Our Brother
April 28, 2024
Read Hebrews 2:10-13; 17
We considered verse 10 in a previous message, but it is good to be reminded how magnificent our Savior is. According to Hebrews, all things were created for Christ, even created by him! How exalted he is! Because all things were created for him, we should be pleased to live for him.
He is the Author or Captain of our salvation. He originated our salvation and we follow him now. Even Jesus, as a human being, was perfected through suffering. If Jesus Himself was perfected through sufferings[1], how much more do we need sufferings to be made like him? No one likes to suffer. But, we need it!
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,[2]
Jesus, besides being our Creator, the Captain of our salvation, and High Priest, is also our Sanctifier. He and we have the same source. This is profound. What is this source? The Father is the source. In a mysterious way the Father is the source of Jesus Christ. Yet, Christ is eternal. He always existed. If he always existed, how can the Father be his source? This is mysterious and we cannot understand it, yet both truths are proclaimed in God’s word, so we just receive it.
What is just as amazing as the Father being the source of Christ, is that he is our source too! He is not the source of the unbelievers. Of course, he is the source of every person in the sense that he created them. But he is our source in a different way. He is our source because he imparted his life and nature to us, if we belong to Christ, just as he shares his life and nature with Christ. This is amazing! But this is the testimony of the New Testament (John 4:14; 5:21; 6:63; 10:10; Romans 5:10; 8:9-10; 14:17; I Peter 1:4; I Corinthians 2:12; 2 Cor. 3:6).
Because we have the same source, because we share with Jesus his life and nature, he is not ashamed to call us his brothers. (brothers means both brothers and sisters in the NT. It is a general term, just as man often means both men and women in the Bible.) Jesus is not ashamed! Think of the weakest, maybe even embarrassing, Christian that you have known. Did you ever feel uncomfortable calling them brother or sister? Maybe because of how uneducated they were, or because of their appearance, or because of their simplicity? Maybe you were ashamed of them.
But how much higher and exalted is Jesus compared to us? The higher a person is in society the more likely they are not to associate with lower classes of people. (This kind of disposition is particularly egregious in India[3]. It is so bad there that people belonging to a higher class will not even speak to lower classes. But we have this tendency too, although it may not be as pronounced as in India.) People in the West might be ashamed to be with people of lower classes. Jesus is the highest person there is, yet he is not ashamed to call you his brother sister. This is marvelous!
In the movie, White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. Crosby plays a Captain and Danny Kaye plays a private. Their General, Thomas Waverly, leaves their division and, not long thereafter, the war is over and Crosby and Kaye are discharged. They are entertainers and end up performing for the now retired General at his spacious Vermont lodge. The General is not ashamed to appreciate and associate with private Phil Davis (Danny Kaye’s character). Now that is one of the biggest gaps you can imagine – a private and a General. He is such an honorable man. How much higher is Jesus than an earthly General! He is not ashamed to call us brothers.
12 saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” [4]
When was this, or when will it, be fulfilled? It could not have been when Jesus was here the first time. He did proclaim the name of God in the synagogues, but those in the synagogues were not his brothers in the sense that the word is used in verse 11. The word in the original language for congregation is ekklesia. This is the word for church throughout the NT. In fact, many of the Bible versions that you have will read “church” here. This verse and the next two verses refer to the church.
How is Jesus proclaiming the name of God in the church? How is he singing praises in the church today? It’s because he is present with us when we meet together. The way he is present with us is because he is dwelling in our spirits.
26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.[5]
Christ is telling us who God is through the brothers in the church. Christ is singing in our singing because he is one with us!
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children God has given me.” [6]
He trusts the Father when we trust the Father. Jesus does these things with those whom the Father gave to Him. We must see that the Father gave you to Christ from before the foundation of the world. We should see this because it encourages us.
6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.[7]
In this verse from John 17 Jesus is referring to his disciples, but elsewhere (in John chapter 6) he says the same thing about all those who follow him. He says that they were given to him by the Father. If you are a follower of Christ now, this means that the Father gave you to Christ even before he made the world (Eph. 1:4; Rev. 13:8).
We were born again from the Father by the Spirit (2:11; John 1:13) and so we are one with Christ and he is one with us.
17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.[8]
This is another wonderful reason why we are one with the Lord and he is one with us: he took on flesh and blood. He experienced temptation. When you experience the same things as another person, you relate to that person. It makes you merciful towards that person. This is one reason why the Lord Jesus is so merciful to us, because he has shared in our experiences. Although he never sinned, he nevertheless experienced temptation. He experienced the weakness of the flesh. He knows what obstacles face us and he is merciful to our succumbing to them.
We see this word once again – propitiation! Many do not know what this word means because we do not use it in our everyday English. But it is an important word and it is a good word. Who remembers what it means?
Propitiation means the turning aside of anger. Or, the turning aside of wrath. God is angry with the wicked every day!
11 God is a just judge,
And God is angry with the wicked every day.[9]
The average person likes to think of God as always nice, always loving, never angry. Do you know why people think of him like this? There are two reasons. First, they do not read or know their Bibles. Most people in the USA have a Bible in their house but they neither read it nor study it. So they are ignorant of how He has revealed Himself. The second reason is that seeing God as always nice makes them feel less threatened by his requirements of obedience and justice. But we have to know God as he really is, not as we wish him to be!
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies. [10]
Our problem as his creatures is that we start out as his enemies because of our fallen nature and because of our own sins. He is angry with us because we have gone our own way since birth.
The good news is that, through the sacrifice of our High Priest, God’s wrath has been turned away from us. It has been removed! Jesus is our Propitiator!
When you read or hear this word, propitiation, your heart should leap for joy! Mine does! Because I know I deserve God’s wrath.
The final matter I wish to reveal is from verse 11, which we have already read:
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,[11]
See that Jesus is he who sanctifies.
For the last two weeks you have been hearing about sanctification. Maybe it sounds repetitive. But, if God’s word itself repeats certain themes, this means the Holy Spirit thinks it is very important and we need to hear it often.
“In this process of sanctification we are transformed in our very being….In transformation we are being changed metabolically by means of the element of life. This is not an outward change or adjustment; it is an inward metabolic change, an organic change by means of the life element.”[12]
This “life element” is nothing less than the life of God added to us, living in us, working in us, and strengthening us. We have become partakers of his divine nature. This is why Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers, because we share his life and nature!
[Conclusion and Application]
In this message we have either been reminded or have seen that Jesus is our:
- Creator
- Captain
- High Priest
- Participator in worship
- Propitiator
- Brother
- Sanctifier
These seven identifiers are so wonderful! What a Savior we have! What a Brother we have!
What are we to do? Of course, we appreciate who Christ is. He has done nearly everything for us! Yet, there is something we must do. We must cooperate with him as he sanctifies us. If we do not cooperate with him in the matter of our sanctification then we will receive retribution in this life. We saw this in chapter two, verse 2 and in the message from two weeks ago (Such a Great Salvation).[13]
And, if we cooperate with him, our sanctification will not be so bumpy. We cooperate with him by reading and studying the Bible, by being attentive to our sins and forsaking them (including fleeing from temptation[14]), being involved in the battle and not staying in our bunker, and by relying on his indwelling life, not just our will power.
These things are not hard. In our own power, they are hard. In fact, left to ourselves we will avoid them! But, our elder brother is living in us! We can…you can… do these four things:
- Read and study the Scriptures
- Be attentive to your sins and flee temptation
- Be involved in the battle
- Don’t rely on your will power.
So, instead of being on your phone or watching tv, do one of these things! Even today! Start today!
[1] In verse 10, the Greek word for suffering has the same form in the singular as in the plural. So, we cannot tell how it ought to be translated. We do know that Christ suffered before the cross as well as at the cross, so he did experience sufferings. The LSB translates the word as plural.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 2:10–11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[3] This is known as the caste system. The most exalted class are the Bahun (or Brahmin), followed by Chhetri, the Vaishya, then Shudra, finally the lowest caste being the Dalit or untouchables.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 2:12). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Col 1:26–27). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 2:13). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 17:6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 2:17). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[9] The New King James Version. (1982). (Ps 7:11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Na 1:2). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 2:11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[12] Witness Lee, Life-Study of Hebrews (Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA; 1984) p 128.
[13] nsbcwinfield.com, sermon notes for 4/14/24.
[14] I Cor. 6:18; 10:14; I Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22; James 4:7
