Wonderful Christ

4/10/2022, Hebrews 2:1-18; BCBC/IOUC; Rev. Paul Wang

Introduction

When we speak of the glorious Christ, we mean the transcendence of His being,   including all things, morality, and eternity! Today when we talk about the wonderful Christ, we mean the traces of His glory sprinkled in our lives, including testimony, authority, and redemptive power.  Let’s look at the first point:

 The power of testimony

The wonder of Christ is full of the preparation, coming, death, ascension, and resurrection of His incarnation. All mankind, especially those who belong to him, are testifying to his power. First, the words in heaven and earth.  Jesus Christ is God’s living Word, who testifies with the Bible of the Lord’s power.  Why do you say that He is the word of heaven and earth?  Because our Lord Jesus Christ created heaven and the earth with the Father, so did the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. In chapter 2, verse 1, the verse “pay the most careful attention” is an active particle in the original text, which means to devote one’s attention to the word of God. Why focus?  Because in the Word of God there is Christ,  and in this scripture there is salvation, and eternal life!  The heavenly road we walk is a narrow road, like a boat against the current, if we do not advance, we will retreat.  Paul said, even a slight negligence,  “so that we do not drift away.”

Second, the great grace of laying down His life on the cross.  The high priest at that time led a group of Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.,  thinking that they were so many and powerful that they could bully Christ Jesus and all those who followed Christ and who were low-key.  However, these self-righteous people are wrong!  Because the standard is Christ,  not the multitude of Judaism, or the vast territory of the Roman Empire, nor those who like to brag and flattere.  Especially those false believers who received the gospel and do not preach the gospel!   Be a minister, but don’t do missionary work!   So Paul said:  “How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.  (Hebrews 2:3)” 

Finally, the Holy Spirit who completes salvation. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity with the Father and the Son in the same honor and the same quality. The teachings of the Holy Spirit cannot be ignored, let alone over the boundary.  God is the only true God, who works wonders alone and is not driven by human will.  Signs and wonders,  all kinds of miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit are all from the hand of God.  Instead of making people fall down and lie down on the stage.  Including our peace is also given by God, not people’s self-feeling good! It often comes in peace, which is unexpected! The storm came, but it was surprisingly calm! It seems that there is almost no job,  why is there again?  These are the powers of the Holy Spirit manifested in our lives!   Let’s look at the second point:

 The power of authority

Speaking of the wonders of Jesus Christ,  the way He came into the world as a man is the most wonderful.  The Bible says: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(Matthew 1:23). First, the power of the incarnation.  The word of God becomes the likeness of man,  and God walks into the world to live with man.  What could be more wonderful than this?   He originally had the image and honor of God,  but he did not rob, and was willing to take the form of a man, taking the form of a servant and humbling himself.  Angels were created by Him,  but He was willing to humble himself below the angels.   He has experienced all the weakness and pain we experience in the world, but without sin.  Every step that Christ takes in the world is to make way for us, to live out the truth, and to show our life. We don’t have love, it doesn’t matter, because He is love!  To imitate Him, follow Him,   worship Him, or rather, learning to love God by itself is love! In this way, when there is no love, there is love!

Second, authority over all things. What does the world think of authority? It’s nothing more than the opportunity and ability to drive people, and it’s also called leadership, right?  Heavenly authority is to die for sinners and to die on the cross.  What if other people want to lay down their lives for others?  No! It must be the Son of God.  This is the authority, the only authority!  Peter “kindly” wanted to stop Christ from giving His life, but Christ rebuked him, saying: Satan, step back!  Why?  Because death does not bind Christ!  After death, the Lord who conquered death, and after 33 years of “perfect man” who was a little smaller than the angels,    the Heavenly Father put all things under his feet, crowned him with glory and honor, He is appointed to rule over all things!  This is the basis for why we can pray to Him in everything.

Lastly, salvation far better than the angels.  Angels are just servants in God’s plan to save the world,  with power but no personality.  Neither receive glory nor salvation.   Paul is here to show that the wonder of Christ is far greater than that of the angels, incomparable.  Because of salvation,  Christ tasted death for everyone.  This is a message of comfort!  The massacre of civilians by Russia in Boucha, Ukraine, the hearts of Ukrainians cannot be comforted without Christ!   Zelensky said, no peace talks, only final victory!  This was the case with the Katyn massacre committed by Russia in Poland, as was the Japanese massacre in Nanking, China.  Without the gospel, without salvation, there is no forgiveness and pardon.  The fact that Christ tasted death for everyone shows that death is not the last despair.  Because Christ died for you and me, we have the hope of resurrection in the face of death!  Look at the third point:

 The power of redemption

​​Redemption is the purpose of Christ’s wondrous power, and the power is meaningless without redemption.   Power is not used to show off, but to save the world.  First, the redemption targets are not angels.  From the revelation of the Bible,  we cannot see God’s redemption of angels.  According to the order in which God created the world, angels were created first, and man was created last.  Angels fell first, man fell later, and man fell because of fallen angels and Satan.  God revealed to man through Paul that  He did not help angels, but Abraham’s descendants.  So God is called the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob!  We New Testament believers also have a spiritual relationship with Abraham because the Lord Jesus Christ was born among God’s chosen people.  From then on, the relationship between God and man in which God loves the world is the theme of the universe, not angels or idols.

Second, redemption for those who fear death.  So, who does God want to save?   Paul said that the object of God’s salvation is to free those who have been slaves all their lives because of fear of death.  Are there people who are not afraid of death?   你別說，還真有！Don’t say it, there really is!   In the past, people in the brotherhood often said that death is no big deal, and twenty years later, he is a hero again.  Now atheism is rampant, and people have no God in their hearts and are defiant.  In broad daylight in the northern suburb of Bucha, the capital of Ukraine,   under the surveillance of satellites from various countries, they dared to commit the crime of massacres of civilians.  I guess these people are really not afraid of death, not afraid of eternal death!  The redemption that God has prepared is for those who are afraid of death.  Don’t get me wrong, thinking that fear of death is cowardice and weakness!  In fact, the fear of death here is more of awe!

Lastly, only Christ can save people.  Thank God!  God has prepared salvation for those of us who fear death because we fear God, do not want to die, but want to live, and want to live with God.  Heavenly Father designed the plan of salvation for us, and sent Christ the Holy Son to carry out this plan. That’s why Christ alone is the merciful and faithful high priest in the things of God, who offered atonement for the sins of the people.  Jesus Christ, being in all things tempted and suffering, is able to rescue those who are tempted.  He is the only one who was tempted without sin and is called the perfect man. In addition to being sent by the Heavenly Father, He is the perfect God, and more importantly, He rose from the dead.  He understands all our sufferings and can lead us from death to life and into the eternal glory of the Wonderful Light.

Conclusion

Just this past Thursday (April 7),  the UN General Assembly passed a proposal to suspend the qualification of the Russian Human Rights Council.  This is a manifestation of God’s justice!  Because God will not acquit the guilty!  However, God is also merciful and loving,   and he will not keep His anger forever!  When the entire Russian people confess their sins and repent,  no longer commit war crimes, and no longer slaughter civilians,  the wonderful Christ will give His mercy!   I am also willing to pray for the Ukrainians, asking God to grant forgiveness, so that the brothers of God of the East Slavic nation can one day be reconciled in the miracle of Christ, stop killing, make peace, glorify God and be of benefit to man!

Let us pray……

 

Hebrews 2:1-18

1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.

2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 

3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 

4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 

6 But there is a place where someone has testified: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?

7 You made them a little[a] lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor

8 and put everything under their feet.”  In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.  Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 

11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

12 He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.”  And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 

15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 

16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 

17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 

18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.