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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (14-1-1979 Strandtown Baptist Church)
We come to another great passage about Christ and His glorious achievements. Last time it was His deity, this time it is His humanity – partaking of flesh and blood, pioneer of our salvation, victor over the Devil, and the first mention of His high priestly work. Four wonderful achievements are mentioned – going to look at first three briefly, and concentrate on the fourth.
Psalm 8 is quoted. Man was created a little lower than the angels; and crowned with glory and honour; and set over the works of God’s hand (Hebrews 2:7; Psalm 8:5-6). That dominion and glory was lost at the Fall. Sin had robbed man of his place and glory. Man was not what God had meant him to be from that point on. Into this situation came Christ. He tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9).
“A second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came”
He suffered and died and is now in glory. He did this to rid men of sin and restore them to God’s purposes. Glory and honour crown Him. One day all things will be subdued under Him, His kingdom will be fully established. Then God’s purpose for man will be completed.
Christ bringing many sons unto glory (Hebrews 2:10). There needed to be a pathfinder or file leader, a trail blazer or pioneer. Christ’s suffering made Him able to blaze the trail to salvation for others and lead them to glory. Through His death, Christ became pioneer of their salvation. He had been perfected, i.e. made adequate or able, fully equipped to be the leader to glory. He has passed into heaven, and He is at the head of the great procession leading the rest. They have all been made a family of brothers by His death.
On Good Friday, Christ’s cause seemed lost. But the
Devil, who had power of death, over-reached himself. On the third day, God
raised Christ from the dead, Christ defeated the devil, and robbed him of his
power. Now He is able to deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:15), bondage to the fear of
death.
John Bunyan tells of Christian and Hopeful at the
‘River of Death’. They asked if the waters were all one depth. The answer
was “No, you shall find them deeper or shallower as you believe in the king of
the place”. Christian was able to say with confidence, “I see Him again, and
He tells me ‘When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee’.”
As believers one by one touch
the brink of that river, they will hear their victorious Lord say Fear not, I
am He that liveth and was dead, and I am alive for evermore, and have the keys
of hell and death (Revelation 1:18). So the place of death becomes the gate
of life.
“He held, in hell laid low
Made
sin, He sin o’erthrew
Bowed
to the grave, destroyed it so
And death by dying slow” [some words unclear]
Therefore the incarnation and atonement
restored man to the position God designed. Jesus became the head of the band of
brothers, and head of the procession leading them through to glory. He robbed
the devil of his power, and can deliver us from fear of death.
Now going to consider in more depth the fourth wonderful achievement of Christ listed in this chapter. It is connected with Christ as High Priest (a prominent theme in the epistle, first mentioned here), merciful to men and faithful to God. He was made propitiation (N.B. not A.V.’s “reconciliation”) for the sins of the people (Hebrews 2:17). Going to look at this in two halves – He suffered, and He is able to succour.
He himself has suffered,
being tempted (Hebrews 2:18). Not everyone suffers being tempted. For
many, sin is to their taste, they enjoy it and the prospect of indulging in it.
But to the godly man, temptation is a worry and misery. He hates the experience.
Christ entered into this agonising experience fully, and more than we can
understand, because of His sinlessness and sensitiveness to holiness. It was
painful for Him to live and move in a world marked by sin. He was never hardened
by his practice of sin. It was perpetual sorrow for Him to be in contact with
sin.
His loathing must have increased ten-fold when He was actually tempted. But He did not yield, instead He suffered because of it. He was grieved and vexed and sickened by it, c.f. great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He suffered by circumstances, and the poverty and temptation which that brings. He was tempted because of His incessant labours, c.f. He fell asleep in the ship, and the temptations which weariness and exhaustion brings. He faced temptations which arise from the reactions of fellow men – even His mother did not understand Him, His family thought He was mad, His friends were sometimes stupid and dull of mind, selfish, and in one case, treacherous. His enemies were the source of more temptations, with their taunts, abuse and murderous plans. He was tempted by the Devil, the very embodiment of all evil, who tried to divert Him from His life’s mission. Painful wrestling with powers of darkness. His ultimate suffering – His deep cry of anguish on the Cross, when He was forsaken by His Father. Yet this suffering was not in vain, because it fitted Him to be our great High Priest.
He is able to succour them
that are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). Temptation is common to all and to
Him. His temptations show us that temptation is not in itself sin, nor is it
proof of displeasure by God. It need not lead to evil consequences, it need not
lead us to despair. In this situation, Christ can succour us. He is perfectly
well fitted to succour, and longs to do so because we are His people. He has a
tender disposition. The man who has seen affliction has the disposition to cheer
those who have been afflicted. Special ability to do so. Not everyone who visits
us when we are in trouble is a suitable helper, and they can leave us feeling
worse than we did before they came. Reason – they are not able to fit
sympathetically into the position of the sufferer. But Christ, having lived a
life of suffering, has the ability to enter into our experience. He himself
took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses (Matthew 8:17).
“He knows what sore temptations mean
For
He has felt the same”
Only those who have been through the same experience can
sympathise at depth. A Christian worker visited a woman who had lost a little
child. She tried with loving words of sympathy to console. The mother looked up
with blinding tears and said, “Thank you so much, but then you are not a
mother so you cannot understand”. The mother was looking for the tone and
feeling that could only come from someone who had suffered as she.
Christ has been through all that
we have, and suffered at a greater depth, therefore He has greater sensitivity,
and His sympathy is real. How does He succour? He knows, He loves, He cares, He
gives us precious truths which are a sweet antidote for the poison of sorrow.
The Bible contains promises for every need. The Bible contains a key to open
every drawer, to open gates for us to be free from sorrow. In our varied
distresses, the richness of the Word of God can meet the variety of our need.
Sometimes Christ’s succour comes through other believers, people who always do us good. Sometimes God strengthens us inwardly, we are surprised at how we manage to bear our troubles. Bunyan spoke of secret supplies of grace imparted in a hidden manner. He used the picture of water being thrown onto a fire, and yet it kept burning – because behind the wall, secretly, someone else was pouring oil onto the fire to keep it burning.
Christ is able to raise us up, leading us to glory,
taking away fear of death, sympathising and succouring in every situation. Are
you weary and heavy-laden? Let us seek Him. He is able to succour. We can come
as we are, we do not have to wait till we have more faith.
Where else is there to go? Men
are no use, they are like broken cisterns. Better to go to the fountain. Where
better to go? The more we are in despair, the more we are qualified to come to
Christ. “I am lost”, said Whitefield’s brother to the Countess of
Huntingdon. “I’m glad to hear it”, was the reply. “What a dreadful thing
to say.” “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, and therefore I
know he has come to save you.”
Let us stretch out our hands to Him who reaches out His tender omnipotent hand across the billows. Grasp the hands imprinted by the nails. And so exchange portions. He who has born our grief will load us with the gladness and blessedness which He had before the world began.
