did this, he made him perfect through suffering, the captain of their salvation. The word captain is the word it means leader.

It means initiator, one who blazes a trail. There was no path in existence to get you and me back to God, but Jesus blazed that trail and he made it possible. And the word perfect through suffering, the word perfect means complete. In other words, fully successful in getting us a way back to God. The captain of our salvation, complete, made him fully successful in getting us a way back to God through sufferings. What sufferings when he took the blow of wrath that you and I deserve. And so we see then here in the Gospel, according to Hebrews, a portrait of our salvation in the past, in the present, and in the future.

And all this was his plan, again, before he spoke the first words that brought the cosmos into existence. Very quickly, these last three points, our salvation in the past history, it's a done deal. We are sons of God. And I'm speaking to those of here in this room who understand that when you surrender yourself in faith to Jesus Christ, you become a child of God. It's a done deal.

Nothing changes that. We are sons. We have been released.

We are no longer under the oppression of the insurgent. We are sons of God, and we have been released from his oppression. Our salvation is also in the present.

It's what's becoming of you and me. That we are being sanctified. We are becoming like the captain. We are moving in a Godward direction.

And by virtue of a changed life, we're inviting others to follow that captain. Our salvation also in the future. And that's how he begins the very text today in verse five. For he has not put the world to come. That's the world to come. Who's going to reign in the world to come? You and I are. In the kingdom, we will reign with him.

That's what we were designed to do. 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 nine and ten. 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 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. When God sees you suffer under the oppression of your own rebellion, he longs for you because he knows he's the best thing for you, and you were made by him and for him, and only that can bring you ultimate satisfaction.

So God's seeing this, and of course, all this was planned before the creation of the world, before the Creator uttered the very first word to bring the cosmos into existence. The first person of the Trinity looks to the second person of the Trinity, and he says, Son, go get my loved ones. I know it's going to hurt you terribly, and it's going to take you to a place that you don't want to go. But there's no way that they can come back to me unless you do this.

Go get my loved ones. But we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels. Where is that? That's at our level.

That's at our level. The infinite Spirit then invades the physical kingdom of the finite embodied creature. He's a partaker of flesh and blood for the suffering of death, and he becomes like us, a brother. He's called the Son of God, the unique Son of God. But he comes to us as a brother so that we too can become sons of God.

Four points that are brought out here in the text. By experiencing them, he took on, he became a partaker of flesh and blood, as it says in verse 8, for the suffering of death at the end of the verse, that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. By experiencing our suffering that we deserve, he took the blow of punishment for us.

What is that? The blow of judgment for us. It is the necessary wrath of God, because God is a holy God. Because God is a holy God, and he must necessarily separate from himself that which is contrary to his character and his purpose.

And that's what we did in our rebellion. But this one came and he took the blow. My brother came and he took the blow of judgment that I deserve. We find that in verse 9 of what we just read. But this is wrapped up in the word propitiation, that you find at the very end of verse 17. This is a very, very important word, propitiation.

To make propitiation for the sins of the people at the end of verse 17. The word propitiation means that he took the blow for me. My brother stood between me and God and he took the blow of judgment that I deserve.

The best brother I could have ever had. And because he did that, second point, look with me at verses 14 and 15, he broke the power of the curse. Remember all of creation is under the curse because the physical kingdom has been handed over to the insurgent.

It is all under a curse now. And my brother who took the blow of God's judgment for me broke the power of the curse. He destroyed him, verse 14. At the end of verse 14, he destroyed him who had the power of death. That word destroyed means made inactive.

Put him on the sidelines. He neutralized the insurgent and released me from the bondage of his oppression. That oppression, again in verse 15, and released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And because he took the blow of judgment for me and because he broke the power of the curse, then he made us sons of God.

Best brother you could ever have. Sons of God, meaning I am put in right relation to God. And we will be ruling in a physical kingdom, in perfection. And it will be a perfect environment to love God and enjoy his presence.

And all of this because your brother came to rescue you. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor 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.