Hebrews: Taking Your Rightful Place in the Kingdom
Pre- Service Questions
Read Psalm 8- Picture yourself and picture God for just a moment- what do you have that God “needs”? What do you have that God “wants”? What do you have that God can use?
Man was destined to rule over creation, what happened that changed his destiny?
Therefore, based on your answer to question #2, why do you think so much bad stuff happens in our world?
If Jesus is all-powerful and rules over all creation, what would compel him to suffer death for sinners?
Pray for each other- that we would hold no areas of our lives back from Jesus.
Taking Your Rightful Place in the Kingdom
Jamie Stengle is a reporter for the Associated Press who released a story this week about one of the real Monuments Men. He said in December 1944 James Rorimer wrote a letter to his wife. Rorimer said, “I’m cold. I’m tired. And, I’m scared. But, I’m here to save works of art and that’s what really matters.” Rorimer graduated from Harvard University in 1927. He was at the top of his class. This picture that you see has Rorimer in the background with a pencil in his hand cataloging art.
He was so intelligent and gifted that he was immediately hired by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. He quickly started to move through the ranks and the museum started to trust him with more responsibility. The museum was about to start this massive expansion of a medieval art wing and they placed Rorimer in charge of it. Rorimer was exceptional. He eventually married Katherine, his sweet heart, and they had two children when WWII began.
Rorimer left it all. He left his job, his security, his wife and his children when the United States formed the famous Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section to try to recover some of the art that was stolen by Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He joined with 350 other men. Some of them were museum curators, some directors, some were artists themselves, and others were architects. It was their mission to find these precious works of art and to make sure they weren’t lost for all of humanity.
Rorimer found this massive cache of art at one of the famous Nazi heirloom mines. He set up a collection point in Munich, Germany to make sure that the art was returned to its original owners or made sure that it stayed safe with them instead of the wicked men that were stealing it. Rorimer would let nothing stop him, not even General George S. Patton. By the summer of 1945 Patton and his headquarters had moved into Munich. They wanted the building that Rorimer had set up as the Munich Collection Point for all of the art. They wanted it because that was the former Nazi headquarters. Rorimer was undeterred by General Patton’s rank. He was undeterred by Patton’s fame. He stood up to Patton and said, “I don’t care who you are. No man on earth is going to go into that building and going to ruin any of those precious treasures.”
Rorimer lived to be 66 years old and died in 1966. There is a collection of his letters that his family maintains. In one of those letters, Rorimer wrote back to his family and said he would never give up the long fight for cultural objects. It was ingrained in his DNA that these precious treasures belonged to all humanity and he would not let them fall into the hands of sinful men. He would return them to their rightful place even if it cost him his life!
Here are the questions I want to pose to you. Are you right now fulfilling your rightful place in the kingdom of God? Are you, right now today, where you belong in God’s grand scheme of things? The answer to the question is no. Because of sin humanity has changed. Due to sin our glory has been removed.
Today the writer of Hebrews lets us see what it looks like when God restores humanity to their rightful place in his Kingdom.
Hebrews 2:5-8a For He has not subjected to angels the world to come that we are talking about. But one has somewhere testified: What is man that You remember him, or the son of man that You care for him? You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor and subjected everything under his feet.
I. Our glory was removed by sin.
If you were here last week, we saw the writer of Hebrews took a detour. He described for us this dangerous message. Now, he is describing the difference that Jesus makes and how much superior Jesus is to the angels.
He uses this fascinating phrase. He says somewhere in the Old Testament it says; then he refers to these verses that come directly from Psalm Chapter 8. Now certainly he knew it was David who wrote Psalm Chapter 8. In fact if you were here this past July, we took a look at that Psalm. Nowhere in the book of Hebrews does the writer of the book refer back to the people who wrote these Old Testament passages by name though he certainly knew them. He wants us to listen to what the passage says and not be consumed with who wrote it.
In Psalm Chapter 8, there is a description that David gives of all of God’s creation. In verses 1 and 2, he wants us to look at the stars and the heavens. He wants us to look at all immense creation that God has created. Then he wants us to ask this question, “What is man? What are you and I that out of everything that God has made that He would be mindful of us and that He would think of us?”
I said this past summer that man is the centerpiece and crown jewel of God’s creation. Everything else around us is like finger painting compared to human kind. What Hebrews is saying today is that back in the beginning when God put Adam and Eve in the garden they had this unprecedented relationship with Him. God showed up in the middle of the day and hung out with them in the garden. Clearly, you and I don’t have that kind of relationship. Since sin entered the relationship in Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve didn’t have that relationship with God anymore. In fact, it is Adam and Eve that are hiding from God. When He shows up in the garden, Adam and Eve run away from Him because their sin has destroyed their relationship with Him. Now all of us feel the effects of that.
There is no question that we don’t have today the relationship that God originally created for us to have with Him. We don’t have that because it’s been removed by our sin. That’s not the way God wants it to be. Due to our sin, that relationship has been removed and we no longer have that intimacy with God.
Now the writer of Hebrews makes this analogy with the angels. He tells us that the angels get to hang out with God. They get to be in God’s very presence because they don’t have the sin that we have inside of us. However, one of these days, God will restore our relationship and our rightful place in the kingdom. One of these days, you and I will have something even the angels don’t have because we have been purchased back from our sin because of Jesus’ blood. One day we will have an intimacy with God that even the angels wish they had.
The famous pastor and author, G.K. Chesterton said, “Whatever else is or is not true. Man is not what he was meant to be.” You and I, because of sin, are not what God created us to be.
That is certainly true of Scott Moyer. Within one year, Scott Moyer’s life has taken a completely different turn. In the last year he has lost it all. He lost his job, his money, his children, and his wife to drugs. Todd Frankel, a reporter from the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, chronicled one day in Scott Moyer’s life. This day was the day before Moyer would appear in court on drug charges. He described how quickly Moyer’s life unraveled because of drugs. The story says Scott didn’t touch drugs until he turned 30 years old last year. It started with cocaine and moved to crack. When that wasn’t good enough he moved to prescription painkillers, heroine and then to meth. Meth destroyed his life.
Moyer tried to break free from drugs. In the last year, he has done four stints in and out of rehab. None of them were successful. He couldn’t escape meth and what it was doing to him. He would disappear for hours from the job not telling his boss where he went. He would leave home and tell his wife he had to do some investigating when in fact he was going to look for more drugs. He decided he didn’t want to be held back by a job or family so he asked his wife for a divorce. In the divorce he got a $250,000 case settlement and within one year he lost it all.
Now Moyer is penniless, with no home, no car, and no clothes and had to borrow money for a cab to go to court this past week. Here is the worst part of Scott Moyer’s life. He knew better. He was a reporter who covered the crime beat and the courtroom in St. Louis, Missouri. He knew all of the police officers. He personally covered the lifestyle of someone addicted to drugs. He was part of this major campaign called “Life or Meth” before he touched drugs personally.
From his own family he knew better. He has two brothers. One of them was serving a prison sentence for drugs before Moyer ever touched cocaine. His other brother had been in and out of jail and the last few years had been trying to clean his life up.
Moyer gave it all up for something that could never satisfy him deep down inside. In this article before going to court Moyer said, “I don’t feel like I deserve a second chance but I want one. I need someone who will step in and will rescue me.” The truth is like a drug addict every single one of us can’t rescue ourselves from our sin. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is trying to tell us. You can’t earn your way free from sin. You need Someone who will rescue you. Sin has destroyed, consumed, and taken you farther then you ever expected to go and it has cost you more then you ever wanted to give. No one can get the kind of intimacy with God back that sin introduces in someone’s life, unless Someone outside of sin steps in and rescues us.
I don’t want you to ever forget the high cost of sin. It cost our first parents, Adam and Eve, everything. It cost Christ everything to recover us from our sin. I want you to notice that our glory was removed from sin but it doesn’t end there. Next he tells us that the Savior recovered our glory.
Hebrews 2:8b-9 For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. But we do see Jesus—made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone—crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death.
II. Our glory is recovered by the Savior.
Only Jesus could restore what you and I lost because of sin. Only Jesus could recover what you and I gave up in our relationship with God because of sin. He takes the discussion of man and woman’s failure because of sin to Jesus’ success. He wants you to remember that humanity in light of eternity is just a very brief period of time. God has a plan to restore us and our relationship. A relationship that even the angels wished they had. That plan is what He did when He sent His Son Jesus. One day in the future, God will restore the glory and honor that He originally created man to have in the Garden of Eden. He won’t do it because you deserve it but because of what His Son Jesus has done for you.
Right now man is subject to the earth but one day man will rule. We will rule over the angels and the earth. One of these days God will restore everything when He makes the new heavens and the new earth but it’s not quite yet. If you’re thinking like me, “God, how much longer before you end the sin and suffering around us? When will You restore humanity back to the original plan You had for us? When will You restore those who follow Jesus to the original place You had for us?” The answer and reason why God hasn’t restored humanity yet is because He is being gracious and allowing people one more day to respond to Jesus.
The writer of Hebrews says there is nothing on the planet that Jesus isn’t Lord over. Really he is challenging you and asking you this question, “Is Jesus in charge of your life in the bedroom? Is Jesus calling the shots in the boardroom? Does Jesus decide what happens with your money, your time, your relationships, or with the way you entertain yourself? Does Jesus call all of those shots because He supposed to.” If Jesus is supposed to be Lord over all, you and I shouldn’t be holding anything back from Him. Is Jesus Lord over the bedroom and the boardroom in your life? Or, are you still calling the shots in a few areas of your life?
Hebrews chapter 1 focuses on the deity of Jesus but chapter 2 focuses on humanity and says God was willing to leave heaven and become man. He tasted death so that those who follow Him would not have to taste death. The truth is that every single person on the planet will have to face the consequences of sin, which is death. Either they will suffer death for their sin or Jesus’ death will become payment for their sin. That’s it. There is no other option. It’s either one or the other.
Chuck Swindoll made this statement about those verses. He said, “Trusting in yourself leads to death because it is belief in man’s glory and not in God’s. Trusting in Christ leads to eternal life because you believe that your sin requires a Savior and that Jesus was willing to do whatever was necessary to purchase you back from your sin.” Someone needed to rescue you because you couldn’t rescue yourself.
It is like you are a baby in an inferno about to be consumed by the fire and you needed a fireman to come in and rescue you because you couldn’t do it on your own. I came across this video clip from the camera of a firefighter inside an apartment complex that was on fire outside of Nashville, TN.
The truth is that the little boy was amazing and saved the baby’s life. The real heroes however are the firefighters who rushed in to rescue those in the apartment complex.
We believe that you are helpless in your sin. Like the child in the building collapsing around you. You can’t rescue yourself out of your own sin. Someone has to rush in and snatch you back out. That is why we are so serious in this church about carrying out the Great Commission. That’s why we got to such great lengths to heal hurts and meet needs in our city. We believe you can’t get there on your own. You can’t earn your way into your rightful place in the kingdom of God. That is why two weeks ago we went to downtown Columbus to tell people about Jesus. To tell them difference Jesus has made in our lives and the difference He can make in their lives. That’s why next month we are going to downtown Atlanta to make a difference. We are going to New York City and Alaska. We are trying to make a difference because we believe without Jesus humanity is helpless. That is why you have the list in the worship guide of all the places we will be going on mission to.
We believe that no man or woman can be good enough to earn their way back into their rightful place in humanity. You need Someone who will rush in and rescue you. That Someone’s name is Jesus. We are going to make a difference and introduce people to Jesus, the Rescuer of their souls.
Are you right now living the rightful place that God has designed for you in His kingdom? Is Jesus calling the shots in every area of your life or are you holding some of it back? For some of you in this room who have never come to Christ, is today the day you settle this issue once and for all?
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Post- Service Questions
Read Psalm 8. Picture yourself and picture God for just a moment- what do you have that God “needs”? What do you have that God “wants”? What do you have that God can use?
Because Jesus was with God at creation, he rules over everything that was made. What area of your life does Jesus not have authority over? Why are you holding this area back from him?
If Jesus rules over everything, why is there still suffering and death in the world?
If Jesus is all-powerful and rules over all creation, what would compel him to suffer death for sinners?
Pray for each other- that we would hold no areas of our lives back from Jesus.
