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Welcome to day three of our look through Hebrews chapter two, week two of our
look at the book of Hebrews. We're going to focus on just one verse today, verse
10 of Hebrews chapter two. Let me begin by reading this verse, and as I read it,
you might listen for four words that we're going to focus on in this verse.

Hebrews 2, 10, "In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for
whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their
salvation perfect through suffering. " Here are the four words, fitting, glory,
author, and perfect. Sometimes it's good just to look at the words in a verse
and bring them out, and especially that last one, perfect, we need to do some
talking about that one and what it means.

But let's look at the other three first. First the word fitting. Now I want to
look at that word first because in the Greek language that the New Testament was
first written in, it is the first word in this sentence.

Many times a word would be used first in a sentence in Greek to give it
emphasis. So it says here, "fitting it was that God, in bringing many sons to
glory," and goes on. It starts with the word fitting.

It's telling you what to look forward to. What we're about to see in this verse,
the truths we're about to look at, fits. It fits with who God is.

It fits with God's plan. It fits with what God wants to do in your life. It fits
with who Jesus is and how God works in this world.

It all fits together. God has a plan that fits. God has a plan that fits all of
human history.

God has a plan that fits all the way into eternity, but that also comes down to
your life, your daily life. God has a plan that fits your life today. And
everything we're going to talk about here, there's some grand things that we're
talking about here.

We're talking about all of human history in many ways, but don't forget to see
how God wants to fit these truths into your life. First word, fitting. Second
word, glory.

Now that's a big word, glory. In bringing many sons to glory. Now remember, in
that day, the word son was used particularly because the son, the first born,
was the one who got the inheritance.

So the word son is used here not to exclude women, it's not talking about just
men here, is to say, in bringing those who would get the inheritance, men and
women both, to glory. I know some of you women are thinking, "I don't like this,
why use the word sons because I'm a woman? " Well just remember that the church
is called the bride of Christ.

There's a lot of men who need to think of themselves as a bride, and there's
some women who need to think of themselves, in this case, as a son. We both have
our challenges with this. It's because God wants to get some truths across to
us.

They can only be gotten across by these words. It is the bride who is honored,
and it is the son who's going to get the inheritance. In bringing many of us to
glory, many of those who will get the inheritance to glory, God says, "I want to
bring you into this in my family.

" When you think about the glory of God, it's not just his alone, he says. I'm
going to bring it into your life. The Bible here tells us, verse 10 tells us,
that God is the one for whom and through whom everything exists.

There's nothing that's been made in the universe that God didn't make for his
glory, to reveal what he's like. But then it also says here, he's going to bring
many sons to that glory. God wants to have many children in his family, sons and
daughters, who would share his glory.

God created everything because he wants a family, and he wants you in that
family, and that family is going to last forever. And being part of that family
means not only that I glorify him, I enjoy his glory, which would have been
enough for me, and I think most of you would think that would be plenty for me.
Now, we get to also share his glory and the glory of who he is.

I don't know all that that means, but it humbles me even to think that God would
be willing to share his glory, to bring us to the glory of who he is. We don't
become like God in the way that we are a God in some way, but in some sense we
share in the glory of God's character, the glory of God's power, the glory of
God's person for all of eternity. We worship him and we share his glory, fitting
glory.

Third word, the author. He should make the author of their salvation, that's
Jesus, perfect through suffering. I want to focus on this word because it is
such a big word in the Greek language.

The word archegos that's used here, one translation of it is author, but it's a
word that has so many meanings to it. It has the idea behind it of someone who
begins something, who does something, so that other people can enter into it. So
an author writes a book so that I can enter into the world of that author so I
can understand what they have to say.

But this rich word, it could also be translated a trailblazer or a guide,
somebody who went before us to make the way for us. It could also be translated
champion, the victor. This is the one who won the victory for us so all of us
can enjoy the victory parade.

That's the idea here. That's the depth of this word. That's what Jesus did for
us, that's what Jesus did for you.

He is the author of our salvation, not just the writer, but the trailblazer, the
guide, the champion of our salvation. But then there's this phrase, the last
phrase in this verse that makes a lot of us scratch our heads. He should make
Jesus, the author of our salvation, perfect through suffering.

Now there's a question in that word, perfect, but there's also a great truth in
that word. Make perfect through salvation. The Greek word teleos here, the word
perfect, we look at it and we think, wait a minute, isn't Jesus already perfect?

I mean, he's God in human flesh. If I know anything about God, I know this, he
is perfect. So how could Jesus be made perfect if he's already perfect?

This word that's used here in Greek really has more to do with being fully
mature in your purpose than it has to do with living out your character. Of
course Jesus is perfect in character, he never sinned. But the idea here is
being perfect in his work, fully carrying out the purpose for which something is
designed.

And Jesus, although he was perfect in character, he had work to do. So to be
perfect means he finished his work, he completed it. Jesus was made perfect for
the purpose that God sent him on earth to accomplish.

And notice that that happened through suffering. God used the suffering that
Jesus faced on this earth to make him perfect, fully fitted, fully able, fully
completing, he was already fitted and able in his character, but fully
completing in his work that which God had called him to do, through suffering.
Through obviously the suffering of the cross.

That's the number one place that you see Jesus' suffering carrying out the work
of God in our lives. Also through the suffering of the temptations he faced on
this earth, the trials that he faced, the criticisms that he faced. Through all
the sufferings, God used all of those problems that Jesus faced all the way
along the way to get him to the place of completing the work that God had called
him to do.

Jesus was made perfect through suffering. One of the truths behind this, the
deep truth behind this is that you and I think we're any different than Jesus.
If Jesus needed to be made perfect through suffering, obviously that's the way
God's going to work in our lives as well.

So God allows problems in our lives to teach us, to perfect us. Now in our case,
he perfects us both in character and in the purpose that God has for our lives.
With Jesus it was only in the work that God had, but in our case it's also in
our character.

God uses the problems in my life even when I don't understand it, even when I
don't recognize what he's doing to teach me, to make me, to form me, to fashion
me. As I look back over my life, the very things that caused me the most pain
are the things that caused the greatest growth in my life. Most of us, and this
is certainly true for my life, we rarely learn from success.

We enjoy our successes, but we're really learning the most when we face a
failure. The greatest pains, the greatest difficulties in life are those things
that God uses to develop your character and also direct you into the work that
he wants you to do. To grow and develop you to become more and more of what he
wants you to be.

I will admit there are some who try to twist this. There are some who try to
cause their own suffering in order to grow. They misunderstand this verse.

So by what they deny themselves or how they treat themselves, abuse themselves,
they think I'll make myself suffer and that will cause me to grow. When you try
to do it to yourself, the truth of the matter is it just causes pride rather
than growth because you look at how much you're suffering and you know that you
did it to yourself so you think, well, I'm better than other Christians. That's
not what works.

We're not talking here about something you cause yourself. We're talking here
about the trials, the temptations that Satan throws at us. And when Satan throws
a trial, a temptation, a trouble your way, if I choose to trust God instead of
myself, I'm going to grow.

I'm going to grow in character. I'm going to grow in my ability to fulfill God's
purposes. Now as we pray today, I would doubt that there's anybody listening
that's not going through a trial, a temptation right now.

So let's give those to God. Our Father, we would love to live in a world, we're
just being honest with you, where there was no suffering, where we didn't have
to go through any troubles or trials or problems to grow. But that's not the
world we live in.

One day we'll be in heaven, we'll be full grown, we'll be perfected like Jesus
is, but we're not there yet. And so Lord, instead of looking at the trials and
temptations and troubles and difficulties of life and thinking that somehow
you've abandoned us, help us to instead see that even through those you can grow
us. Instead of getting caught up and wondering why this happened, was it Satan,
was it me, was it God, why did this happen?

Help us to realize that regardless of why this temptation happened, why this
trial happened, why this trouble happened, regardless, you can grow me through
as I trust in you. And so Lord, I refresh my trust in you right now. As I walk
through this, I need you.

I trust you. And Lord, I remind myself that this world is not all there is.
You're growing me in the work you have for me in this world, but you're also
growing me to become the person you want me to be for all of eternity.

And so I trust you. In Jesus' name, amen.