This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome to day four of our look through Hebrew chapter two. We're
going to focus on verses 11 to 15 today. And as we look at these verses, we're
going to see the power that Jesus has for our lives, the difference that he can
make in your daily life.

Listen to what these verses have to say, 11 to 15. Both the one who makes men
holy, and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not
ashamed to call them brothers.

He says, I will declare your name to my brothers in the presence of the
congregation, 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, he too shared in their humanity so that
by his death, he might destroy 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. What great verses about what Jesus has done for us. Beginning with the
truth, you are in the family of Jesus.

Jesus is not ashamed to call us part of his family. You are his brother, you are
his sister, you are part of his family. This first verse, verse 11, is an
amazing verse.

We often say here at Saddleback that the Christian life is not just a matter of
believing, it's a matter of belonging, and there's no doubt about that. I don't
just believe in Jesus, I belong to Jesus, and I don't just belong to Jesus, I
belong to every other believer. I'm a brother, I'm a sister with every other
believer.

We belong to every other Christian. Jesus is not ashamed to say, they're part of
my family. When we think of the joy of that when we get to heaven, that Jesus is
going to point to all of us and say, they're part of my family, but that doesn't
start when we get to heaven, it's already started.

It started the minute you came to Christ. He's not ashamed of you. He's grateful
to have you in his family picture.

He's grateful to have you in his family picture. He wants you right there, front
and center, as part of the picture. You're in the family of Jesus.

And as the writer of Hebrews talks about us being in the family of Jesus, he
shares then some verses, two or three verses from the Old Testament that all
come from passages about family, about brothers and sisters and children, and
the fact that we're in God's family. And out of that, in verse 14, he reminds us
of something of what Jesus did for us. He reminds us of the fact that Jesus
shared in our humanity.

We're part of his family, and part of what that means is that Jesus came and he
took on human flesh. He became a man. Jesus is both man and God.

Now, I will say this, if you have not been a believer for very long, it's
probably more difficult for you to see Jesus as God. That's a new truth for you.
And to see that God came into this world, that just sort of blows the top off
your mind.

But once you read the scripture more and more and more and see what Jesus did,
the miracles he did, the things that he said, it becomes easier and easier and
easier to accept the fact Jesus is God. But I found the longer you become
familiar with that, the longer you're a believer, the more difficult it is to
continue to accept the fact that Jesus was also 100% man. Jesus was 100% God,
100% man, 100% of the time.

That's what it meant as he walked this earth. The longer you're a believer, it's
easier to see his deity than it is his humanity. But remember, he took on human
flesh.

Just like we have flesh, he says, "I want you to understand what it means "that
you're part of my family, "and I have some things to do in this human flesh. "
So he shared in our humanity. Now, why did he do that?

Well, we can go through a long list of things in scripture why he did that, but
there are two very powerful truths here concerning why he did that. You notice
what they are. First, to destroy the devil.

Second, to set people free. That's why he did it. He shared in their humanity so
that by his death, he might destroy him who holds the power of death.

That is the devil. The devil was officially defeated on the cross. By his death,
he might destroy him who holds the power of death.

I would think it's by his resurrection, but it happened at the cross. The
resurrection has a lot of meaning, powerful meaning, but the moment Jesus died
on the cross, Satan was done for. He was declawed and defanged at the cross.

He's got a bark now but no bite because Jesus took the bite away from him.
That's what happened at the cross. And we still see some of the power of Satan
in this world today, but it's not going to last.

It is not going to last. The truth of the matter is the way God looks at it, he is
destroyed. One day the ultimacy of that truth will be born out when he's thrown
into the lake of fire, but God already sees it.

It's already done and Satan already knows it. He's already destroyed. He's
destroyed Satan, that one who has so often destroyed lives as a liar, as an
accuser.

He is destroyed. So anytime I allow the power of Satan, his temptation, his
direction to rule in my life, I'm following one who's doomed to destruction.
Jesus destroyed him, it's done.

And as he did that, he also did a second thing in verse 15. He set people free.
He set free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

There's a general universal fear that we have in this world and it is the fear
of death. If you want to know that, you just go to a funeral sometime and you see
the spirit that many people have. If you want to know about the fear of death and
sometime maybe you're out for coffee with somebody, you look across the table at
them and you say, hey, let's talk about death.

Let's talk about your funeral. It'll get really quiet. We don't really like to
talk about death.

And one of the reasons is we fear it. And there are a lot of reasons why we fear
death. Some people fear it because of the loss of control.

I can't make happen what I want to have happen. Some people fear death because
they feel they'll have a sense of incompleteness or failure. I didn't finish
what I wanted to finish in life.

Some people fear death because it is a separation from those that we love,
although I don't know that we totally understand what heaven's going to be like if
we fear death on that measure. Many people fear death because we all fear the
unknown. Even though we hear the promises of Jesus, we fear the unknown.

Jesus said, I came to set you free from that fear. The night before he died on
the cross, Jesus talked to his disciples. You remember what he said.

He said, don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.

I'm going to my father's house. I'm going to go to heaven. I'm going to go build a
mansion for you.

And if I go there, I'm going to come back and receive you to be with me where I am.
Jesus was dealing with all these fears we've just talked about. It's not an
unknown.

I'm building a place for you. It's not a failure. I've got a purpose for you.

It's not you're out of control. It's God is in control. I don't have to fear
death because for the Christian, death is just a transfer.

It's just going from this life into a better life. And the question all of us
have to look at in our lives is if I'm fearing death, why am I afraid? Am I
afraid because I'm not certain where I'm going to go when I die?

If you're not certain, you can become certain right now. How do I become
certain? Well, it's not based on what you do.

If it was based on what you do, you could never be certain that you'd done
enough. It's based on what Jesus did. He already died on the cross.

He already has resurrected. So I can be certain by trusting in that because
that's the only thing that's going to get me to heaven. Trusting in his perfection,
not mine.

Trusting in his work, not mine. I can be certain that I'll be with him for
eternity. Right now, just say, Jesus, I want to be certain.

So instead of trusting in me and my works and what I do, I'm trusting in you,
what you did on the cross, what you did in your resurrection. Forgive me. Give
me new life.

Make me the kind of person that you want me to be more and more through this
life. I trust you. If you trusted him like that, you can be confident.

Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall never
die. When you die, it'll be the end of your body, but it will not be the end of
you because you were made to last forever.

What's interesting is we've walked through these last, these couple of chapters
of Hebrews. We've got one more day tomorrow in chapter two. We've been seeing
many of the most powerful reasons that we can see for the incarnation, for why
God became man.

Reasons for the incarnation. In chapter one, we saw why did God become man? To
reveal God to man.

He has spoken to us in his son, so he shows us what God is like. That's why
Jesus came into this earth and became a man. Why did God became man?

Number two, to reveal mankind to man, to reveal to men and women who we're
supposed to be like. The only way we can know what we're to be like is by
looking at Jesus. He's the example.

Third reason, why did God became man? To provide a sacrifice for sins. We're
going to see this again and again throughout the book of Hebrews.

In chapter one, we talked about the purification of sin for which Jesus came.
Why did God become man? To destroy the works of the devil.

And one of those works is fear. So he came to set us free from the fear of
death. Tomorrow, by the way, we're going to see a fifth powerful reason why God
became man.

Jesus became man to become our high priest. Much of the book of Hebrews, the
center section of it, what it means for Jesus to be your high priest, the
confidence that that can give you, the boldness that that can give you in daily
life. But before we turn the page to that tomorrow, as we end today, I'd like to
remind you of these two truths we looked at.

Jesus destroyed Satan in his works. Jesus set you free from the fear of death.
That just results in gratitude.

So let's take a minute to thank him. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you.

Thank you for destroying Satan in his work. And even though he does have some
measure of power today, I know that it will not last because of what you did.
The end story of this world is not a story of evil winning.

It's a story of your victory. Thank you for destroying evil. And Jesus, thank
you.

Thank you for setting me free. Thank you for setting me free from my fears and
my doubts and my failures and my guilt. Thank you for setting me free from the
fear of death.

And help me to understand more and more every day what that means. Help me to
live in your freedom and not in my fear. I ask this in your name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to see some encouragement to defeat the temptations in our
lives.