Be reading from Hebrews 2, verses 14 through 18.
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 sins.
He himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help
those who are tempted. This is the word of God.
Are you prepared to die? Some of you might have been
watching a few weeks ago when Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo
Bills. Collapsed during a Monday night
football game after taking a hit to the chest at the exact right
Ms of his heartbeats Rhythm. Now, if you were watching the
game, it didn't take long to realize that this was not a
normal football injury even though you couldn't see Damar
Hamlin's body on the field, you could see his teammates and the
reaction of the Medics. And you knew something was
seriously wrong, and later we would learn that his heart
actually stopped beating and he had to be revived.
Right there on the field. And since then, he has
progressed, he is expected to make a recovery and be able to
live a very normal life in the future.
But for the first few hours and days following that event, no
one knew that would be the case. No one knew if he would be okay,
the game was canceled immediately because it didn't
matter, even though from The Stance of football, you know, it
mattered, it didn't matter anymore and you could see Sports
reporters, who had rarely if ever talked about death on the
air. Or even spirituality or the
future Life. Begin to give their insights and
opinions. And there are moments when as a
society we are forced to collectively wrestle with the
reality and inevitability of death.
Sometimes it's one person that for some reason our culture is
captured by as it was in this case other times it's more
communal events such as mass shootings or something like
covid-19. Who I know, affected family
members of new Eden family here. And I don't bring up death just
because I want to start the sermon out.
On a morbid note I bring it up because our passage from Hebrews
talks about the reality of death.
And in fact, it doesn't take long to read the scriptures
before you start looking at the reality of death, just Genesis
chapter 3, it's there. The reality is no matter who you
are, no matter what generation you were born in, no matter what
culture or what, part of the world, you are born into death,
will be a part of your life. Death is the singular.
Most consistent thing that humans face you will die.
And so the question I proposed to you this morning as we look
at our text is this are you prepared to die?
So good morning again church and welcome to this Gathering of new
Eden here, at our building that we named the Garden.
We specifically named it the garden because you, the people
are new Eden Church, that sometimes causes confusion.
Someone thought we changed our name to the Garden.
I've heard that one when we moved in this building, also
this week on the little ring doorbell.
If you ever come here, you can leave me a little message, and
I'll get it out front. But this woman looks in the
building and she says, oh no, it's not a church anymore, and
Moves on. So I had, I was like, well,
joke's on you. We are the church, so that's
what you get. But, anyways, I don't know.
So, I am glad to be a part of this local expression of The
Universal Church from all times and all places.
If I've not been able to meet you yet, my name is Joel and I
have the privilege of serving as one of the pastor's here at new
Eden today, we are continuing in our series, through Hebrews, we
are finishing up chapter 2. So, what you just heard read
verses 14 through verse 18, which Which is the end of the
chapter. So a see if you guys remember
what we practiced last week, the theme of the book of Hebrews is
Let's try it again. The theme of the book of Hebrews
is Jesus is better. That's it right?
He is greater. He is supreme.
He is superior. However you want to say it
right. The preacher of Hebrews has to
this point and will continue to make it clear that Jesus is
superior to the best things you've ever known and he's
better than the worst things you've ever experienced.
We saw he's greater than the angels.
We saw that he is the true and better human.
We saw that he is the true. New and better older brother.
And this week, we're going to see that.
As powerful as death is Jesus is greater As I said, a moment ago
the scriptures do not sugarcoat the reality and issues that
death brings up and our passage today is just as honest it does
not sugarcoat what death is and so we're going to start right
there by looking at the problem of death.
This is the first point we have the problem of death.
In verses 14 and 15. There are a few different truths
that are preacher acknowledges about the problem of death three
that I want to highlight. The first one is death is scary
in verse 15. Our preacher says that humans
all their lives are held in slavery by the fear of death.
When we begin to think about death in one way or another it
grips us and it scares us I think death is scary because
it's unknown, right? It's brutal.
You can't ask someone who's died.
What it? What?
It's like because they're gone. You can't try to learn about the
experience. Like, you can maybe with
marriage or parenting or starting a business or something
else. Scary.
There's also the fears of all the things associated with
death, right? When I think about that, I
actually don't think I fear death as much as like, what
death encompasses, how am I going to die?
Is it going to be painful? Is it going to be over a long
process? We might have the fear of our
loved ones having to take care of us.
Like we've had to take care of others.
We might have the fear of not having enough strength to do
basic human functions for ourselves, and that's just
getting into the realm of the fear of our own deaths.
What about the fear of the deaths of those closest to us?
Ask any parent if they're able to even think about what it
would be like to lose their child or maybe they have and and
fear is probably a pretty appropriate word to describe
that emotion. We just acknowledge that.
And that's just like death is scary.
I'm just scratching the surface, it separates it.
Fractures it destroys and it divides and there's nothing
anyone can do to stop it. That's what's crazy.
Death is not only scary. Our text tells us that death is
also powerful and verse 14. Our preacher says that there is
a power of death and that power is strong.
We can look at it in our text. We can go to a lot of scripture
but we can also look around us. Death is intimately powerful.
It can like, like, very acute. It can destroy an individual in
just a moment or sometimes even worse over years as a body and a
mind deteriorates towards the grave, it's acutely powerful.
But it's also broadly destructive death has touched
everything. That's why we see natural
disasters while we see these accidents and and the effects
It's of death or powerful as well.
Things don't get better things. The moment they're created, they
move towards death. You spent half your life, just
trying to maintain stuff. Go look at the trampoline
falling apart in my backyard right now, right?
It's only like, a year and a half old and it's falling apart.
I'm like, I'm just gonna have to throw it away.
It's deteriorating. I was looking, I try to stay up
to what the city council is doing.
And I was reading the paper the other day and they're having to
vote on replacing the rubber playground like area at Delano
Park just the Rubber surface out there, thousands of dollars not
to make it better just to make it what it was.
Like just maintaining stuff, death, affects everything.
And the last thing that we see our text acknowledges about the
problem of death is probably the most disconcerting, and it's
this death is no respecter of persons.
It does not matter your Earthly status.
Every human, no matter how great you are, no matter how much you
took care of your body, which is a good thing to steward.
No matter what we will all die. Duff is undefeated like it is we
watch it like if you follow Sports you see like at some
point like people say it this way you know father time is
undefeated is the way the sports announcers will say like it
comes for all of us whenever and however and from the moment were
born, that's the path we're headed on and we can try to
distract ourselves. We can try to just not think
about it. We can live our youthful lives
and there's nothing wrong with that.
But death will ultimately beat us and we can't stop it for
ourselves or those around us. Death is a problem, it is scary,
it is powerful and it is no respecter of persons, but our
passage does not only acknowledge these truths.
It also takes time to explore death of bit further because
death is actually only a symptom of a deeper problem.
We saw the problem of death and now as we keep reading, we see
the source of death. See, death is just not this
abstract thing that happens. It happens for a reason.
There is a root problem and it is why death is powerful and
prevalent. And that problem is sin, that's
the source of death. Verse 14.
We're told that the one who holds the power of death is the
devil. As we saw a couple weeks ago, he
is the one who in the garden deceived, the first man and
woman convincing them that it was best to rebel against their
creator. And this is how sin is the
Avenue by which death came into the world.
Romans is very clear that Romans 5:12.
Therefore just as Sin entered, the world through one man, Adam
and death through sin in this way.
Death spread to all people. Why?
Because all Send sin is the source of death and that's not
good news because none of us are immune to sin.
Mankind is deeply flawed and depraved though.
We were we talked about original Glory.
A few weeks ago, we were created in God's image.
We have rejected that to go our own way and we have begun to
worship ourselves and those around us instead of the one who
created us and this hurts us And it hurts the ones around us sin.
Brings death sin destroys. I had to remind one of my
daughters of this this week is she's getting in trouble and she
brought her younger sister into this who now also got in trouble
and I was like, sin hurts you. And not only that, it hurts
those around you, sin is not harmless, it's not meaningless.
It is disruptive and destructive.
And it's everywhere on an individual level.
Sin is in the heart of every human of every individual.
Not only that sin is in the depths of every system, it's a
systemic problem. Sin, affects governments
politics churches. Schools, police forces
courthouses and communities. It is everywhere and it touches
everything and it fractures, and divides.
And it was the goal of the To me for this to happen, to destroy
the opposite of God's plan, which was cultivating life, and
flourishing, and joy, and Justice, and righteousness, and
in its place sin replaces that with violence, destruction,
Injustice and immorality. And because of this sin, not
only leads to physical death but even worse a spiritual and
eternal death, a separation from our life Source, who we were
created to be in Union with when we rebelled against him and sin.
Fractures this we are now separated from that fraternity
and because of this, no one, I don't care how you answered the
question earlier. If we are still in our sin, we
are not prepared to die. The Outlook of the world is
pretty bleak. We are not progressing towards
some greater Utopia and there is no greater Utopia back here that
we just want to get back to and things would be better.
The reality is ever since Genesis 3 ever since the fall
it's been broke. This is what the one who holds
the power of death wanted. This is why the enemy dresses up
sin to be desirable. He is tempted and deceived and
caused Humanity to call evil good and good evil.
This is why we have to take sin, seriously, it's why we don't
play around, it's why warnings against the deceitfulness of sin
are prevalent for God's people. It's not just like, I know.
Here's some really good stuff you want to do and it'd be fun
but let me keep you away from that.
No, it's like ripping the mask off of the sheep to show the
wolf behind the mask, it is peeling back the layers to say
this destroys. This is not the way of life.
This is the way of death. It's what the Book of Proverbs
is It's what it's all about. But here's the problem, we can
name sin and we should. But sometimes I think we think
the answer to dealing with sin, it's to just name it if we just
unmask it and we beat people over the head with the Proverbs
and the rules and the commands, then they'll get it right?
But here's the problem. Taking sin more serious.
Doesn't loose the chains. The preacher of Hebrews uses the
language of enslaved. The way we deal with sin,
sometimes like going to a person and change that is enslaved by
their captor and yelling at them and tell them.
Don't, you know, you're enslaved.
Just stop doing what your Masters making you do.
Just stop. It's absurd, you can yell at him
and tell him to stop being a slave, but you haven't dealt
with the problem. You haven't freed the man.
Even if he knows he's a Slave. He does not have the power to
set himself free. He cannot break his own chains.
And this is how it is, this is how the preacher describes us
with sin and with death. This is our lot.
There's the problem of death. There is the source of death but
thank God. The story does not end there.
Because dripping off the pages of our text is not only these
realities but also the truth about the supremacy of Jesus, as
powerful as death is Jesus is greater, he is greater than the
source of death and death itself.
Until Jesus death was undefeated.
But when death face the Son of God, it met its match.
And this is the last thing. We'll see the death of death.
I'm going to pick up my tissues. The death of death.
See, Jesus was unwilling to watch us struggle against sin
and leave us alone. Jesus was unwilling to stay
distance. As death wreaked, havoc, on
humanity and Enslaved. The people, he created.
So, he decided to what our writer says in Hebrews, 2:14 to
share in our Flesh and Blood. Now, since the children have
flesh, and blood and common, Jesus also shared in these the
Incarnation of God Emmanuel God With Us all, because he wanted
to cross. The chasm cross the Divide not
to help Angels but he reaches out to help us.
That's what verse 16 says, to her to reach out and help
Abraham's offspring. That's true.
Israel. All God's people through belief
in the gospel. And so how does he help us?
How does he deal with the problem of death?
He gets to the root of it. Hebrews 2:17 2:18 therefore
because he's reaching out to help and deal with this problem
of death. He had to be like his brothers
and sisters in every way top to bottom 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.
Jesus. God becomes Like, Us in every
way willingly submitting himself to the limits of humanity,
taking on the weaknesses of Flesh and Blood, 100% God, who
also became a hundred percent man.
He got physically, tired. He knows what it's like to be
exhausted. After a long day of caring for
others, he gets it when you're in that area.
He knows what it's like to be lonely.
He needed time to rest. He laughed.
He cried. He was happy and he was sad.
He added aches. He had pains, he bled, like you
and me. He was rejected.
He was human. And the whole goal of his
Incarnation was to deal with sin and he not only knows what it's
like to face the natural limits of humanness.
He also knows intimately what it's like to face the suffering
of the temptation of sin. And so because of this, this is
important for us to grasp and mind-blowing that when you are
struggling against sin, Jesus is not distant and aloof standing
offs hand. You got yourself in the mess,
hope you can figure it out. Let me know when you do.
Because that's how I parent half the time.
He's not waiting for us to finally get it right.
Rather, he is a merciful and faithful high priest faithful to
intercede for us. A faithful high priest is making
atonement for the sins and bringing them into the presence
of God, not kicking them out. He is sympathetic and
understanding, like, in this, this is like changing the way I
parent. Like, I know this in my head,
but like, when I was talking to my daughter the other day about
the danger of her sin because it's he's like I'm like, why
would you eat food in your room? I've told you a million times.
Not a lot of have food in your room.
Why are you hiding it? But then like I'm like this is
not how God deals with me. So I'm like, hey F was with say
it was I I think from The mind of a seven-year-old who sees
candy and food and they want it. I said it's hard.
Huh. It's hard and I get it and then
it's hard to not lie about it because you don't want to get in
trouble. And so I get that and even more
so Jesus gets it. He understands.
Do we see Jesus holding that loving posture toward us when we
are in the midst of giving it a Temptation because I'm much more
inclined to think he's angry at me.
Disappointed. But the scriptures paint the
truth for Jesus. He is on our side, he is for us.
It's also important for us to have a category of suffering
that is fighting since Temptation.
Most of the time, we have two categories for suffering General
suffering, like someone, I loved died.
Okay, and that is suffering. Then the other category we have
is persecution. Somebody actively hurting us
because we are standing up for the gospel.
Okay, there is a third category in scriptures.
Not only here, go read 1st, Peter, that suffering is
fighting temptation of sin. It is not a sin to be tempted.
Jesus was tempted. And This ship's only see the
Temptation instead of throwing on guilt to an already difficult
struggle. We recognize that it's hard.
And that Jesus recognizes that it's hard.
God gets it as the psalmist said, he knows our frame and he
remembers that you're simply dust.
But he also gets it because he became flesh.
He faced the same thing. Hebrews 4 14 to 16.
This is later but I know you guys are going to forget it by
the time we get there. So I'm gonna jump ahead
therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed
through the heavens Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to
our confession. For you do not have a high
priest who is unable to sympathize with your weaknesses
but one who has been tempted in every way as you are yet without
sin. So if that's true.
Let us approach the throne of grace, with boldness, so that we
may receive mercy and find Grace to help us in time of need, when
you are facing Temptation. And when you've completely given
in, don't run away from Jesus, run to a throne that is dripping
with Grace and receive his Mercy.
There, your sin is not too much grace abounds, all the more
Jesus does not only sympathize in your struggle against sin.
He does that intimately, he crawls down into the mess.
But he's also the great high priest who deals with it.
He atoned for it, propitiated for it.
Here has will explore this in more detail later about Jesus as
our high priest but for now I want you to think about what it
means that he has a tone for us. This idea of atonement is both
dealing with the judicial penalty of sin.
This propitiation his life for ours but also a holistic
restoration of a relationship. Okay, the whole goal of
atonement on Even on the old Covenant was so that people
could be in the presence of God. It's not just this arbitrary
thing where, God just as judge, that's a piece of it.
But it's also got his father and restoring that relationship.
And so there was a need for a perfect sacrifice, who could
make atonement for the people? Without the shedding of blood,
there is no forgiveness. And so on the cross, Jesus
becomes the lamb, slain Behold the Lamb of God who takes away
the sins of the world, he is also the scapegoat on whom the
sins of the people are placed sent outside the city to suffer,
bearing your guilt and your shame.
He atones for us and deals with our sin once and for all, he's
not sacrificed over and over and over.
Once for all and in dealing with sin, he deals with death.
Back 2, verses 14 and 15. It's what we're told through his
death. Through the death of Jesus.
He might destroy the one holding the power of death.
That is the devil, and not just tell them, they're in sin, but
actually free those who were held in slavery, all their lives
by the fear of death. Welcome to the death of death.
By denying Jesus destroyed death and the one who wielded its
power. So upside down doesn't make
sense. He does it by dying as he has
led to the instrument of his death, this Roman cross where he
will be hanged, the crowd jeers and they mock him yelling.
Why don't you save yourself? Unaware, that he was actually
saving the world. His hanging begins.
But the irony is, they seek to slay Jesus But instead, they
slay sin. Because Jesus became what he
hates. So we might become the ones he
loves and the upside down way of his kingdom, though.
Jesus really did die. It was really his physical body.
That was laid in the grave, but because he became our sin, he
did not go to the Grave alone. Death was also buried in the
Tomb that day. Jesus and death.
Both go together to the grave but only one is getting back up.
and even though the enemy wants held the power of death, On
Easter morning, it all changes. On that third day, the ground
shakes Stone rolls away and up from the grave.
Jesus has raised loose. Our chains, death is now slain
and the King Reigns. Deaf has died Nevermore to
return, death is no longer undefeated it, took a massive L
and it'll never recover from it. Through the Life, Death burial,
and resurrection of Jesus death has lost its sting So even
though in the here and now we acknowledge, we still see the
effects of sin. We get it, it's up close and
personal, but the sting is gone. So we no longer have to fear
death, through the power of the spirit, we can look death in its
face and makáts. That's what the scripture is.
That says o death. Where is your sting?
That's mocking it. Death is the one thing as cool
to Trash Talk. Where's your sting?
It's gone. Grave.
Where is your Victory? Oh yeah.
You lost. I love the way the wrapper
triply puts it in a song, Ready is what it's called it talks
about losing his father to death and it talks about being ready
to die. And in the last verse he talks
directly to death and this is what he says.
Those of you that don't know, rap just excuse the grammar.
Here we go. But hey, death police know.
We won't have much to grief. Oh, because you got to rhyme it,
okay? When all your winds are repoed.
And the reaper reaps what he sowed.
So I'm going to run from you. What I got to flee for, did it
hurt your self esteem? When you heard your sting was no
more except he says no mo mo mo and my kids.
Love that part. It's good.
Go check it out. This is good news.
See we try to cope with the reality of death by saying it's
just a part of life. But it's not.
It was never meant to be that way things in the garden.
We're not dying. But now, through the work of
Christ things get put back together again and death and
he'll go to the Grave where they belong, and for those in Christ,
there is no power over us. It's why we can sing no guilt in
life. No fear and death.
This is the power of Christ in me exchange, the power of death
for the power of Christ. And he's going to return and
finish the work completely. There will be no more death, no
more crying, No More Tears, no more pain.
Not only will the sting of death be gone but the presence of
death will be gone. And as we begin to believe this,
we are actually freed in the Here.
And Now from the fear of death, we are no longer slaves to the
fear of loss and death. Whether it be physical death, or
the loss of a dream, or a reality, or a relationship.
Or an ideal. We once had and don't get me
wrong, like, fear and death and loss and pain doubt that all
still exist. In one sense, we can be honest
about that. We can admit that death is hard.
This is not some hope that just glosses over the depths of
suffering and grief, we can grieve but not as those who have
no hope if death and the one who wills it has been destroyed.
Then there is nothing left. Left to fear.
And this can change us from placing safety as the top
priority in our life. Safety for me.
And the ones I love, I just want to live as long as I can, which
is just a freaking blip on the radar of Eternity.
And we spend all our lives grasping for that.
Instead, we moved from safety to stewardship and say this is
God's and it can be stirred it for his kingdom, both for myself
and those I love. And I don't say that without
recognizing the sacrifice that that is The good news of the
Gospel does not ignore the depths of grief but it does free
us to look at and its face look suffering in its face and the
walk right into it because we know that that death, that pain,
that suffering that Temptation, it's all just become a slave to
the purposes of God. Just like the enemy when they
placed Jesus on the cross, inadvertently helped accomplish
the atoning work of salvation for all.
Now in Christ, your life, the enemy's work of Temptation and
death in your life will only serve to bring about God's glory
and your good. This is the massive upside down
nature of the Gospel instead of us now being enslaved to death.
Death is now a slave to the Glorious work that God is doing
in your life. And so, I finish where I
started. Are you prepared to die?
And if you answer that question by talking about the things,
You've accomplished in your life where the will that you've
prepared or the Investments you've made or the life
insurance plan you have. I might have to push back.
Because who can really ever do enough to make sure you're
prepared to die. But if by God's grace, you could
answer that question by saying, I have no other argument.
I have no other plea. But it is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. It is only the death and
resurrection of Jesus that could ever remove the sting of our
death. And so the invitation is, if you
don't know Jesus, we want you to know him like that, all the
things of this age will let you down and they're all taking you
towards death, but in Christ, there is life offered to you.
And for those who do know Jesus, I want you to be encouraged that
Duff and the source of death. Your sin has all been fully
dealt with, by Jesus hear me. Clearly it is not your battle to
fight. The work is finished.
It is accomplished, it is complete.
So, rest in the work of Christ, because death is dead.
You are are now free to live.