R675 When We See Jesus

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message called When We See Jesus. It's so good to welcome you into this time of Bible study. We'll head to Hebrews chapter 2 in just a moment.

But Dr. Don is excited about all these things that help us launch into 2021 in a fresh new way. As a matter of fact, there's a wonderful devotional, 52-week devotional that you'll find on our website at www.tewonline.org along with some wonderful encouraging music. Again, it's right there on the front page of our fresh new website www.tewonline.org. If you haven't been in a while, drop by and see the resources that will help you grow in your faith. That's online at www.tewonline.org. You can also call us about those resources at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2, the letter to the Hebrews in chapter 2. I want to share a few things with you as we study God's Word this morning to begin with. From time to time, I have wonderful people who come and ask me questions about Bible study preparation and sermon preparation, how to study the Bible, what do we need to look for, and very good questions like that. One can imagine in my life as pastor of a wonderful congregation like this that Sundays roll around with a great regularity. When I get through preaching in a little while, my mind immediately begins to move to next Sunday. And it is quite something when you consider the way Sunday mornings alone, and that's not the only occasion in which we pastors preach the Word, but one can imagine the regularity with which one prepares to preach and to teach God's Word, and the mandate that we have to be fresh and to try to ask God every day to speak to our hearts. Today we're going to be in Hebrews chapter 2 and verses 9 through verse 18.

And some of you are going to say, well, Dr. Wilton, I know you better than that. There is no way that you're going to get through nine verses of Scripture in one Sunday morning. Well, be it as it may, I want to show you something.

Young people, I want you to listen very carefully to this. And those of you, so many amongst our number and by way of television who love the Word of God. Here would be a typical approach, this is how I approached this passage of Scripture. The first thing that I do always is that I pray about it. I pray about it in my heart, and I talk to the Lord about what it is that He wants to show me in His Word. Now I do that many times before I actually get to grips with what the Bible has to say or the passage that I'm in. So I open my Bible and I have a talk with God. My prayer is something like this, Lord, I don't know anything.

And I could never know all that I need to know about you. You're a wonderful God and you're a great God. Could you, by your grace and through your spirit, would you open my heart to understand these things? I'm one of those preachers that I don't rely on other people's sermons. I want God to give me the sermon. I want God to speak to my heart. I will read what other people have to say.

I believe in taking good commentaries and doing things like that. But I believe that the most important thing that we're about is to take God's Word by His Spirit and to ask God to speak to us through His Word. Now what does His Spirit do for us?

His Spirit opens our hearts, gives us understanding. Well, that's the first thing I do. The second thing I do is I read through the passage. It may be a verse, it may be a passage, maybe nine verses like this morning, maybe a whole chapter.

Whatever that section is, I'm going to read it and read it and reread it. I will sit there at my desk in my private study and I will read through that many times. I've read this passage that I'm about to preach on more times than I could probably remember. The reason I read it is because just in reading God's Word, God speaks to me. And have you ever read something in the Bible and you've read it and then you read it again and maybe you're reading it for the tenth time and suddenly you look at it and say, I never saw that before because it's the Word of God. Then having done that, I'll get out a pen and a paper and those of you that know me like my wife, I'd fill up pages of handwriting. I sit there and I write like crazy but I start out and I ask God to show me one thing in that passage, just one.

Now that's a tough assignment because there's a lot there. In this case, we've got nine verses. There's more there than any of us could ever understand but I ask the Lord, I say, Lord, I've got the responsibility of teaching my people and I want you to show me one thing. God never fails and I look at that one thing and that one thing usually becomes the sermon topic for the message that coming Bible study on that particular Sunday. Well, that happened with this passage as it happens every Sunday and I want to tell you the one thing that we're going to be studying this morning from God's Word. It's our message for the morning. Here it is, when we see Jesus. I want you to write that down.

That's the topic today. You're going to say to me, pastor, where did you get that from? From the first verse that I read. Look at verse 9. But we see Jesus. Well, I went on and I read all the other verses and I reread it and reread it and I kept coming back and I believe that God by His Spirit kept saying to me, Don Wilton, that's what I want you to focus on. But we see Jesus.

And so I wrote that down. That became, in the final analysis, my sermon topic, the subject, we see Jesus. But I asked myself a question. What do we see when we see Jesus? Why do you suppose that here in Hebrews, writing to a Jewish audience, in the midst of this discussion about the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ, why would the Lord suddenly put this most incredible statement, but we see Jesus? And so I began to ask myself, now, Don, what is meant by we see Jesus? Well, as I began to study, I began to note that there were, amongst many other things, I'm sure, that there were three things that this passage tells us we see when we see Jesus. And I came to discover that everything in these nine verses revolves around these three major things that we see when we see Jesus.

So I want to give them to you today. Here's the three things that we see. Number one, we see our taster of death. Number two, we see our, listen to this, we see our author of salvation. Number three, when we see Jesus, we see our merciful high priest. Well, I wrote down those three things.

Where did I get them from? I got them from the Bible. Now let's read this passage together. I want you to read it.

Follow along with me. It's important that you look in the Bible yourself. Verse nine, God's word says, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God, here's point number one, he might taste death for everyone. Verse 10, in bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, here comes point number two, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call them brothers. And then quoting Psalm 22, 22, he says, I will declare your name to my brothers in the presence of the congregation.

I will sing your praises. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, he says, here am I and the children God has given to me. Now, since children have flesh and blood, in other words, that we are human beings, he too, when we see Jesus, we're going to understand this, he too shed in their humanity so that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death that is the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. Now, why in the world suddenly bring up Abraham?

Because he's writing to a Jewish audience. These people didn't believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. But one thing they knew for certain, that Abraham was the father of many nations. The Jewish people believed that Abraham was the father of all people.

And here God is trying to point these people to Jesus Christ who is the Messiah. What he did was not done because of the angels. What he did was done because of those of us who were created in his image.

Those of us who are Abraham's descendants for this reason. Verse 17, he had to be made like his brothers in every way. He was tempted in all points just like we are yet without sin in order that he might become, here's the third point, a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted.

He is able to help those who are being tempted. What who do we see when we see Jesus? Number one, we see our taster of death. Did you know, by the way, that in the olden days that all kings and queens had an official taster? And I want to tell you what the taster did.

Daniel was one of them, by the way, in the Old Testament. The taster was given the unenviable job of tasting all food before it passed the lips of the king or the sovereign, the queen. Basically, he was invited to drop dead and many times historians tell us the taster would come in and he would sip the drink or he would bite the food and he would drop dead and the king would say, uh-oh, bring another plate, they tried to poison me. What was he doing, the taster?

He was tasting death in behalf of the king. By the way, in my house, I'm the official taster. One of my favorite things to do is to roast a leg of lamb.

I love doing that and I have an entire meal before it gets to the kitchen table. Folks, I want you to think about this for a moment. Did you know that Jesus Christ is our taster of death? Did you know that when Jesus Christ went to the cross, as he prepared to go to the cross in the garden of Gethsemane, he cried out and he said, My Father, would you remove this cup from me? What was the cup? What was the cup of death? And God said to him, No, you are my beloved son. You are the only one who can be the taster of death and Jesus Christ went to the cross and he drank death for me and having drank death for me, he came out of the grave, he rose triumphantly and he looks at me across all the generations and he says, My son, my daughter, do not drink this pure cup of my blood in remembrance of me and when you drink of this, you shall surely not die because I have already removed the poison from the cup. What a sight.

What an incredible statement in verse 9. Please forgive the interruption. We'll be back and dive right into that study in just a moment, but Dr. Don wants me to remind you, we're here for you. It could be that you need someone to pray with you even right now or perhaps, as Dr. Don would say, to be a 2 a.m. friend. We're here at 866-899-WORD anytime and we're here to give you resources that'll help you grow in your faith and help you encourage one another. We are the encouraging word.

Again, the phone number is 866-899-9673. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. We see Jesus who is our taster of death. What about it?

What about this tasting of death? Number one, it was intentional. Everybody was involved according to the latter part. Number two, it was excruciating. The Bible says in verse 9, he suffered death.

Number three, it was purposeful. And in fact, if you want to know the purpose of the tasting of death on the part of Jesus Christ, there are three purposes laid out there. Verse 10, purpose number one, so that he could bring many sons to glory. Purpose number two in verse 11, to make men and women holy. And the word holy there, or hagios, is the word from which we get our word to be separated unto, which means that we are separated, we are sanctified, we are set apart by virtue of the imputed righteousness of God which has been given to us through his grace. Friend, if you are not declared to be righteous through God, if you are not made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ because he tasted death on our behalf, you cannot come into the presence of Almighty God. No matter how good you are, no matter how many churches you belong to, no matter how much money you give to the poor, the Bible says it was purposeful to bring many sons to glory and to make men holy.

And number three, in order to declare them in the congregation and quoting Psalm, what that literally means is that God, because of Jesus Christ and because he has tasted death on my behalf, is willing now because I've been separated unto him to make a declaration concerning me. I love old movies, don't you? Love those old movies with the big castles and all those other things, man, and they'd have these big balls, you know? And the ladies in these unbelievable dresses and the men would dress up. I didn't like the way they'd dress up.

They looked awful. And you know what would happen? They'd have these big orchestras and these big ballrooms in England and all the manners, the Vanderbooths and everybody in the United States of America, and when a couple of note and distinction arrived at this magnificent ball, they would come into the entranceway and they would stop. And the announcer would bang his pole on the ground. Everybody would stop and he would say, ladies and gentlemen, I am distinctly honored to present to you Lord Wilton.

And I would walk in and say toodley-doo to you and to you and to you. Do you know what God says? He says, I want to tell you something because Jesus Christ has tasted death for you. I'm willing now to do something. I'm willing to dress you up in the robes of my righteousness. And when you walk into the congregation, I, the Lord your God, am going to make an announcement before the peoples of the world that you are my son. God would do that for me.

Wow. Our taste of death was intentional and excruciating and purposeful. It was driven how by God's grace it was rewarded. He was crowned with glory. Not only is he number one, our taster of death, but number two, he is the author of our salvation, our author of salvation. Look down there in verse 10. When we see Jesus, who do we see? We see our author of salvation, and that means three things, friends. Number one, it means that he is the captain of our salvation. That little word there, author, is an interesting word.

Archigos in the Greek text. And the word there literally means pioneer or leader, an initiator, a determiner, and it refers to someone who involves others in his endeavor. For example, a man who starts and heads a family into which others are born. That's a pioneer, an author, an initiator. A man who founds a city into which others come and live. A pioneer. He's talking about a pioneer who blazed trail for others. That's what it means to be the captain of our salvation. When we see Jesus, we see our author, which means he is the captain. He's the pioneer. He's the initiator. He's the one who's made it all possible. He's prepared the way, and he's invited me to join in with his endeavor.

He's paid the ultimate price. But not only does it mean that he is the captain of our salvation, it means that he is the carrier of our salvation. In the first part of verse 10, we've got an indication of that. I love the King James Version says, it became him. He's the carrier. And that word there here in our text, it was fitting that God. It fit him.

He was the one, the designated carrier, the designated hitter, the one who was going to be the carrying instrument of God's grace. We all like it when things fit together, don't we? My wife did a special thing for me over Thanksgiving. She went out and she bought a heater, an outdoor heater. And, you know, we love to have a jolly good cup of tea out on, we are one of those people, we're always sitting outside drinking tea, and we like to do that even in the dead of winter. And so she said, well, what is the matter with this?

Instead of freezing, while we have a good cup of tea, we're going to buy a nice little heater. So she bought it. There was one little problem. It came in a box. Now, folks, you want to give me a heart attack?

Buy me something and deliver it in a box. And I tell you, I looked at that thing. I walked around at least 10 times. I'm sure I prayed over it.

I couldn't find the verse that fit. I opened that thing up, it had a manual this big. I had this picture in my mind of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I could see I was revisiting the Big Bang Theory. I had this big box.

I had all the components. Folks, to get me to assemble something is a dangerous business, I promise you that. Well, all of a sudden, a light went on because my two sons had come home from college. I said, gentlemen, come here. And so my two boys came running up and I said, gentlemen, see that box? It's got my heater in it. Put it together. I'm going to go and cook the lamb.

Gentlemen, no heat, no eat. I tell you, those boys like a challenge. I even got my video camera, folks. I came out there, let me tell you, the two boys had that box open. They had stuff in packets all over the place, how to put this in. Eventually, finally, they called me.

They said, Dad, it's done. I went outside. I wish you could have seen me in that weather. Turning that thing on, it's a gas thing, by the way. I turned that thing on and I heard a lot of hissing, but no flames came out of it. I tell you, we waited, folks, and eventually, boom, it took and it got us a little bit of heat and it was absolutely magnificent. You know what it took to get it to work, folks?

The parts had to fit. Can I tell you something today? Until you understand who the author of your salvation is, you will not fit.

You'll never come together. He's the author of our salvation. It means he's the captain. It means he's the carrier. But it also means, in the third instance, that he is the completer of our salvation. The latter part of verse 10, it says that salvation, perfect God, Jesus Christ, is made perfect, referring to him, and the word perfectness there simply describes the fact that the one who is the author, the one who has put this together, the one who is the pioneer and the leader and the initiator, the one who has invited us to come to his table is the one who not only captains this, not only carries this, but he's the one who completes it.

There's nothing else to be done. So what is this all about? Well, you go back to verse 9 there and it's rather interesting because the Lord caused me to really camp on that. We see Jesus.

That's what this is all about. Well, what do we see when we see Jesus? Number one, we see our taster of death. Number two, we see our author of salvation. But number three, we see our merciful high priest. It's right there in verse 17. It says, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.

Now, how did this happen? How did Jesus Christ become our merciful high priest? You see, up until this point, it was the high priest that you had to go through. You had to go and see the priest. You wanted to have anything to do with God, you had to consult the priest.

Jesus said, no more. You don't consult a priest. You don't confess to a priest.

You don't ask a priest to forgive you. I'm the one. I'm the author of salvation. I'm the one who is the taster of death. I have now become the merciful high priest.

Well, how did it happen? Well, the preceding verses tells us how it happened. Number one, number one, he became our merciful high priest because he shared in our humanity according to verse 14.

That's what qualified him. That's the deity of Jesus Christ. He became man for us, took upon himself the sin of the world even though he himself knew no sin.

And what he's done for us, actually, he did it for you. Oh, I pray you'd open your heart before we get away and hear these closing thoughts from our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. You've done it. You prayed to receive Christ as Dr. Don was leading well ago, or maybe you rededicated your life to Jesus.

Let us walk with you. The next steps are going to be exciting, and Dr. Don has some free resources we want to give to you at 866-899-WORD. Again, jot the number down. Give us a call, 866-899-9673. Some of you don't want to receive but want to give and share in the ministry. Here's how you can do that by becoming an encourager. Over the past few months, our viewership and calls to our prayer line have greatly increased. The demand for our quarterly devotional has also increased. We praise Jesus for this. We are reaching more people for Christ. Will you join us in reaching just one more? Your monthly donation of any amount will help us continue the work of the Lord. When things around you seem out of control, you can make a difference. Call today, 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Our time's gone for today, but we're so excited about tomorrow's salvation message, not about what it is to get saved, but what it is to know that once you are saved, you're secure in that salvation.

Dr. Don will be talking about that tomorrow. I hope you'll consider joining us. Between now and then, let's get connected on our website. It's brand new at TEWOnline.org. That's TEWOnline.org.