Fully Human, For Us | Hebrews 2:5-18 | Rivers & Lakes Presbytery Worship

What does it mean to be human? It's a question pressing in on all of us these days, whether it comes through a headline about artificial intelligence or just the quiet sense that something about being human isn't what it used to feel like. Scripture doesn't answer that question with a definition. It answers with a person.

In this sermon from a special communion service hosted for the Rivers and Lake Presbytery, Hebrews 2:5-18 takes us through the full weight of the incarnation: why Christ had to share in flesh and blood, why his suffering was fitting rather than strange, and why a high priest who has been tempted is a high priest who is able to help.

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon from First Reformed Church in Edgerton, Minnesota. Each week we dig into God's Word, trusting that the Holy Spirit will continue the good work of sanctification in us.

So many people around us seem to be asking a common question. What does it mean to be human? And honestly, why wouldn't we be asking this question? Those of you who are not from this area needed artificial intelligence to get here. The map app on your phone not only gave you a path to travel here, but when there was construction, it routed you around it. If there was a temporary obstruction or a stop in traffic, it would have moved you around that as well. It routed you here with extreme efficiency, and you didn't have to think twice about it. On the way you probably stopped at a gas station, and on the wall was probably some AI slop flyer trying to sell you an extra piece of pizza. Well, maybe you were a passenger on the way here, and you were scrolling on your phone as you were riding, and you saw an image or a video, and you couldn't decide if that was real or computer-generated. Now those examples are not really a major part of the questions we're asking about being human, but they show just how deeply these questions have permeated our culture. Things like trip navigation, graphic design, and videos on social media apps probably aren't what is causing people to ask these questions about what it means to be human, but they are causing us to feel the weight of it. Questions about artificial intelligence and transhumanism used to be relegated to speculation and philosophical discussions, but now it's in our pockets, our cars, our living rooms, our offices, and the questions that were raised in books that we thought were silly 15 to 20 years ago are now what gives us feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness. Maybe the way that things are moving in the world around you, maybe it's more than just feelings of emptiness and meaninglessness, maybe these things are even eating away at your hope.

Well back in the last Sunday of December, because it wasn't a good Sunday to start a new sermon series after Advent and James, I had that one Sunday with nothing to do, and I had been thinking about some of these things that I've been touching on, and I did a sermon then and I used Psalm 8 and Romans 12:1 & 2 as touch points to address this topic and to remind us of being created in the image of God. In many ways that was a sermon that I was preaching to myself. I didn't know if I was the only one processing through these things, but that morning I could tell that I had hit something, that I had hit the button to some degree, because both young and old were captivated in a way that they normally aren't on a Sunday. I don't know that I've ever had that many looks of engagement as I did that morning. Well later on I modified that sermon a little for chapel at Southwest Christian High School here in town, and the looks on the students' faces were exactly the same I saw in this room. Then just a few weeks ago I did pulpit supply at the evening service at the Christian Reformed Church in Luverne down the road, and I used that sermon and again the looks on the faces showed I had hit the button. I had hit the button. The next day I got two texts from friends who are members of that church who were there, thanked me for talking about it, and then later in the week at a volleyball game I ran into another friend and he thanked me for talking about it. So these reactions and the conversations that have come about from them have continued to help me process our present moment and what our response is.

And so as I was thinking about what to address this evening, you know, I can't just say hey we're gonna continue our series through, right now we're in a series on the regulative principle of worship, but I just, that wouldn't make any sense for you all who are gathered here this evening. So that did something very dangerous for a pastor who usually just preaches through books. It gave me the freedom to pick what I wanted to talk about tonight, right? But here we are and in all seriousness I'm preaching to myself again tonight, but I'm guessing you're feeling what I've described. Now I want to consider these questions yourselves, but you likely have thought about how are we able to witness to this situation to our unbelieving family, friends, and neighbors because this is an important moment and I think we all can feel it.

So as I've been thinking about this over years actually, I keep coming back to the incarnation and while our public reading of Scripture this evening was the first chapter of John, an important passage on the incarnation, our focus this evening is going to be what we saw in Hebrews 2 because it takes us deep into the ramifications of the incarnation and reminds us why we as Christians have the answer for the great question of our time. So as we arrive in the second chapter of Hebrews we find a reminder of an important truth.

As we read this, I find this interesting because I think we as material beings have a natural tendency to be enamored with the idea of angels. I mean I think a lot of people have drawn to the idea of something that is immaterial. We like the idea of something that is not tangible because it seems to be higher or better than us, right? And I think that pagan cults appeal to this idea. They're gnostic in nature and they see the physical, the material world as dirty, corrupt, and detestable, and the goal of these groups is to shed the material and to become immaterial through secret knowledge of some kind. And this tends to sound good to us because let's be honest, that assessment of the world that it is dirty, corrupt, and detestable is true. The world is a dirty, corrupt, and detestable place. And so I think this idea of leaving the body behind has appeal, and as Christians we can even get sucked into it thinking that shedding the material is something to attain to. We can maybe be more like the angels. But the author of Hebrews reminds us here in verse 5 that it isn't the angels that were given a position of highest estate in the creation. And even though we affirm the glorious fact that we are made in the image of God, I believe we quickly lose sight of just how amazing a fact that is. We are creatures of the dirt, but we are not dirt. God breathed life into us and made us in His image. If we could recover that truth alone, it would go great lengths to help a world mired in nihilism. It would help people see that there is a purpose, that there is meaning.

And interestingly enough, the author of Hebrews doesn't quote Genesis 2 to remind us of our status as created beings. Instead, the author of Hebrews does what he does throughout the book. He quotes the Psalter. He quotes the hymn book of the people of God to prove his point. And it goes to what we read for our responsive reading this evening. And so it says here in this passage, what is man that God is mindful of us? Why does God bother with humanity in the first place? And this question might resonate with some people. People suggest, some people say, we're just another mammal. There's nothing special about us. In fact, they suggest that animal life is just as valuable, and some maybe say that animal life is even more valuable than a human life. But unlike those assumptions, the author of Hebrews has a much loftier understanding of humanity. He has a scriptural understanding of humanity. We are not simply like the dog, the cow, or the groundhog. We were created a little lower than the angels. And on top of that, we were crowned with glory and honor, and everything is in subjection under our feet. And we are not just the benefactors of favorable chance random processes who ended up at the top of the food chain. We were created for this. We're not machines to be modified. We are creatures crowned with glory and honor.

But as we survey the situation and we consider our status as image-bearers, we realize and notice that something has gone terribly wrong along the way. The world does not look like we would expect it to if it was occupied by those who were a little lower than the angels, does it? It doesn't look out there in the world like those created a little lower than the angels have done much good with the authority they have where everything is under their feet. And we know the answers to this. Our first parents plunged us into ruin, and humanity's rebellion against a holy God has left a trail of pain.

But we also know the solution. Jesus took on our flesh. He bore the wrath of God for our sin, and the author of Hebrews helps us to understand the necessity of this as we look at these verses here. Notice what it says, that Jesus was for a little while made lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death. Whenever we come up on passages like this, I always tell the congregation, take a second and process just how contrary that statement is to the way we usually think. Suffering and death are nothing that we would see as anything that is connected to honor and glory. Humans have never liked suffering, but we really don't like suffering. We take something to relieve our pain for a minor headache, but the suffering of our Savior is a crown because through it he brings salvation for his people. And our natural inclination is to think that God is most glorified in the beauty of his creation or the majesty of his power, but God is most glorified in the fact that he suffered and took on the wrath of God to save us. He didn't do this as some mystical being far away in the clouds. The love and mercy of God is known to us in the truth that he came not only in our flesh, but that he suffered in our flesh.

And the author of Hebrews tells us that he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have one source. And when he says have one source, the idea is that they have the same origin. They are from God and have one nature and therefore he is not ashamed to call them brothers. Jesus is not ashamed to call us sisters and brothers, my friends. And the author again goes back to the Psalter to make his point. So these quotes here are the author of Hebrews giving proof that Jesus truly shares in our humanity. He sings God's praise among us not as an outsider, even as an angel, but as a brother. He puts his trust in the Father just as we do. He also calls us his own children. And that family language is all leading to verse 14.

And this is such a powerful summary of the gospel here. Jesus came as one of us to free us from our slavery to sin. We know this to be true, but as I alluded to previously we are prone to thinking that the mystical and the immaterial is better. And so throughout history people keep going back to Gnostic heresies that deny the physical nature of what Jesus did. It's hard for us, legitimately. It's hard for us to believe that God would take on our flesh, that God would come here and get dirty, that he would come into the grime of this material world. Honestly I understand why people side on this error, don't you? But Jesus was not a visiting spirit walking around in a costume. He was real flesh and blood. Adam rebelled against God in this flesh. And so the last Adam couldn't just be an apparition.

And notice the language in verse 16. It isn't angels that he helps. God the Son didn't suffer and die for angels. It was for us. The author has been building towards an important point here. Jesus didn't take on flesh and blood as some abstract theological legal transaction happening somewhere far away from us. He condescended to us to actually help humanity here where we are. So in verse 17, take notice of the words "had to" here. He was made like his brothers in every respect, not because it was a nice idea or because he was generous. He had to. There was no other means by which he could be the kind of high priest we needed. A high priest who is able to represent us because he is one of us. He is able to be the propitiation for the sins of his people because he is one of us. The word propitiation means to turn aside wrath. He is able to take on the wrath of God for our sin because he was one of us but without sin.

Now we talk about doctrines like this and they can feel so unbelievably abstract, but in reality this is so unbelievably practical because he himself has suffered when tempted. He is able to help those being tempted. He's not just willing. He's able, and there's a difference. Plenty of people are willing to help you through something they've never faced. It's a different thing to have someone who's been where you are standing with you in the face of adversity, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ for you. That's what he did for us. Not as a distant deity out there somewhere in the ether offering advice from a distance. No, we have a high priest who was tempted, who bled, who suffered and died. A mediator before the Father who knows exactly what it means to be human in this fallen and broken world, and this is a foundational and a beautiful truth.

And as we prepare ourselves for the table I want to come back to the significance this has for us in the struggle with what it means to be human in our present time, because what we've seen here is the story of the gospel. The good news of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus for our salvation that we receive by faith as a gift from God. And as I've been letting these issues of our time roll around in my head, it usually starts with Genesis and the fact that we are made in the image of God, but as I've continued to think on how we can emphasize this to a lost and dying world, I've discovered that it's essential that we continually go to the gospel. Not just because it's a message that saves our souls, but because it's a message that tells us the significance of humanity and the value of the body. Other religions of the world and pagan thought can express a message of some sort that will offer a rescue of the consciousness or the soul or whatever, but they don't value the body.

The message of the gospel tells us that our humanity matters. It matters. God Himself took on our flesh. Our humanity matters. He lived a sinless life in that flesh and he suffered and died to bear the wrath of God in that same flesh. And here's where it gets even better. He was bodily resurrected. His suffering was not a means by which he escaped this material flesh but he bodily walked out of his grave. Our humanity matters, and there's more. He ascended to the right hand of the Father in that same resurrected flesh, and he is our mediator in that flesh. Our humanity matters. Right now our humanity is in heaven. It matters. So to a world struggling with questions of anthropology, is there a greater answer than God made us in His image and despite our rebellion against Him, He came and redeemed that flesh for us.

So as we come to the table this evening, we are blessed to have a material reminder of the goodness of our Redeemer. Tonight we will taste and we will touch physical elements that not only remind us of what Christ has done but it points us forward to that great day when we will feast in the house of Zion in a restored creation. In a world where it feels like I'm being more and more assimilated into the machine and identified with an algorithm, I have come to love the beauty of worship and even more so the gathering of God's people to taste and see that the Lord is good.

Coming to the table is an amazing privilege. The language of Hebrews 2, of Jesus as our high priest is great. It's fantastic. A few weeks ago we celebrated the Lord's Supper and I was struck with something, because we were talking about worship, and while I was waiting for the ruling elders to distribute the elements, this just hit me. In the old covenant, temple worship was unbelievably exclusive. You had to be in Jerusalem, you had to be a Hebrew, and even then only the priests participated. Now in the new covenant, here we are, just so you know, you're a long ways from Jerusalem. Most of us, if not all of us, are Gentiles, and each and every one of us receives the same portion of the Supper. Every last one of us, we are able to go into the presence of God not because we've merited it or because we have particular genetics. We can all taste and see that the Lord is good because of the person and work of Jesus Christ and because we have been united to Him by faith.

So I want to encourage you to depart from here this evening as you're fed at the table to remember that you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Let it be a reminder of the one who took on our flesh to redeem us. And may the message of the gospel be on our lips because in a world struggling with what it means to be human, we have more than a theory. We have the message of a person to share, one who took on flesh, suffered in that flesh, died in it, was raised in it, and is still in it at the Father's right hand. That's not abstract. That is as practical as it gets, because it tells us who we are, where we're going, and what our purpose is. The gospel saves us and in doing so tells us what we are and whose we are. Amen. Let us pray.

Great and merciful God, we praise you for the gift of your Word because it comes to us and it tells us the great story not only of how we were created but how you redeemed us, that Christ took on our flesh and rescued us from sin, death, and hell. We pray, O God, that the truth of that would be on our lips, and as the world struggles with what it means to be human, may we point to the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth that he has redeemed not just our souls but our bodies and all of creation as well. May we be the messengers of this truth that through your Word and Spirit more may come to faith and try to find the hope and peace that you give. It's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining us for this week's sermon. For more information about First Reformed Church, head to our Facebook page or website edgertonfrc.org.

Want to go deeper?

Browse the full sermon archive
Explore the Worship by the Book series