Jesus, Our Faithful Big Brother

 Jesus, More Than Our Big Brother!

 

January 22, 2022

Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. (Hebrews 2:14-15, NLT)

 

Life has a way of turning every person upside down. No one escapes. We’d be foolish to think we are not vulnerable.  There are times when we are weak, vulnerable, discouraged, depressed and at times it seems as though a cloud of darkness envelops us. Bad days do come. But we must not stop there.  It would also be foolish to think that evil wins the day.  We have Jesus who is like a big brother, the kind who stands with us in good times and when things go badly. Faith changes our perspective. We see things differently. Bad and good also followed Jesus. Note how Max Lucado describes the good and the bad days of Jesus. 

And Jesus. How many times in his earthly life did bad become good? The Bethlehem innkeeper told Jesus’ parents to try their luck in the barn. That was bad. God entered the world in the humblest place on earth. That was good. The wedding had no wine. Bad. The wedding guests witnessed the first miracle of Jesus. Good. The storm scared the faith out of the apostles. Bad. The sight of water-walking Jesus turned them into worshippers. Good. Five thousand men needed food for their families. Bad day to be a disciple. Jesus turned a basket into a bakery. Good day to be a disciple. With Jesus, bad became good just as night becomes day—regularly, reliably, refreshingly. And redemptively.

(Lucado, Max. You'll Get Through This (p. 156). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.)

Our study this week is about Jesus our faithful big brother. As we’ll see, He’s more than a typical big brother, but it presents a helpful description. What we need to see from our study is that whether we are having a good day or a bad day, we can be on the winning side even if doesn’t look like it now. How we get to that point is the purpose of our study.

Our Brother as a Redeemer

 

Words have a history and that gives them special meaning. A “redeemer” is one of those words picked up from the Old Testament and used throughout the Bible.  

If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him. If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back, he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it. (Lev. 25:25-27, NLT)

If an Israelite became poor and was forced to part with the land that he had inherited and became a slave (bondservant) to the new owner, it was the duty of the nearest relative to redeem him.

 

It is a good illustration of what Jesus does for us.  Our eternal inheritance was lost due to sin.  There is no way to earn back our inheritance, but a way was provided by the goel or redeemer. Despite our pitiful condition, Hebrews tells us that Jesus was not ashamed to call us “brothers and sisters” (Heb. 2:11). Jesus claims us as His own!  Note Hebrews 2:14,15.

Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

I love this statement by Ellen White found in The Ministry of Healing, p.25,26.

He [Christ] passed by no human being as worthless but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul… He sought to inspire with hope the roughest and most unpromising, setting before them the assurance that they might become blameless and harmless, attaining such a character as would make them manifest as the children of God. 

Often He met those who had drifted under Satan's control, and who had no power to break from his snare. To such a one, discouraged, sick, tempted, fallen, Jesus would speak words of tenderest pity, words that were needed and could be understood. Others He met who were fighting a hand-to-hand battle with the adversary of souls. These He encouraged to persevere, assuring them that they would win; for angels of God were on their side and would give them the victory. 

QUESTION:  Have you ever been told that certain groups of people or those practicing certain sinful behaviors are not reachable—that they cannot change?

 

Do you know anyone in one of those categories?  Have you ever been one? That’s exactly why Jesus is called our brother.  We are in spiritual debt to Him. While some today focus on racial slavery, we must not forget that Satan claims us as his slaves and he works in many ways to keep us from the freedom that Jesus is offering. The pandemic has divided the world, and in some areas, it has divided churches and even families. It is as though we have taken our eyes from the One who promises life. Do we fear death so much that we forget the promise of life? What can we learn from leaders in the Bible who faced a crisis of literal slavery? What insights do they give regarding Jesus our Redeemer?

 

Self-Preservation at Any Cost?

 

Hebrews 11 is like a roll call of leaders that God has used in special circumstances. Moses is presented as a leader God chose to break the hold of slavery on His people.  We find this description of Moses in Hebrews 11:24,25 (NLT).

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.

What isn’t told in Hebrews are some of the lessons Moses learned along the way—lessons that made him a great leader. Whatever we make of Moses’ desire to assist his fellow Hebrews, his murder of the Egyptian was wrong. It destroyed his future and security and off to the wilderness he ran, not to develop his life but to simply save it. Moses was never going to lead in Egypt, but Egypt was not the only place God needed leaders. For Moses to lead God needed to refine the life of Moses.  It took 40 years before he was ready for the giant mission God had in mind for him. The reason it takes a long time to become a great leader is that it takes a long time for God to work His will in His people. I suspect that is why we haven’t experienced the Second Coming. God’s people, like their leaders, don’t get everything the first time around. God’s people do not grow up overnight.

 

A person’s age does not determine what God can do through him or her.  Age is not the determining factor.  Moses was eighty, Aaron his brother, was eighty-three, but David was only thirteen when God called them. We must be cautious when disparaging God’s leaders.  We may be criticizing a Moses or David with whom God is working to set one or a thousand free from the “slavery.” The process takes time. There are four points in the text we read in Hebrews 11:24,25 that not only reflect the attitude of Jesus but also those he is preparing today.

 

1.     Moses, even though he was the “son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” was willing to give up power and prestige in the most powerful nation at the time.

2.    Moses identified with the people of God yet made a stand for the right.

3.    Moses was willing to be disgraced for the sake of God’s mission.

4.    Moses kept his eyes on the reward ahead.

 

Mark Finley, in his book Unshakable Faith, wrote about the faith of the reformers. What he says applies not only to the biblical heroes of faith but is a challenge for us as well.

God is not impressed with wealth; He owns the world. He is not impressed with the power; He created the planets. He is not impressed with position; He rules the universe. And one day He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords. What God is impressed with is character. When an individual commits their life to Christ and, through His grace, determines to live a godly life, God notices. (p.46)

Self-preservation has been a hindrance to character development throughout the centuries. The call is clear for us today to be right with God and right with the calling He has given to us.

Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven. – Matthew 10:32,33, NLT

A dominant theme throughout this week can be summarized like this: “Jesus became like us so that we might become like Him.”

 

What Can We Learn from Jesus as He Faced Rebuke by the One’s He Came to Save?

 

Of course, we won’t be exhaustive here but three questions are often posed as problems but within them are some vital insights.

While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. --Hebrews 5:7, NLT

QUESTION: Was Jesus heard and saved from death?

 

Jesus did not pray for deliverance from death, but that God’s will might be done (Matt. 26:39). The Father did not deliver Jesus from crucifixion, but, through His resurrection, delivered Him from the power of death, inflicted by the crucifixion.

Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. –Hebrews 5:8, NLT

QUESTION: How did Jesus learn obedience?  Does this imply He might have been disobedient?

 

Hebrews 4:15 is clear when Jesus is described as the High Priest. 

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

There is a play on words in Greek between learning and suffering. Jesus learned by completely conforming to the will of God in Gethsemane. Jesus was fully divine and fully human. His human nature needed to learn obedience and submission.  Jesus had to overcome His most basic instinct of self-preservation!

 

QUESTION: Why does Hebrews 5:9 say that Christ was “made perfect?”

In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

The obedience Jesus learned through suffering and the trials of rejection resulted from the obedience He learned. He was equipped through such identification with our trials to be our heavenly High Priest.

 

The Need, the Confession, and the Release

 

There is a story about Frederick the Great, King of Prussia that I believe brings our study to an important closing appeal for each of us.

 

Fredrick was inspecting the Berlin prison. As he walked through the hordes of shackled men, they fell pleading at his feet, protesting their innocence. They claimed to be falsely accused, models of virtuous living, completely innocent of all crime.  Only one man didn’t do this. Frederick called to him, “Prisoner, why are you here?”

 

“I robbed a man, Your Majesty.”

“Are you guilty?”

“Yes, your Majesty.”

 

Frederick called the guard over. Pointing at the man who confessed, and said, “Release this man immediately. I will not have this scoundrel thief kept here where he might corrupt all these other fine, virtuous, and innocent men.”

 

That’s the irony of confession: The one who confesses gets out of prison and gets to go free. Our big Brother will set us free, but we must come as we are and allow Him to free us from the hold of slavery. (Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe, p. 174)