Hebrews 2:10-18 - Jesus Is Our Brother And High Priest

Did you know that you have a family member? It's maybe one you didn't know about before you were interacting with this episode, but I'm about to tell you that you've got a long lost brother. And that brother, of course, is Jesus.

We are in the Book of Hebrews in our podcast. And today we're going to be going over chapter 2 and verses 10 through 18. So chapter 2 from verse 10 to the end of the chapter.

And we're going to be learning about Jesus as our brother. So as just a very, very brief word of review, Book of Hebrews written from an individual. We don't know who the specific person was, but they knew a lot about the Old Testament.

They had been told about Jesus from the Apostles and as had the recipients of this particular letter. And these recipients of the letter, the Hebrews, they were really concerned.

They were undergoing heavy persecution and they had wondered like, hey, should we do what some others have done and like abandon Jesus and Christianity and this faith and just go back to Judaism where it was a little bit easier?

You know, we've got family, we've got friends, all of those that they're enjoying a little bit easier time in Judaism, which was afforded more liberties. It was viewed as relatively more respectable in the Roman Empire than Christianity was.

So they wondered, like, hey, should we leave? Should we go back to when it was a little bit easier? And this writer said, no, don't go back.

Jesus is everything. There is no turning back to God apart from Jesus Christ. So at the very first part of the book, he let them know, hey, Jesus is God.

In the last episode, we saw that Jesus is better than the angels. And so, you know, people in the Old Testament, these ones that you look to in your scriptures, they listen to the angels. They were afraid of them.

And so he says, we have to listen to Jesus. Jesus is so much better.

And we ended last time in verse number nine, and I'll kind of take it from there through the end of chapter two, where the writer says, but we do see Jesus made lower than the angels for a short time.

They're quoting from Psalm Chapter eight, I believe, if I remember correctly, made lower than the angels for a short time, so that by God's grace, He might taste death for everyone, crowned with glory and honor because. He suffered death.

That's where we bring in today. He says, for in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the source of their salvation perfect, through sufferings.

For the one who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified, all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.

I will sing hymns to you in the congregation. Again, I will trust in. Him.

And again, here I am with the children God gave me. Now, since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through.

His death, He might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. For it is clear that.

He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham's offspring. Therefore, He had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that.

He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since He Himself has suffered when. He was tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted.

Okay, lots of great verses, lots of confusing statements that we can read in there. Let's look at these verses and learn about Jesus as our family member, our brother, the one that made our salvation possible.

Okay, verse number 10, starting off in bringing many sons and daughters to glory. That is that Jesus has not just saved you, He has made it so that one day you will be exalted and glorified and lifted up. In Revelation chapter 4 and 5, we read that.

He makes us kings and priests to our God. In 1st Corinthians, we read that we are going to judge angels as the people of God. That is that we are going to hold the spiritual beings that rebelled against God.

We are going to determine their sentences once we reign with Christ. What an incredible thought that we are going to have everlasting eternal life, even as Jesus has eternal everlasting life.

All of that is exalting and glorifying these sons and daughters of man. How undeserving we are, but how wonderful and how kind and how good our God is in giving that to us. Not through works of righteousness that we have done, but according to.

His mercy. So he says, in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the source of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

So first, we learn that everything exists for God. There is nothing in your life or in my life that does not belong to God, that is not intended to be used for. Him.

Sometimes people have like separated stuff out into, well, these are secular things and these are sacred things. So, you know, if I go hunting, that's a secular thing. Or if I work my job or if I go to a Ravens game, that's a secular thing.

Versus if I go to church or if I read my Bible or if I pray for someone or if I share the gospel, those are all sacred things. Everything is for God. This was one of the reasons just as a random aside, that music, all music is intended for God.

Every musical instrument is for God. Whatever exists, it belongs to the Lord.

It's why in the Book of Psalms, you read all of the ones, especially in like Psalm 145 through 150, it's like, hey, the great big sea creatures, sea monsters, they're called to glorify God.

The sun, moon and stars and the angelic beings, those all are to glorify God. He says the drums, the timpanies, the cymbals, the lyres, the liars, the harps, everything, everything that has breath is to praise the Lord. So everything belongs to him.

Everything is for God. And everything exists through God.

That is, that you don't live this breath that you took, the beating in your heart right now, the fact that you can see with your eyes or hear with your ears, it is all because God is giving you every single moment, your breath and life, because of

his love for you. And he is sustaining you at every single moment. Gravity doesn't just exist. Gravity exists because God is holding everything together.

Every atom of creation's movement, every quark, every everything that exists, exists because God is holding it all together. What a wonderful, amazing, incredible God.

And so here the writer is saying, God, for whom and through whom all things exist, made the source of our salvation, which is Jesus. It is not us. It's not our good works.

It's not us going to a priest. It's not us giving enough money. It's not us, you know, whatever way of salvation you would otherwise think would happen.

Jesus is the source of our salvation. And it says that. He made.

Him perfect through sufferings. Okay, well, what does that mean? Was Jesus like imperfect or flawed in some way before?

No, this word perfect is the Greek word teleos. That is, sometimes you'll read the word as mature, complete and end perfect. That is, Jesus was fully equipped with everything good through.

His human life. That He did not, He was not human, with flesh and blood, born just like us, with hunger and thirst and all of that. He was not that in all of eternity past.

But when. He came to earth, He took on something that. He was not before.

That's Philippians chapter 2, that. He took upon. Himself the form of a slave, a servant, and.

He was made in the likeness of man. That was a whole new thing for Jesus. That He had never come in that way before.

And so, He was equipped, He was made more complete that the glorious truth, I'm going to use the fancy theological term here, is the hypostatic union of Christ. That is, that Christ is 100% God and 100% man.

For more explanation on that, I would encourage you to look at some of the creeds, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and some of those, the Apostles Creed, as they kind of take a look at the Trinity and go, okay, who is Jesus?

Is He like half God, half man? Does He have like the Holy Spirit? And so, that part of.

Him is God, but then all of. His flesh is man. How does this work out?

And I'm thankful for those Christians, you know, 1600 years ago, that thought through some of those things in relation to God's Word and said, okay, here's what the Bible says about Jesus, and so here's what we believe about Jesus based on the Word

of God. So Jesus, He takes on humanity and. He suffers for us. Okay, why was that necessary?

Because, as it tells us in verse number 17, and as we'll see throughout the rest of the Book of Hebrews, Jesus is our great High Priest, that just like the High Priest that we read about in the Book of Leviticus, that. He was like the people, but.

He was to be set apart, He was to be holy, that. He would first offer like a sacrifice for. His own sins, and then.

He would offer sacrifices for the sins of the people because. He was imperfect. But His sacrifices could be acceptable because.

He was offering them as a part of the representative group that had sinned. That was, He was part of Israel, He was part of mankind, and so. He could offer a sacrifice on behalf of Israel because.

He was part of Israel. And so Jesus, in making. His perfect sacrifice for sin, He first had to be a part of the representative group.

So He was born from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David, from that kingly line. And He came and. He was born in human flesh.

He became a part of the representative sinful group. And He offered a sacrifice, not just for Israel, but for the whole world because. He was a man.

He was a person. And so in that, He was made complete. He was made more equipped for.

His high priestly role because. He took on flesh and blood and because. He suffered and died for us.

What a wonderful truth that.

He was made equipped through becoming a human and living a life of suffering, living a life with poor parents, as you can even read about from the sacrifice that Joseph and Mary brought to the temple when they dedicated Jesus.

He was from part of a family where. He endured political opposition from Herod even when. He was less than two years old, and having to flee that.

He was a young immigrant child, fleeing and looking for, I can't remember what the word is right off hand, but looking for safety in another country when. He went to Egypt. And then.

He came back to Israel, to Judah, and to the city of, or the town of Nazareth where Joseph and Mary were from. And so. He went there.

He had siblings and even. His own mother at times didn't believe in. Him and believe in.

His mission and the words that. He was telling people and proclaiming the gospel. He was doubted by people.

He was rejected. He was distrusted and maligned by the religious people that were supposed to be lauding this messiah that had come to save. And then of course we know in the week of.

His passion, as we went over at the end of the Book of Mark, that. He was placed on trial before the Sanhedrin. He was abused there.

He was taken to Herod and to Pontius Pilate, with Pontius Pilate handing him over to the Roman soldiers who beat him and who placed the crown of thorns on his head, all sorts of horrible things.

And then he was made to carry his cross as far as he could up to Golgotha to Calvary, that he fell in the road doing so and someone else had to actually physically carry the cross up. He was nailed to the cross and bled out and died for our sins.

He was that perfect sacrifice for us. He suffered all throughout his life and he was born to die. But what that meant was he was now part of us.

He was one of us as humanity, as people. And so because of that, he joined in with us. And he was not ashamed to join in with us.

And that's what we read about in verse number 11, for the one who sanctifies, that is Jesus, sanctifies us. He sets us apart. He cleanses us.

The one that sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is that all of us, we view God as our Father. That's what Jesus instructed us in the Lord's Prayer.

The very first words, our Father who is in heaven. So he says we all have one Father. That is why, verse 11, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

I don't know if you've ever interacted maybe with the time that you were kind of ashamed to call someone your sibling. You were like, oh, man, yeah, I am related to them, unfortunately. Well, think of it.

Jesus is perfect. Jesus is holy. Jesus has never done or said or thought anything wrong.

We have, but Jesus is not ashamed to call us his brothers and his sisters. And in emphasis of this fact, the writer quotes from Psalm 22, and he says, I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters. I will sing hymns to you in the congregation.

They are speaking from that same Psalm. We're at the very beginning of it. It says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That Jesus quoted on the cross, but realizing that God would raise him again from the dead, that this was a triumphant statement of Jesus that says everything that is being talked about in the Psalm. It is being fulfilled in me.

And the end part of it with resurrection and joy and new family and singing and proclaiming and praising God for everything that he's done, all of that is going to come to pass.

And so we are proclaimed, the writer here, drawing attention for these persecuted believers wanting to leave Jesus and Christianity for Judaism, wanting to leave their new Christian family, their church, for Judaism.

He says, no, no, no, no, no, Jesus went through suffering, and he's not ashamed to call you his brothers and sisters. So you can endure suffering. You can go through hard times.

You can endure people persecuting you and treating you poorly, and you can still call these people your brothers and sisters because that's what Jesus did for you. So follow in Jesus' steps. And David talked about this all the way back in Psalm 22.

And so this was a prophecy of what would happen. And so don't abandon Jesus. He is your holy brother.

Verse number 13, the writer quotes two other verses. He says, again, I will trust in him. And looks like they're from Isaiah 8, 17, 2 Samuel 22, 3, some different verses.

And again, here I am with the children God gave me. They're from Isaiah 8, 18. So the writer says, look, Jesus has adopted you as part of his family.

So don't reject him. You are with him now. Verse number 14.

Now, since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these.

So that through his death, he might destroy the one holding the power of death, that is the devil, and free those who are held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. That is, we were human. We were under the curse of death.

Satan had power over us. But Jesus came, that he would break these chains, that he would set us free, he would make it so that we don't have to fear death, that Satan has no more hold on us. And he did that by conquering death.

That is, that he took death on himself, he went to the grave, and as we've read about in 2nd Peter and the Book of Psalms and many other places, he went, he spoiled hell.

That is, he spoiled the grave that the people that were there unable to go to heaven, those that were in what Jesus labeled as paradise or Abraham's bosom, he took those up to heaven, that he preached condemnation to those that had rejected God and

his ways, the demons and he ascended in power so that now when we die, we don't have to worry about going down to the grave. We know that we will be with God because Jesus has made that way open through his life and death and resurrection, that we

are no longer slaves to fear, this fear of death that we read about in verse 15, but we are a child of God. And some of you might know that song, No Longer Slaves, and so grateful for that fact, really just taken from this passage among many others.

Verse number 16, for it is clear that he does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham's offspring, that is those that follow Abraham in belief and faith.

You can read about that a lot in the Book of Galatians, and I think we might even interact with it a little bit later in the Book of Hebrews. He says, God did not offer a way of redemption to the spiritual beings that abandon God's way.

So Satan and the principalities, rulers, powers, authorities, all of those things that are talked about in Romans 8, and the Book of Daniel, and Ephesians chapter 6, among Colossians 2, among many other places, God did not offer the angels that

sinned a way of redemption, but he did offer a way of redemption to mankind. You might ask, why? That is one of those questions that God has not explicitly answered in his Word, but we are able to be thankful for what he has done for us.

And so, because of Jesus' help and love and care for us, he reached out to help us, verse number 17, therefore he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining

to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. This atonement, this covering over our sins, was something that was talked about so much in the Book of Leviticus. That is, that sin taints both us and everything in our world.

And so, in Leviticus, the way that God had set up to like show our faith was, have these sacrifices and the priests will sprinkle the blood in this holy place so that there is a covering over of sin.

That sin is erased and redemption has been purchased.

And where sin was metaphorically, if you will, all over the room now with the blood being shed, now with the covering over of it being done, it has been washed away through obedience and faith in God.

And here the writer is saying, this is what Jesus did for us, that he made atonement for us, that he was the sacrifice. He was, if you will, looking at Leviticus, you know, he was the high priest.

He was the spotless, sinless lamb that was slain for us. And it was his blood that was placed.

And so we have now a covering for sin, that where there was sin everywhere, now there is God's grace and forgiveness and love everywhere because of our faithful high priest.

Verse number 18, For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. He says, for those of you undergoing suffering, Jesus knows what it's like.

And he is your high priest, the one that you would trust with your life as a Jewish person to be able to say, like, hey, he's making this sacrifice on the day of atonement and my sins are going to be covered over and the sins of our nation.

We are wholly reliant on this person to be right with God and to make this sacrifice once they are clean and that they would make it. And so our people can be completely forgiven and covered over for all of our sin.

And here the writer of Hebrews says, that is who Jesus is for us, that he is our great high priest. He is the one that is perfect and clean and holy in every way.

And that he made the sacrifice and that as we hope in the sacrifice that he made, that we find life, that we find joy, that we find help in our temptation, that we wonder, hey, God, I messed up. I sinned here.

I didn't say what was right to that person. I didn't think right about that situation. I thought angry thoughts.

I thought lustful thoughts. I thought bitter thoughts. I thought conniving and scheming thoughts.

And God, I need your forgiveness. And we can know that the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, it is lasting. It is permanent.

It can never, as the old song says, the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power. For it reaches to the highest heavens, to our high and holy God, that our sins are cast away as far as the east is from the west, and.

He remembers them no more, because they have been paid forever. It reaches to the highest heavens, and it goes to the lowest hell, that those that like Jonah ran from God, that God still pursued them, and they couldn't get away from.

Him, even in the belly of the whale, and maybe you've been in that spot, where you have been in the deepest, darkest pit of your life, and God rescued you and brought you out, and because of Jesus' sacrifice, you don't have to worry about what you're

standing with God is. You are a child of the Father. You are a brother to the Son. You are a joint heir with Christ forever and ever, that.

He is exalting you to glory because of your great High Priest. If that don't get you excited, frankly, I don't know what will. I am so grateful that our Jesus, that.

He paid the full price for our sin, that. He knows what it's like to be human. He knows what it's like to go through temptation, and through suffering, and through family heartbreak, and political hardships, and everything else that we encounter.

He knows what it's like, and so we can find help through. Him when we need it. That's all we got time for today.

Tomorrow, we're going to jump into chapter 3. I'm so excited. I love this book.

I hope you do too. And it's going to be a good day learning more about Hebrews chapter 3, that Jesus is our, I believe this one is Jesus is our Sabbath rest. It might be that Jesus is better than Moses.

But we'll be studying one of those tomorrow in chapter 3. Thanks for tuning in.