But We See Jesus

If you have your Bibles, go and grab them. Open them up to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 2. We're going to continue on in our Hebrews series. We're going to be looking at verses 5 through 10 today. 5-10 today.

Um and as you are turning there, I want to begin this morning with um an observation from one of the great reformers, John Calvin. He had this quote that I think is just so good um in regards to one of the main things that we're going to be talking about today because one of the things we're going to be talking about today at first in some of the ways that I might explain it you might think that doesn't seem very biblical. And so uh before you get your pitchforks out like I want you to stick with me and see that even though I'm going to be talking about us having glory and honor when it comes to how we rule and reign creation. Yes, Jesus is ultimately doing that. but it is also part of our story as well. John Calvin has a great quote um that helps us kind of frame what we're going to be looking at today.

And so I want to start with this quote from him. It says this, "For although the cross or in the cross there is nothing but curse." And I want to just stop there for a moment before I continue on with the quote to help kind of understand what he means by for although in the cross there's nothing but curse. There are few instruments of death in human history more horrific, more humiliating, and more despicable and deplorable than the Roman cross. It's one of the worst things that has ever happened in human history. The Romans didn't invent crucifixion, uh, but they did perfect it.

They did perfect it. Crucifixion was designed not merely to kill someone, but it was designed to publicly humiliate them. To publicly humiliate them. It was to strip them of their dignity. It was to make a spectacle of their suffering. Um to warn anyone who might consider challenging the authority of Rome.

Like this was the point of Roman crucifixion. And so the cross was Rome's way of announcing to the world essentially this is what happens when you challenge our power. They're going to strip you naked. They're going to torture you by flogging, which is them taking a cat of nine tails and essentially whipping you. They called it the 40 lashes minus one. And so the reason why they did that was because 40 lashes was a death sentence.

And so they would basically bring you right to the point or to the uh right to the edge of death. and then from there take you and place you on a handsewn cross. And what I mean by that is it's not like the ones that we have in here that are sanded. These are crosses that are thorns sticking out of them. Splinters that would come into you once you are placed on it. Um not only that, but they would then to keep you in place, they would nail your hands and nail your feet into the cross.

And so as you're sitting there hanging and drooping down, what would happen because of the flogging is that you would actually it would cause all this internal bleeding to where it would start filling up your lungs. And so you actually didn't die necessarily by your wounds, but you ultimately died by asphixxiation. You died by uh literally drowning in your own blood. And so the only way in which you could gasp for air would be to press on those nail-pierced feet and lift up, grab some air, and then sink back down once again. Again, when you look at their torture technique and the instrument of death, that's what John Calvin is referencing when he says in the cross there's nothing but curse. In other words, there's there when you look at it, there's nothing redeemable in it, redeemable about it.

It it's the worst thing you could possibly imagine. And he said in the cross there's nothing but curse. But then here's what he goes on to say. It was nevertheless swallowed up by the power of God in such a way that it, the cross, has now put on as it were a new nature, a new nature. For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished, no chariot so elevated as is the gibbit. And that's not a nickname for me.

Um my nickname was Gibby growing up. A gibbit is the post that he is actually placed on. as is the gibbit on which Christ has subdued death and the devil the prince of death. Nay more which is his way of saying even more than that because of the cross Christ has now utterly trotten them under his feet. So essentially the argument that Calvin is getting worked up with here when he's thinking about the cross is that what was an instrument of death has now become an instrument of life because it has become a throne in which Christ is ruling and reigning and taking the death of criminals and now dispersing life to all who accept it. life to all who receive it.

And this is what I want to try to get across to us today is that the cross is the enthronement of Jesus. The enthronement of Jesus because that instrument of death um of death Christ used to exercise his authority in ultimately granting to us life. In other words, Jesus took the instrument of damnation and he transformed it into the instrument of our salvation. Our salvation. And so I want you to just think about that again. When we think about kings, kings don't go to crosses.

Kings send people to crosses. And so this is an upside down kingdom that we're looking at. When I say the cross is the throne of Christ, we would ultimately look at that and say, "No, no, no, no. That's insane. The cross was just the place of his death." But I want us to get across what Hebrews is actually going to be talking about today is that it is where and it is from where he rules and reigns.

Yes. Again, he is sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high right now. We covered that in Hebrews chapter 1. But it's through the cross that he ultimately gets there. That he gets there. And the phrase I want you to remember this morning ultimately when we leave from this place is in spite of everything we see Jesus.

We see Jesus which is why I titled it but we see Jesus. So Hebrews 2 5-10 let me get there as well. I want to read this together. And we don't do this often, but we're going to do it now. I want you to go ahead and stand with me as we read this. Hebrews 2, starting in verse 5.

For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him. 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. So that's him quoting Psalm 8. We'll come back to that in a moment.

Now, in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present we do not see everything in subjection to him. 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. 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. Let's pray one more time over the reading of God's word.

Father, we come to you. We know that there is nothing in and of ourselves that we can do to make ourselves understand your word. We know that it is the work of your Holy Spirit that comes to us and that guides us in understanding your truth. And I'm praying for that this morning, Lord. I'm praying that we see clearly in this text what we were originally created for and then also be able to see what we did in fracturing all of that in breaking God's original design. And then I also pray Lord that we see what Jesus was sent for and that ultimately in what he accomplished we are able to then be restored back to your original design.

We love you Lord. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Y'all go ahead and be seated. Again look at verse five. The first thing I want you to see here in verse five and this is the first point for us today is that we were created we were created for glory.

We were created for glory. This is verses 5 through 8. But looking at verse 5 specifically, it says, "For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking." Now remember what the author has been doing throughout chapter 1. Specifically, what the author's been doing there is he's been establishing the supremacy of Jesus over all the angels, over all of creation. Again, the angels are glorious creatures.

They are powerful servants of God. They are messengers who carry out his will. We saw that. But they are not heirs of the coming world. And that's fascinating statement because the author is about to tell us something remarkable about humanity. Not only Jesus but also humanity.

He says God has not subjected the world to come to angels but to whom? The answer comes in the next few verses where the author quotes Psalm 8. So to actually understand Hebrews 2, we have to understand the original meaning of Psalm 8. And so Psalm 8 looks like this. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels.

You've crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet. Now, who's Psalm talking about here? This is King David writing this. Who's he talking about there? Jesus is the Sunday school answer, but he's actually not talking about Jesus yet. He's actually talking about us.

He's talking about humanity. What was the original purpose of humanity? So, here's something really cool that we'll see in this psalm as David is unpacking this for us is he he does a sandwich here of theology. So, what this is is this is actually one of the most beautiful descriptions in all of scripture of God's original design for humanity. For humanity. So, it begins and it ends with the majesty of God.

So Psalm 81, what you'll see there in Psalm 8 is, "Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth." That's something wonderful to be able to see. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. At the end of Psalm, you'll see in Psalm 89, he says the exact same thing again. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. What that's called is an acclusio.

It's a literary device that David installs where the author begins and ends with the same phrase to frame everything in between that it is from him and it is ultimately for him. Which is also what Hebrews did in uh the beginning in chapter one where he says for everything is from Christ and for Christ. Everything in the middle is ultimately about him. But then in Psalm 8, it actually frames up God's design for all of creation. What he does here is he draws in and in and some kind of look at it as concentric circles. But in verse three of Psalm 8, he begins with heaven.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. So David is what what he's doing here is he's looking up at the night sky. He sees the moon and the stars. He considers the vastness of the universe and he then realizes in looking at it how small he is. How small he is. And that's actually like one of my things.

I don't know how often you guys go out and just look at God's creation. For some of you, it might be different things. It might be standing in front of an ocean and just seeing I can't see the end of it and I can't see how deep it is. And the fact that we've only explored less than 5% of it is insane. Insane. How vast is God who created this thing and just filled it by a spoken word.

We might go out and look up. David didn't have as much understanding about the galaxies as we do today. And yet he's looking at the vastness of it. He doesn't realize that the sun is just one star of a billion within our Milky Way galaxy. and he doesn't understand that our galaxy is one galaxy of billions of galaxies. And yet he is looking at it and he has the understanding to say that this wasn't just designed by the arm of God or it wasn't just designed by um uh more than that, but it was just painted by the fingers of God.

As if he's looking at it as though all it was all it took was just the fingers of God to place this in order, to place this in design. And that's exactly how he describes it. Not the work of his arms, not the work of his overwhelming strength, but just fingers. Fingers. And when David considers the greatness of him, he asked that extraordinary question that we've know because we've quoted this or even memorized this. But verse four, what is man that you are mindful of him?

Like it's amazing, Lord, that in all that you've done and how majestic you are that you even consider us, that you even think about us. In other words, God, when I consider how great you are and how small are we, why would you even think about us? Why would you even be mindful of us? Why would the creator of the universe concern himself with creatures like us? But here's the astonishing astonishing answer to that. God doesn't merely think about humanity.

He creates us in his image. He creates us in his image. He crowns us with glory and honor. That's what the psalm says. He crowns us with glory and honor. He gives us dominion over the works of his hands.

So, he doesn't just create the whole thing and put us in it as a part of it and then just hits play and we're just playing a very No, no, no. He puts us in it with his image to rule and reign over the whole thing. That's what dominion means. That's what dominion means. And so notice the order in Psalm 8. What he's doing here is he begins with God's majestic name that frames the entire psalm.

Within that frame are the heavens declaring his glory. Then humanity created in his image crowned with dignity to then rule with authority over all of his creation as in some ways an under authority to the main authority. God is supreme over all creation and we're created under that but we are ruling and reigning. This was his ultimate design his design and it is a beautiful design of creation. This is why again Genesis 1:26-28 when you go back and look at that God says let us make man in our image in our image after our likeness. If you're wondering I thought God was one.

What do you mean by hour? This is one of the first trinitarian verses in the Bible where it is referencing the fact that God exists three in one. Father, son and holy spirit. And so when he is speaking, they are creating. They are creating. And let them now talking about you and me have dominion.

Have dominion. So there is a part of Psalm 8 that yes, as Hebrews 2 quotes, it is now pointing it to Jesus, but it began with us in God's good design before sin. This was the order of things. God, heavens declaring his glory, man created within creation to rule and reign over all of it. and he looked at it and ultimately in Genesis we see that he says this is good. This is good.

This is the way things ought to be. It's the way things ought to be. God created us not merely to just exist but to reflect his glory in it. So the way in which God is ruling and reigning humanity humanity is to rule and reign creation. We reflect his glory. If you're like, "Well, what does reflection look like?"

Even did anyone catch the super moon last week that was outside? I mean, I know it was like late. I stay up till like midnight, so I was able to catch it. But, um, you walk outside and it's massive. And one of my kids asked, um, where's the light come from? Like, does it have light?

Because it does. It just looks like a big light bulb up in the sky. And I said, actually, it's just a big old rock. It has no intrinsic v light. It has no intrinsic source of light. It is just a big rock.

It is a reflector of the sun that is shining on it. And that's you and I. We are reflectors of the sun. S O N that is shining upon us and radiating the glory of God. We're reflecting the glory of God. That's the way that it was ultimately designed.

And so Hebrews 2:5, I don't want you to miss this. doesn't merely talk about the world God originally created. It talks about the world to come, what it's going to be like. And so, if he created us to rule and reign this world and it broke and fractured, part of his job in coming to restore everything is getting it back to that right order so that the world to come is one in which we also rule and reign. And you're like, hold a second. I thought Jesus was the ruin ruling and reigning.

Yes, but he shares his throne with us. It doesn't make us equal to Jesus, but he does restore us back to this this original design that he ultimately created. This is why Revelation 21 tells us that God will dwell with his people, that death shall be no more, and that mourning and crying and pain will pass away. This is the world to come. What a day that's going to be. What a day that's going to be.

And in Revelation 22:5 says something extraordinary about this new world of us. They will reign forever and ever. So Jesus is reigning forever and ever and we get restored back to reigning forever and ever. God's original purpose for humanity has not been abandoned. We got to think about this because of the enthronement of the cross as we get to it. We got to think about what God originally designed and created.

He never abandoned even though we broke it. Even though we fractured it. So what Jesus is ultimately coming to accomplish is not just erasing everything and starting over completely. It is restoring. It is making new, but it is restoring what he's ultimately originally designed. What he originally designed.

Second Timothy, Paul even echoes this in 2 Timothy 2:12 where he says, "If we endure," which means if you place faith in Jesus and you persevere to the end believing in Jesus, proving that your faith was genuine throughout through throughout the majority of your life, in the end, if we endure, we will also what? Reign with him. Reign with him. And so when we think about the world to come, we don't need to just think about it simply as we get a spot in heaven in which we get to sit on a cloud and play the harp. That's not what we're going to be doing. We're going to be alongside of Jesus ruling and reigning the new heavens and the new earth back to his original design for us.

And so I don't pretend to understand everything that that ultimately means, but I know this. Our eternal destiny is a glorious one. It's a glorious one. Whatever that ruling and reigning alongside Jesus looks like is going to be awesome. It's going to be awesome. And why do I know that?

Is because our world right now is not. If if the world to come is going to be awesome, the world we're in right now is awful. That's the best way to think about it. And that's why when you continue on down into verse eight of Hebrews 2, he lets us in on a little bit of the tension we're feeling in this in the sense that we live in a broken world. That's the second point I want you to see. We live in a broken world.

The promise ultimately is that we were created for glory. We're created to rule and reign and exercise dominion. We fractured and broke that. And ultimately, he's going to establish a new world in which he restores us back to ruling and reigning alongside of him. But we're not seeing it yet. Look at verse eight.

At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. That's an understatement. We do not yet see everything in subjection to him. I just love the honesty of the Bible. The author here has just described humanity's glorious purpose. We've been crowned with glory and honor.

Everything's been placed under humanity's feet, but we fractured and broke it. And therefore, we don't see it as it ought to be. Man, life right now is not as it ought to be. It's not. It's why you got wrinkles. It's why you're getting gray hair.

It's why your children are rebellious. It's why your jobs have thorns and are literally stressing you out and causing anxiety and causing all this frustration. It's why there is relational tension amongst great friends. It's why there is uh hostility between the world and Christians. It's why there is sin. It's why there is sickness.

It's why there's suffering. It's why there's death because things are not yet as they ought to be. We do not yet see everything in subjection to him. The world God created was awesome, but the world we live in now is awful. And what was it that happened to God's good creation? Genesis 3 tells us, it tells us humanity rebelled against the very good, the very God whose image we were created to bear.

In other words, instead of ruling creation under God's authority, Adam and Eve wanted to rule under their own autonomy. That's what we're talking about. and we make crummy gods. Essentially God and then humanity ruling and reigning the creation. And we said, you know what? We want to skip that first one.

We want Psalm 8 without verses 1 and N. That's what we want. And therefore, we disobeyed God. Instead of dependence on God, they wanted independence from God. They wanted to be like God without submitting to God. And the consequences were devastating.

Devastating. Sin didn't merely fracture humanity's relationship with God. It brought disorder into the entire human experience. This is why when you read John 1 and this is why oftenimes like is so important to get back to the original language in John 1 when you read in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God and all creation was created through him and apart from him was not anything that was made. When you look at in the beginning was the word.

The word for word is logos. Logos and it ultimately means order. Or order. Now we know that is also representing God. But that means God is a god of order. So in the beginning was the word and he created everything.

He created everything with an order and a structure and a process. He created it as Psalm 8 lays out. But when sin entered into the world, no longer do we have logos. We now we now have chaos. That's the big difference. And so no longer do we have logos and order.

We now have chaos that is ruling and reigning. Now, yes, God is ultimately still ruling and reigning. It's not outside of his sovereignty. But the but the rules of creation right now are chaos. Which is why chaos happens. It's why not every plane lands or it lands not in the way it's supposed to.

It's why volcanoes erupt. It's why hurricanes happen. It's why tornadoes happen. It's why floods happen. Because what was originally logos is no longer. It is incurrent chaos.

It is chaos because sin came into the world and it fractured and it broke everything. Relationships are fractured. Work becomes frustrating. Creation subjected to futility. Death entered the human story. So remember as I always say uh obedience to God is a good thing.

Obedience to God leads to life. Disobedience to God leads to death. And because of our disobedience with our first parents, Adam and Eve, it brought about death. Death. And death is nothing but just destruction of all that God created and rightly ordered. Romans 5:12 puts it this way.

Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. And so death spread to all men because all sinned. And so if anyone has any kind of framework in their mind right now that we're born good and eventually sin, wrong. Wrong. No, no, no. We're all born sinners because that's what Adam and Eve spread to all of humanity.

Spread to all of humanity. And so we're not born with an opportunity in that moment to eventually when we come to reason choose good or evil. No, no, no, no. We're born sinful and in need of a savior. We're born into chaos in need of logos. We need to understand that to understand ultimately what Jesus is coming to accomplish for us through the cross.

Romans 8:20 through22 tells us that even creation itself has been subjected to futility and is groaning under the bondage of corruption. Again, that's why hurricanes happen. That's why tornadoes happen. That's why earthquakes happen because creation is fractured and it's not as it ought to be. And God will one day restore it. We actually talked about that.

Actually, I can't remember if I talked about it in a sermon or if it was in the Elder Casey. Things are things are crossing over, but at one point the garments of the current heavens and earth will be rolled up and tossed away. And then new heavens and new earth will be rightly ordered by the work of what Jesus is building and restoring. And so there will be a day in those new heavens and new earth where God is back into Psalm 81 and9 his majesty on high. And then the heavens and the earth will rightly declare the beauty of God's logos. And humanity will then be restored back to exercising dominion over the new heavens and the new earth alongside of Jesus ruling and reigning.

Not equal to Jesus. He is capital S shepherd. We are lowercase S shepherds when it comes to ruling and reigning. He's king of kings. But this is the world we live in right now. We don't quite see it as it ought to be.

At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But here's the beauty. Look at verse nine. But we see Jesus. We don't see the world as it ought to be yet, but we see Jesus. We see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus.

You want to know why he had to say namely Jesus? Is because this is written to again Jewish Christians, but also Jews who have heard of Christianity. So, they're going to know Psalm 8 when he's quoting it. and they're going to know that Psalm 8's about us. But here he's saying actually it's namely ultimately about Jesus in that Jesus came and fulfilled what we broke. Jesus came as a man to actually live out the life that Psalm 8 designed for us.

And he now fulfills it where we fractured it. He fulfills it where we fumbled it. And he now comes in and is the one crowned with glory and honor. Not because we were crowned with glory and honor and did an awesome job. No, we messed it up. He's crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.

Again, this is why it's so important to see that the cross, the way that he is enthroned, the way that he is crowned is not by coming on an earthly throne. and ruling and reigning like each of the emperors and the Caesars are doing in his day and age where they would have their triumphal entries. And the way that they got it was because they probably either exercised authority over someone else or conquered another people and they are now being put on a throne because of that. Jesus is coming and doing it a different way. He's coming and doing it a different way. crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Now notice how the author takes the language of Psalm 8 and he applies it here to Jesus and no longer you and me. That's good because what that ultimately tells us is that we we can't fix our problem. We can't fix our problem. They've had Psalm 8 for a thousand years between David and Jesus. And they're looking at this and they're saying, "Well, there's still not seeing it as it ought to be. We're still not figuring it out ourselves."

We need an intercessor. We need one to be able to come and accomplish this for us. And the author says that this same Jesus was made for a little while lower than the angels. Again, when you look at the way that God created the heavens and the earth, even us as humanity for a little while were created lower than the angels because there was the heavens and then there was creation and humanity. And eventually we were going to be crowned above the angels if we never sinned. But we were made lower than the angels.

And now Jesus is entering into our story, coming as a man to fulfill ultimately what we were meant to be. He now comes to be made lower than the angels temporarily in order that by placing himself below them and going to the point of death on a cross, he can then redeem us by paying our penalty for us in our place. Philippians 2 6-8 puts it this way. Although Christ existed in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. See, it wasn't enough just to say even to the point of death.

The author here, knowing what crucifixion represented, he's basically stooping it as low as you could possibly go. He's basically saying, look, he's lowering himself, humbling himself to the point of death. Even if you can imagine this, death on a cross. Death on a cross. the absolute in their context and culture, the worst thing that could possibly exist and happen for a person is death on a cross. Look again at verse nine.

So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. This isn't like the samples at Costco as far as tasting. The author isn't saying that Jesus merely sampled death. He's not saying Jesus experienced a little bit of death while avoiding its reality. He's saying Jesus genuinely experienced death. Like Jesus really died.

He really died. His heart stopped beating. His lungs stopped breathing. His body was laid in a tomb. The eternal son in his humanity truly entered death. And it's just amazing to think about this because he is the author of life.

It is by him that life flows. And we're asking the question, what are you mind? Like how how could you in your vastness be mindful of me? We're talking about it goes even way beyond that. He is life. And yet the author of life and the existence of life, the one by whom life flows is willing to taste death.

Death. And so when David's looking up and he's seeing the beauty of God and he's looking out and he's seeing the beauty of creation in his mind at that moment, he's simp he's overwhelmed by the fact that God would even think about him. And we're now looking back 2,000 years saying if God is life, it's amazing that he's actually willing to experience death in thinking about us. Being mindful of us, realizing what is necessary in order for the for everyone to be a reality. The author says he did this for everyone. The word the word translated for carries the sense of acting on behalf of another.

Jesus didn't die for his own sins. He had none. He died on behalf of sinners. So Hebrews doesn't explain every dimension of the atonement in this one verse. But the rest of scripture helps us understand what Jesus accomplished. Isaiah 53:5 says he pierced.

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Verse six says, "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For our sake he had made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." So we who are sinners and have experienced unrighteousness, he takes our sin and unrighteousness and becomes it. So that you and I who have not tasted righteousness, who have not experienced righteousness because we were born sinners, might get to receive it as a free gift.

It's the great exchange. In 1 Peter 3:18, we learned this in our last series, says this, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might what? Bring us to God. This is substitution. This is payment. This is atonement.

Theologians call this the penal substitutionary atonement. It's a theology right now in modern theological church category is being debated whether or not it's a real thing because we can't fathom the reality that God would suffer or God would send his son and punish his son to suffer in our place. And I'm just telling you right now, if you jump on that on that boat and you go down that route of thinking that God would never punish Jesus for us, then you completely strip Christianity of its power. You completely strip it of the source that is necessary to actually forgive us of our sins. If you remove penal substitutionary atonement from Christianity, all it now has left is a moral religion that you better hope you do more good than evil and hope you make it in the end. It actually puts it in every other category of every other religion.

And it ain't going to work. It's not going to work. And this is what brings me back to the John Calvin quote. Jesus didn't defeat death by the sword as other emperors and kings would do. He didn't ride into battle and conquer the enemy by killing everyone else. He conquered the enemy by having them kill him at the cross.

Therefore, the cross becomes the throne by which Jesus establishes a new kingdom and dispenses grace and mercy and builds and advances his kingdom. I mean, just compare that to every other empire that's ever existed. How did every other empire that's ever existed grow and expand? by conquering and killing everyone else. That's the only way that you get new territory. The way that Jesus establishes his kingdom and advances his territory is not by killing others, but being killed himself.

By being killed himself. Go back to the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This is Matthew 21. Jesus enters the city riding on a donkey and the crowds are laying their cloaks on the road. They're excited. New king, new king of the Jews.

What were they so excited about? They weren't excited about Jesus coming to die on the cross for their sins. They weren't even fully aware that that was even going to be the reality of why he was entering that Holy Week on that Palm Sunday. What they were excited about was they were under the oppression of the Roman Empire and they wanted to be freed from that. They want to be a sovereign state again. They want to be God's nation once again without any other oppression.

So they were expecting Jesus to show up as king of the Jews and to free them from the oppression of Rome. conquer Rome is what they were wanting. And instead, what they get is a man who comes and in just a few days would hold a dinner with a few disciples and say, "Just so y'all know, I'm not coming to conquer them by killing them with the sword. They're going to come and conquer me and kill me and I'm going to be buried in a tomb. What's amazing is Peter gets it right and wrong in the same moment. Because when they're asking a question, Jesus is asking a question, who they say that I am, and Peter's like, you're the Christ, the son of God.

And Jesus is like, good job. Only God revealed that to you. Good job. Because man doesn't understand that. But good job. And then in that same breath, Jesus explains that in just a few days, they're going to arrest me, torture me, and hang me on a cross, and I'm going to be dead for three days, and on the third day, I'm going to rise from the grave.

And Peter says, "Not on my watch. May it never be." And Jesus responds to Peter right after he tells Peter, "You nailed it. 100%. Good grade." He then tells them, "Get behind me, Satan."

Which is also important because what Jesus was doing in that moment was helping us as humans realize that we're always being discipled by something. We're either discipled by Jesus or we're discipled by Satan. We're either discipled by what Christianity is ultimately teaching or we're discipled by what culture in the world is teaching. And I'll just let you know what the culture and world is teaching isn't by itself. It's got a spirit behind it who's pulling the strings. And we need to be aware of that.

So even though in that moment Peter said the wrong thing, Jesus is speaking to Satan, telling him, "You're not going to cut it. Get behind me. You're not the one who's ruling and reigning in this moment. I will lay down my life because that is what must happen. That is what must happen. And so here comes Jesus, the promised Messiah, the son of David, the rightful king.

And the people are shouting, "Hosana, hosana, save us." But they didn't realize that they were simply asking him to save us from Roman oppression, not save us from our sins. But instead of overthrowing Rome, Jesus is arrested by Rome. Instead of conquering his enemies, he allows his enemies to nail him to a cross. Instead of wearing a crown of gold, he wears a crown of thorns. Instead of being seated upon an earthly throne, he's lifted upon a Roman instrument of execution.

And what the crowds couldn't understand was that Jesus hadn't come merely to overthrow Rome. He'd come to overthrow them. He came to overthrow us. Because in our ruling and reigning, we're ruling and reigning the wrong thing. And we need to come to the end of ourselves. Our sin needs to be conquered.

And that's exactly what he comes to do. But the way he conquers it is by dying on a cross so that the penalty and the punishment that we are bound to and that we are shackled to might actually be freed and we're set go. And this is why if you ask any ruler at any time, hey, do you think the way that you should build your kingdom is by having the enemy kill you? They would say, you're absolutely out of your mind. Like if a if if a king of a kingdom had a general come to them and say, "Hey, king, here's what I think you should do. I think you should lay down your swords and I think you should let them just take you out.

He's going to say uh first he's going to kill the guy and he's going to find a new general. That's not what the way we do things. So what Jesus ultimately did in the cross is foolishness to the world around us. That's why 1 Corinthians 1:18 puts it this way. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it's the power of God.

It's the power of God. In a kingdom, where does power flow from? It flows from the throne. When there's a new edict, where does it come from? It comes from the throne. That's why anytime they would go out, if there was a decree, where does the decree come from?

The decree for uh for Jesus to end up being born in Bethlehem, for Mary and Joseph to actually travel to Bethlehem. Why? Because a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that there would be a census established all over Rome. Why? Because they want to make sure everyone's paying their taxes. So, we got to see how many people do we have now that we've continued to expand our kingdom.

And if you were under the lineage of David's family, you would have to go and do your census in Bethlehem. Well, guess what? That decree came from Caesar Augustus. Came from the top. And if you don't abide by that, you get killed. You get placed on a cross.

So in their culture, power flows from the one in power. In Christianity, it flows from the cross. It flows from the cross. Later in verse 25 of 1 Corinthians 1, it says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." The world sees when they look at this, man, Jesus is weak. It's humiliation.

But they don't realize that what he's doing is he's exercising the strongest thing anybody could ever do in fixing the problem of sin and then exalting us actually far beyond anything that any earthly kingdom would establish right now because we're going to get to rule and reign the new heavens and the new earth. No earthly kingdom is going to compare to that kingdom. Colossians 2:14-15 tells us that God canled the record of debt that stood against us, nailing it to the cross, and that he disarmed the rulers and authorities, putting them to open shame and triumphing over them in Christ at the cross. It was a cosmic battle between chaos and logos. And Logos won. Logos won.

and is now in his resurrection the first fruits of the kingdom. And he's now establishing and advancing his kingdom over all nations. That's why Matthew 28 is a commission like a general would give a commission to his soldiers. Go and conquer this land. Go and win this land. But what are we going and making disciples in?

When I say Matthew 28, I'm talking about the great commission. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Teaching them to obey all that he has commanded us. Go and make disciples of all nations. Go and Christianize all nations. Now, you're not going to do that by policy.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't vote. You should vote based on a Christian ethic, but your policies are not going to convert the hearts of people. What converts the hearts of people is spreading the gospel of Jesus and what he did at the cross. That's the only thing that will actually change and transform somebody. Think about it, guys. Ro v.

Wade was overturned and we still have the same amount of abortions. It didn't change the heart. We got to get to the hearts of people. And what do we preach and proclaim? Jesus showed up 2,000 years ago, conquered Rome, defeated it, restored Israel back to their rightful sovereign state. No.

What actually ended up happening to Israel? Jesus showed up first century. We mark the calendar based on his life. Year of the Lord right around 3033. That's when he starts his ministry. He dies.

Guess what happens 35 years later? In AD70, Rome comes into Israel and ransacks the whole thing. Jerusalem is destroyed. Temple is destroyed. They are scattered and no longer a nation at all. What we go and preach and proclaim is not that Jesus came and conquered the world through sword.

We preach Christ crucified. We preach Christ crucified. Paul echoes that. I think it's in Philippians where he says, "Look, there's a bunch of people preaching a lot of things. If they're not preaching Christ crucified, then they have no power in what they preach. We preach Christ crucified because it is the only thing that establishes the great exchange in us.

That we might become the righteousness of God because Christ became the unrighteousness of us. He took on our sin so that we would then receive a savior. and have our sins forgiven and forgotten. That's what Calvin was ultimately getting at in his quote. The cross becomes the throne by which Christ rules and reigns and advances his kingdom. And that brings us to verse 10 of Hebrews 2:5 or two.

For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory. This is his phrase of saying bringing many people to God should make the founder of their salvation perfect through the sword. No, through suffering. Through suffering. You see, you got to remember he's restoring Psalm 8 by bringing many sons to glory. Psalm 8 talked about the fact that we were created for glory.

We were created to have to be crowned with glory, be able to rule and reign with that crown all of creation. The only way in which Christ can bring us back to that and restore us to that right logos is through suffering. Through suffering. And that's exactly what Jesus came and accomplished for us. And if this is how our king conquers and advances his kingdom, then it ought to radically change the way we understand what it means to follow him. To follow him because unfortunately guys, I wish it I wish the story was different.

But unfortunately for us, we are not going to advance Christianity by the sword. We're going to advance Christianity through suffering. Through suffering. That's why Luke 9:23, he doesn't he doesn't bait and switch the disciples. He doesn't say, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and all of your life is going to work out and it's going to be awesome and you're going to make a lot of money and you're going to have a big house and you're going to have the American dream and and everyone's going to see the favor of God on your life because of all these blessings that you receive and they're going to say, "How do we get in on that?" That's not worshiping Jesus.

That's wanting the lifestyle that you have. That's all it is. No, he says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Follow me. Does that mean you'll have money or won't have money? No.

Look, God's going to invest and God's going to um a lot to whoever he all lots to all of us. Does that mean you're just going to have a small house? No. You might end up having a big house. is not talking about those things particularly. But what he is saying is that for those who take the great commission seriously and are going out and making disciples by spreading the news of Jesus, there are going to be those in the world that receive it and trust in it.

Yes and amen. or reject it and believe that you are the worst possible person that could ever exist and they will be hostile to you. Why? Because what we're doing in declaring this message is we're walking out and we're telling people trust logos because you are chaos. You're chaos. You're a sinner in need of a savior.

and someone who's not aware that they are a sinner and they're still living out this morality of just improving themselves. They don't want to hear that they're not on a good path. But that's the bittersweetness of the gospel is that in order to understand you need a savior, you got to first understand that you're a sinner. You got to understand you're a sinner. And so when we proclaim this message, there are going to be people who receive it and there are going to be people who reject it. And that means that there will also be people who receive you.

And there is also going to be people who reject you. Who reject you. I listened to a sermon from I mean this is like he was like viral Southern Baptist firehelp brimstone preacher Adrien Rogers. This man would just say it how it is. And so he would say this, "If all you have is friends, you're not a Christian." I'm like, "Well, wow.

If all you have is friends and no foe, you're not a Christian. He said, because if you are a Christian proclaiming a Christian message to people who are not Christians, you will create both friend and foe. So essentially, he's like, if you if you got no enemies, then you're not living out the great commission. You're not living out the great commission. That's a hard word. Don't know who needed to hear that one this morning, but Just because people reject you.

Doesn't mean that you said it the wrong way. It doesn't mean that you're being a jerk to them. It doesn't mean that you're Bible thumping them. You're trying to offer them salvation. You're actually trying to offer them the greatest gift that they could ever possibly realize. And here's the beautiful thing in that is the one who becomes friend, well, they are lifelong friends.

And the reason why I say that is because they are indebted, so grateful for what you shared with them. For what you shared with them. I still on my birthday every single year I text Big Red Clint and I tell him, "Thank you so much. Thank you for being the first person that shared the gospel with me." The last thing I want to share with us this morning is that Jesus, as he advances this new kingdom through the suffering of the cross, he is a generous king that doesn't sit on a throne and stays at bay from everyone else. But he invites us to his kingly table every single day.

And we represent it every single week on Sunday. But this is a moment where he does this every single day where he says, "Come and feast. Come and abide in me. Come and eat. Come and drink. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, come and you will be satisfied.

You will be filled." Because that's one thing that kings love to do is they love to throw banquetss, but they only invite the best of the best. And Jesus is throwing a banquet. And he's inviting all. He's inviting all of us. And there's no seats in here where it's like least versus first.

We're all sharing the same seat. He invites us. And he says, "Come, come to the Lord's table and feast." And so what I want you to understand in what we do the cup of blessing that we bless again it's not a physical I mean this is so this is you know to to contrast with Catholicism a little bit when we partake of this and I don't know if you even know this about Catholicism but they believe in something called transubstantiation which means when you eat the bread God supernaturally transforms it into the flesh of Christ and then you consume it. It's kind of a crazy thing to think, but they believe it. When you drink the juice, and in their case, they drink wine, but when you drink the juice, when you literally partake of it, God supernaturally transforms it into the substance of Jesus's actual blood, and then they consume it.

So that when he says in the scriptures, when you eat this, you are eating my body, and when you drink this, you're drinking my blood, they just took that absolutely literally and said, we're actually eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking the blood of Jesus. That's not what's happening in this moment. But sometimes because, you know, we just because we're Baptists, we don't have everything cornered in complete, you know, like we're we're not right about everything. Okay. It is more than just a remembrance. This is an invitation to be in the presence of Jesus.

We are in the presence with Jesus at the table with Jesus experiencing the life of Jesus as we remember the death of Jesus. So when we partake of this bread, it's not just wonderful sourdough. Thank you so much for baking this last night. And it's Meyer grape juice. So obviously not too special. But it's way more than that.

It's the king who's establishing a kingdom and advancing it through the cross is now inviting you to come and feast. Abide in him and be filled up and be sent out. The only time kings feast was in between battles. That's the only time they feast is in between battles. And this is a moment where we pause every single week in between battles because you're coming in from a battle from the week and then you're about to head out to another battle this week and the king is inviting you to come and feast. But we're not feasting on something that's just supernatural.

We're feasting on Christ. We're enjoying his presence and we're thanking him for his sacrifice at the cross. for that's the throne by which he rules and reigns and invites us to advance it as we go and make disciples. So let's stand together. If you believe Jesus as Hebrews 2 has just declared he was made for a little while lower than the angels. He was made for just a little while lower than the angels.

And as Philippians 2 tells us, because he became a man because only a man can die for a man. Only a human can die for a human and pay for their sins. So in that temporary time when Jesus came as a man, he offered his body and he shed his blood as a substitution for you and I. Man, this is just a time where we get to come to the table. We thank him for that. We thank him for that.

We honor him. We worship him. And we let this feast fuel us to then take that message back out to the battle of going and making disciples. Going and making disciples. We are centered on Jesus. And then we are sent as we go out.

Come on down. Grab the elements. Bring them back to your seats and then we will partake together at the end of the song. I was lost. I was blind. I was running out of time.

The bridge was far too farm. You held me in your sight. So you made a way across the great divide. Left behind heaven's throne to build it here. At the cross, you paid the debt I broke my chains, free my soul. For the first time I had hope.

Thank you Jesus for the blood. Thank you Jesus. It has me wine. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. You brought me from the darkness into glorious light.

You took my place inside my tomb of sin. You were buried for three days, but then you walked right out again. And now death has no se life has no end. I have been transformed by the blood of the lamb. And thank you Jesus for the blood of Thank you Jesus. It has me.

Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. You brought me from the darkness into the glorious light. And there is nothing stronger than the wonder working power of the blood. The blood. It calls us sons and daughters.

We are answered by our father through the blood. The blood. There is nothing stronger than the wonder working power of the world. They call us sons and daughters. We'll rest by our father through the Thank you Jesus. The blood of mine.

Thank you Jesus. It has washed me. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. You brought me from the darkness into the glorious. Thank you Jesus for the blood of Jesus.

It has me. Thank you Jesus. You have saved my life. brought me into the night when he was betrayed, he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, "This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, "This is my blood of the new covenant.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Father, that's exactly what we did today. Lord, we proclaim the death of your son Jesus. That it was through his death, it was through the cross that he was enthroned. And it's through the cross that he establishes a new kingdom.

And it's through the message of the cross that that kingdom advances so that many are brought to glory. That many are restored to the rightful design of what you originally intended for all of us. And we thank you, God, that Jesus accomplished this something that we could not accomplish for ourselves. And we just know, Lord, that there are so many people around us who do not yet know this hope that we have in the faith that you established so that we might believe and be saved. May we take this message and as Ephesians 5 says, may we make the most use of the opportunity that we have because the days are evil. May we actively look and may we establish strategic plans for how we will share this good news with those that we know every single day.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Y'all can be seated for a couple of announcements. Good morning, church. Thought I thought I'd bring Lucy up to do some announcements with me today.

Um, thank you for worshiping with us today. It's so wonderful to see all you guys. And just as Dwayne said, we are so thankful for the Lord's humility indeed in our lives. So, some announcements today. Tonight we have our men's bonfire happening at Tyler Lingal's house from 5:30 to 8:30. Come on down.

Uh bring your buddies, friends. I just had a neighbor this week who was mentioning to me that he didn't have a lot of friends in the city. And so reaching out to somebody that you may not be super familiar with to invite them and it could be a great opportunity for them to get around some guys that they uh haven't been able to get around in a while. So invite some friends. Uh there'll be some food there. Uh and if you want to, you can still sign up, bring us a side or dessert.

Um so 5:30 to 8:30 tonight. Next we have Say it