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NewCity Orlando Sermons
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NewCity Orlando Sermons
Hebrews: Unshakeable | Hebrews 2:5–18
In this sermon, Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt explores Hebrews 2, presenting a four-part framework to explain the gospel: God made it all, we lost it all, Jesus gave it all, and we get it all. He begins by reflecting on the Psalm 8 reference in Hebrews, highlighting the profound truth that humanity was created with glory and honor, entrusted with God’s authority over creation. However, Pastor Kandt contrasts this biblical view with secular perspectives, arguing that while secularism offers a diminished view of human worth, Scripture presents humanity as divinely endowed with purpose and dignity.
He then addresses the fall of humanity, explaining how sin led to humanity losing its authority, effectively handing power over to the devil. This brokenness is visible in the fear, anxiety, and shame that permeate human experience. Yet, the heart of the message is the redemptive work of Jesus, who took on human flesh to destroy the power of sin and death. Pastor Kandt emphasizes that Jesus’ sacrifice restores what was lost, offering believers unshakable confidence in God’s love and authority. The sermon concludes by reminding listeners that Jesus is not ashamed to call believers His brothers and sisters, freeing them from fear and shame so they can live boldly, fully embracing the victory and glory granted through Christ.
Hello everyone, this is Pastor Damian. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City.
Speaker 2:Orlando At New City we believe.
Speaker 1:All of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening. No one has testified.
Speaker 1:What is mankind? That you are mindful of them, A son of man, that you care for them? You made them a little lower than the angels. You crowned them with glory and honor 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, 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.
Speaker 1: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. 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. He says I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters In the assembly. I will sing your praises and again I will put my trust in him. And again he says here am I and the children God has given me, Since the children have flesh and blood.
Speaker 1: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 and free those who, all their lives, were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not the angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. 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. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. This is God's word. Please be seated.
Speaker 2:It's Benjamin. I'm a pastor here with New City and last week we began a sermon series through the book of Hebrews that's going to take us all the way to the month of May, and last week I essentially said that the book of Hebrews is asking and answering a question, which is how can urban Christians under cultural pressure have unshakable confidence? How can urban Christians under cultural pressure have unshakable confidence? And I gave you a three-word summary of the book of Hebrews, which is Jesus over everything, and I showed you that last week, looking at Hebrews 1, by showing you how Jesus is over everything, with what I call the seven superiorities of the Son. This week we're going to see Jesus over everything in a four-fold story of the whole world. Now, this four of the world, I think, is actually a helpful framework to explain the gospel to people, to your children, and it goes like this God made it all, we lost it all. Jesus gave it all, we get it all. God made it all, we lost it all, jesus gave it all, we get it all. So that's going to be our sermon outline this morning.
Speaker 2:If you have a Bible or device, get Hebrews, chapter 2, verse 5, in front of you. Let's look at it together. God made it all. God made it all. Hebrews 2, verse 5 says this for it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. And then he says this it has been testified somewhere. I kind of love that. Do you like that? Because if you ever forget something where it's actually at in the Bible and you're just like you know somewhere, it says in 2nd Hesitations, chapter 2, like that thing. Right, that's what the author of Hebrews, like the Bible writers do that sometimes. He says this it's been testified somewhere.
Speaker 2:What is man that you're mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? This is Psalm 8, by the way, our call to worship this morning. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. You see, the story begins at the beginning. God made it all.
Speaker 2:And then the author of Hebrews, quoting Psalm 8, asks a really good question what is man? What does it mean to be human? Who are we? What is our purpose? What were we made for? Those are important questions, questions that, however you answer them your anthropology, if you will is going to shape you. It's going to be the lens through which you live in this world. There's three atheists I I'm going to quote here for a moment that they all kind of agree on how to answer the question what is man?
Speaker 2:Bertrand Russell says it. Like this, man is but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms. That was one of your answers, I think. Right, you were going to think that An accidental collocation of atoms. You're like. That's me. I feel that.
Speaker 2:Actually, here's what Jean-Paul Sartre said. He says man is a useless passion. Here's Sigmund Freud. He says in the depths of my heart, I can't help being convinced that my dear fellow men, with a few exceptions, are worthless, are worthless. Okay, so the story of scripture says that God made man and woman. Quote, with glory and honor, verse 7. Do you see the difference? Do you see the difference? You see, secularism has no basis for a high view of humanity. Scripture does, christianity does. What is this glory and honor? Well, verse eight says putting everything in subjection under his feet. You see, god made humanity to give us his authority. That's our glory and our honor. This is what disciple making is all about, is all about.
Speaker 2:On Friday, I was repurposing some wood to turn them into raised garden bed boxes, with two of my kids and I had my five-year-old running an impact driver and I had my two-year-old doing hand-over-hand helping me with some other things. And guess who didn't touch the circular saw, my five-year-old or my two-year-old? Why? Well, because they weren't ready for it. But they will be. I'm training them for it. You see, god is training you. His intent for your life is for you to become the kind of person he could entrust with his power. I'm training my children to become the kind of people that I could trust with the power of a circular saw, which is not there yet.
Speaker 2:This is discipleship. This is what it looks like. Dallas Willard says discipleship is training for reigning. Why? Because God made you to give you his authority. To give you his authority. That's what discipleship is. That's what it's all about. And so the intent of God is that you would work with him and walk with him in every area of your life and that, as you do that, you actually would become more trustworthy with his power. Like what would it look like if you really became the kind of person that God could entrust with his power where you live or where you work or where you play, what kind of person would you have to become?
Speaker 2:This question about God making it all and then giving us this authority. It actually kind of levels up the necessity of formation, because spiritual formation restores human vocation, this call that we have to extend the loving reign and rule of God over all of creation. That's what happened in the beginning, that's what God did when he gave us his authority over creation. But along came a snake. You see, god made it all, but we lost it all. Point two Look with me at verse eight.
Speaker 2:Verse eight says now, in putting everything in subjection to him, that is, mankind, humanity he left nothing outside his control. But at present we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. In other words, god made all things to flourish under our rule. But is that what we see when we look out at the world, the creation society, flourishing under the rule of humanity? No, we see death and destruction. We see brokenness and evil, because God made it all but we lost it all. How did we lose it? How did we lose it? What actually happened?
Speaker 2:Well, in the beginning of the book, adam and Eve were supposed to learn, through communion with God, how to rule the world. They were supposed to receive from their father his will for every sphere and sector of society and then respond by living out that will in every area of life, in all of life, as we say around here. That was what they were supposed to do, but the serpent what Hebrews 2.14 calls the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil baited them with a lie. This was the lie. You can be like God, knowing good and evil. Now, it was a lie with a little bit of truth in it, and that is that they already were like God.
Speaker 2:Scripture says that you were made in God's likeness. You already are like God, but knowing good and evil was God's prerogative. It was for him to teach us, to instruct us as we go. Father, what do you love? We want to love what you love. We want to hate what you hate. We want to draw near to what is good. We want to abhor what is evil. But the root of all sin is us looking at God and saying I don't need you, I don't want you, give me your stuff, I'm going to do it my own way.
Speaker 2:That's how we lost it all. You see, adam and Eve in the beginning. When they did that, they turned from God and, like a lamp being unplugged from its power source, they began to die. Death entered the world. They were severed from the source, the one. Hebrews 2.10 says quote for whom and by whom all things exist. When you're separated from that one, death enters the world. And so what actually happened? Well, adam took his God-given authority and handed it over to the devil. This is how we lost it all. And then the devil enthroned his henchmen, namely sin and death, to rule over creation in our place, on our throne. That's why we don't see all things in subjection under our feet right now, because we gave that authority to the devil. This is why Romans 5, 17 says because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man. So, rather than ruling, we are ruled. Hebrews 2, 15 says through fear. We were subject to lifelong slavery.
Speaker 2:Adam and Eve lost it all by believing a lie, and so do we. So do we? You see, what happens is many of us. We come into agreement with lies that then shape our lives. There's a framework that I use. It's three W's. It goes like this Wound, warfare, wayward.
Speaker 2:Okay. So, essentially, what happens is at some point in your life. You experience hurts or losses or disappointments or traumas. You're wounded, and then the evil one comes along and stitches those wounds up with lies. That's the warfare piece. And then you agree with those lies and you live waywardly living as if you could have well-being apart from God. Let me try to make that plain. Lies eventually become kind of the unspoken narrative that shape how you see yourself, god and others. So let's just assume for a moment that you had a father who was physically present but emotionally absent. That can be wounding.
Speaker 2:And then along comes this message that you begin to believe and agree with, which is really the evil one, coming with sutures to stitch up that wound and tells you this if you were better, you would matter. If you were just better, you would matter. You would matter If you were just better. You would matter. If you just did more, tried harder, were better, you'd get the attention that you want. And that's the stitching of the warfare. And then what happens is you agree with it and so you live a life, an identity based on achievement. Whether it's professionally or relationally or religiously, you go wayward. Whether it's professionally or relationally or religiously, you go wayward. This is how this works. The evil. One has been lying from the beginning. Jesus tells us this is what he does. He's doing it in your life.
Speaker 2:Now there's a way to figure out if you are living in agreement with lies, with deception. It's one word from our text fear. It's your fear If you pay attention to your anxiety, if you listen to it, like the dashboard indicator on your car the fear, the anxiety. It's not the problem. It's bearing witness to a deeper problem lies that you believe. And so when we live in fear, what's really happening is it's showing us that below the surface, there's something we believe about God, ourselves or others, that's not in accord with truth, not aligned with who he made us to be. There's a book that we're reading as a session, our elders and our staff called Managing Leadership Anxiety, by a guy named Steve Cuss, and he puts it like this Anxiety can be an early detection system that we're depending on something other than God for our well-being. Now, anxiety doesn't always mean that we're off base, but often it means that you've come into agreement with a lie about God, yourself or other people. And so if you were to listen to your anxiety, what would it tell you? What would it tell you about what you believe.
Speaker 2:I asked a friend who is a lawyer. I said in your work as a lawyer, how have you seen fear rule people and drive their decisions? That was my question and he said well, most of the mistakes or bad behavior in the legal community is driven by fear, specifically the fear of loss, either loss of status or loss of money. He said the fear of loss of status usually manifests itself in blame shifting, where senior attorneys deflect responsibility for a lost case to protect their reputation. Can you see how this works? This would create a culture of fear and blame and hiding and competition.
Speaker 2:But imagine for a moment if a disciple of Jesus went into the legal field and they began to ask their father Father, what would it look like for your will to be done here as it's done in heaven? What would that look like? And they begin to ask that question. So I asked him that question. He said following Jesus sets you apart when you credit others for successes, even if it comes at the expense of your own credit. Do you notice the reversal of status seeking and blame shifting that's happening there? Because, as disciples of Jesus, we follow the one who refused his status and who took all the blame, in order that we might become the kind of people who actually exert that kind of authority in all of life, and this person's doing that.
Speaker 2:And so the question I would love to know truly, if I could sit face to face with each one of you, is what difference would it make if you lived with an unshakable confidence this time tomorrow, wherever you find yourself? What difference would it make? What kind of culture would you infuse wherever you find yourself this time tomorrow? What would that actually look like? The question you might ask me in response would be okay, how do I get that unshakable confidence? Well, listen, I said God made it all. We lost it all, but Jesus gave it all. Jesus gave it all.
Speaker 2:Look with me at verse eight. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, that is, mankind, but we see him who, for a little while, was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. What does that mean? What does it mean that Jesus would have to taste death for everyone? Well, do you remember that scene in the Gospels Matthew 4, when Jesus is tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Or, as one author put it, when Jesus and the devil sort out that who works for whom. I like that.
Speaker 2:In Matthew 4, satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. If Jesus would just worship him. And we read that and we're like is the devil delusional? Like does he know who he's talking to? Why doesn't Jesus just put him in his place? Listen, the devil wasn't bluffing. He had the authority over all the kingdoms of this world. Why? How? Because he was given it by Adam. This is why Jesus can say he can refer to Satan as the ruler of this world in John 12. Paul calls him the God of this world in 2 Corinthians 4. John the Apostle says the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Speaker 2:1 John 5. The devil really does have real authority. And where did he get it from? He got it from Adam, and so this is why the Apostle John says the reason the Son of God appeared was. I wonder what you would fill that blank in with. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3, 8.
Speaker 2:How does Jesus do that? Look at the text with me. In verse 14, it says this Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, why did Jesus take on our flesh and blood? It goes on. It says this that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. You see, jesus had to become man for two reasons One, to identify with his people and second, to die for his people. He couldn't die. His divine nature couldn't die, only his human nature could, and so we had to take on our flesh and blood, so he could take on our death. That's what Jesus came to do. And so what actually did he do? Well, we were lost when we we lost it all when we were tricked by the devil. But Jesus won it all when he tricked the devil.
Speaker 2:John Owen called it the death of death in the death of Christ. I call it Jesus Judo. You can tell who's more sophisticated of the two of us. Listen. Jesus defanged the devil by beating him at his own game. Acts 3 puts it like this you killed the author of life. Think about the conjunction there. You killed the author of life, and it says whom God raised from the dead the very weapon that Satan wielded death Jesus used to defeat him. How did he do that? Look at verse 16. For surely it's not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
Speaker 2:I love that the author of Hebrews summarizes all that Jesus came to do as he helps. It's just so simple and so straightforward, and if you're anything like me, you need a little help, right? Anybody in here need a little help, because if so, I know a guy. He helps. He helps. It says we say around here, all of us need all of Jesus for all of life. How does he help? Look at verse 17.
Speaker 2:Jesus had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect purpose clause here 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. You see, the devil's power wasn't just death, it was deserved death. That's a big deal. You and I, we all sin by nature and by choice, and Romans 6.23 says that the wages of sin is death. The devil doesn't have a. He's not feigningigning his power. He actually has the power of death because you deserve to die because of your sins. That's what scripture says, and so that matters, because the devil hangs this death sentence over your head like a guillotine on a thin thread, do you see? And? And so then we? We are enslaved to the fear of death. That's what scripture says here. But Jesus took that death sentence for us and then broke its hold To set us free, to deliver us.
Speaker 2:Verse 17 says Jesus had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect. Why it says to make propitiation for the sins of his people. You see, because Jesus took our cross, we get his crown Said differently Jesus's crown was thorny, so that we could be crowned with glory. That's what the text says here. Jesus restored our authority by giving us his victory. When Jesus rose, he declared all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, in Matthew 28. And so the death and resurrection of Jesus launches nothing less than a new humanity, a new creation. And it was to Jesus that God subjected the world to come. Hebrews 2.5. Now, jesus gave it all to win back everything we lost in the fall.
Speaker 2:The great Christmas hymn says far as the curse is found, there is nothing. It says in verse 8. It says now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. What's contained in there? Everything, everything is under Jesus' control. That's what the text says to us, but right now we don't see everything fully restored the way that it was meant to be. But we do see Jesus, verse 9. We do see Jesus, and that changes everything. It changes everything about the story we live in.
Speaker 2:In fact, many of you are parents in this room and you parent your children according to a story, a worldview, a metanarrative that they live into. I was reading a book on parenting and this was helpful. It was just really simple. It says every child needs a worldview shaped by three things. Number one the gospel, because children need to know what to do with their guilt and their shame and their fear and their death. So they need the gospel. Number two they need God's sovereignty. They need to believe that everything is subjected to King Jesus. Nothing excepted Everything. Every hair on their head is numbered. A sparrow doesn't fall from the sky except from their father's hand.
Speaker 2:They need that kind of the steel in your spine and the boldness that that gives a child to face a sometimes scary world. They need God's hand. They need that kind of the steel in your spine and the boldness that that gives a child to face a sometimes scary world. They need God's sovereignty and they also need a hopeful future. They need to be able to look into the future and expect that better things are yet to come. That gives children confidence. It gives them the ability to go out into the world to actually be the kind of people who steward God's authority wherever they find themselves. And so we get all of that actually in Hebrews 2.
Speaker 2:We see all three of those things here in this text. That's the story of the world I want to close here, which is God made it all. We lost it all. Jesus gave it all. Now we get it all. We get it all. Look with me at verse 10. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Speaker 2:Before he was executed by the Nazis, dietrich Bonhoeffer, at age 39, told a fellow prisoner this is the end For me, the beginning of life. Where do you get that kind of audacity, that unshakable confidence? Well, in an earlier sermon, bonhoeffer said this life only really begins when it ends here on earth. Death is only dreadful for those who live in dread of it, but we can transform death through faith. You see, bonhoeffer got what our text is saying in chapter 2, verse 15.
Speaker 2:Jesus came to set us free from the fear of death, and when you no longer fear death, you can live truly free. And so that's what it means in verse 10 when it says that Jesus came to bring many sons to glory. God's goal is to crown you with his glory so that you can live alive with all that is yours in Jesus. That's God's goal. Your glorification is God's goal. That's remarkable. If we let that sink in, we get it all. That's what the text is saying. Is that we get it all. Jesus was put in the ground so he could restore your crown. That's such good news for us. And yet, christian, although we have it all, we don't live like we have it all. Why is that? Look at verse 11. It says this he's not ashamed to call them brothers. Why did the author of Hebrews have to put that in there? Here's my hunch.
Speaker 2:Since the devil lost the power of death, he's going to do whatever he has left. What does he have left? Shame, shame. You see, he can't kill you, but he can bench you. How does he bench you? How does he make it so that you can't live as if you have it all in Jesus Christ? He shrouds you with shame.
Speaker 2:The two-step strategy of Satan is deception and accusation. Deception and accusation. He tempts you into sin and then he accuses you for it, which is why this is such an important piece here that he's not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. You see, the symptoms of shame look like this you won't let people into your life. You hide, you fear being exposed, and there's a saying in the addiction world which is you're only as sick as your secrets. You know who knows that the devil. You know who has your secrets just always before your eyes so that you hide the devil.
Speaker 2:Listen, if you're in this room right now and you know you're hiding and you're terrified of being found out, he's winning in your life. That's what that means. It doesn't mean you don't belong to Jesus. It just means you're not appropriating what Jesus has done. He came to deliver you from fear. He came to set you free from the devil's dominion in your life. He doesn't have the power of death over you anymore, but he does have the power of shame and he uses it. He wields it against you. But listen, we cannot undo shame by doing, because shame is a problem of being, and so the only thing that can undo shame is to feel the affection of Jesus for you as you are right now.
Speaker 2:Verse 11 says Jesus is not ashamed to call you his brothers and sisters, but you don't know my past. He's not ashamed. But you don't know what I did last night. He's not ashamed, but you don't know what I did last night. He's not ashamed, but you don't know my story or my ethnicity or my body or my personality. He's not ashamed. That's what the text says. Don't take it on my authority. Listen. We lost it all because we believed the lies of the serpent over the truth of our king. Don't give it back to him.
Speaker 2:He's speaking over you right now, in this moment. He's saying I'm not ashamed to call you brother or sister. Do you believe it? Will you trust it? Will you come into agreement with it, or are you going to continue to buy into the lies of the evil, one? He's trying to set you free this morning the lies of the evil one. He's trying to set you free this morning.
Speaker 2:And some of you, you belong to Jesus, but you live shrouded in shame. And he's looking at you and he's saying I'm not ashamed, I'm not ashamed of you. Look at everything I did. I gave it all so that you could receive it all. Some of you in here, you don't belong to Jesus and he's drawing you. He's saying listen. Some of you in here, you don't belong to Jesus and he's drawing you. He's saying listen, fear death, the devil, shame. They've got you enslaved. You want to be free, I'll set you free. Just come to me. So, whoever you are, wherever you are, come to Jesus, come to him afresh. Come to him for the first time or the 50th time, I don't care, just come to him, because this is the true story of the world. God made it all. We lost it all. Jesus gave it all. We get it all, and anyone can get in on this.
Speaker 2:Let's pray, jesus, we thank you for good news. We thank you for good news. I pray even now that those of us who experience shame for whatever reason, that you would be about the business of setting us free now. That those of us who experience shame for whatever reason, that you would be about the business of setting us free, that you would set us free from the temptation to think we can undo our shame by doing more or being better. You've already done it all. Would you open our tight fisted hands to receive everything you have to give to us by faith alone? We pray this in your name, lord Jesus Amen.