Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 10

• One of the oddest phrases in all of creation. “Salvation perfect through sufferings.” Two words I’m after, “perfect” and “salvation,” and two words…a phrase…, “through sufferings,” that is like raw carrots to me. Oh how I hate raw carrots! But man there is some depth of truth here. A spiritual certitude (certainty), a biblical necessity, a practical fact is that growth in the Lord, your understanding of Him, your grasp of reality and your freedom from the chains of the flesh…all of these things are not accomplished simply through reading and learning and consuming…but through the living and the walking out of what you’ve learned…which involves suffering!
• Why? Because naturally, (our nature), we are bent on self! The order of this world, in its fallen state is set up this way…consume, change the channel, eat this restaurant’s food and not another’s, buy our car and not theirs, declare a major, attend our school, apply for this job, wear this cologne and not theirs…you see it’s all about what? You! Do what you want, have what you like, go where you please…and each day, naturally, our decisions revolve around what’s best for who? Us! Wrong. What’s best for our fancy. What’s best for our…pleasure!
• What’s the problem with that? Well, our fancy, our desires, are typically self serving…fueled by emotions and self ambition and those things…man those are the things of the flesh! And so to worship God in spirit and in truth, to find God when you seek Him with all of your heart…gear up baby! Because you will suffer in the flesh!
• Remember when Paul got saved? Jesus sent Ananias to go touch him so that his sight would be restored. What was Jesus’ message through Ananias to Saul? “Go tell him that I will show him how many things he must SUFFER for My name’s sake!” You see we have eased into what I call Christian consumerism! Where following Jesus is a bolt-on to our lives and crosses are our jewelry and when discomfort or awkwardness or suffering even hints itself we see it as “outside of God’s will” and “oh let me course correct because there’s no way God wants me unhappy! The Bible says I’m more than a conqueror so this junk must not be for me!” That’s crazy! How can you be more than a conqueror when there’s no battle!?
• Helen Keller once said, “The world is FULL of suffering…and it’s also full of conquering!” I love that! And again, man suffering is the ticket. Why change, why grow, why cast your burdens upon Him when they’re not even heavy? See that? Hardships and challenges and man misery in the flesh drives you to confide and trust in God…
• “Salvation made perfect through suffering,” we just read…this word in the Greek for perfect means “to carry through and to be found complete!” And check this out. This is amazing! 33 times we see this word in scripture while many scholars agree that Jesus was how old when He faced the cross for the sins of the world? Yep! And its’ found those 33 times in 24 verses! And what is the number of the church in scripture? 24! 12 Tribes + 12 Apostles! The 24 crowned elders we see in Revelation Chapter 4!
• And so how is the church, you, me, Christians, how are we refined and strengthened and made complete to the point where we can carry through? Suffering, man! So don’t be so self-minded! Don’t be so worldly oriented! When suffering starts to churn within you…when you are offended or when you are inconvenienced or when you are asked to not choose but to default your choice to another…(that is called submission…), understand that God is working in your heart to perfect, complete, establish and empower your very salvation!
• Even in the most difficult times of life, God is not on break man…sometimes suffering is not so much in the flesh…but in the spirit…when you’ve lost someone. Maybe a child or a friend or a spouse…or the circumstance of life is just hard…man God is with you. He has not left you and He is for you. Even though it may not feel that way…He’s not approving of death, He’s suffering with you through it! Think about that…death is a dagger of the devil! Never a desire of the Father! He weeps with you…and He holds you in His arms…

• And it says here that it was “fitting” for Him…what’s that all about? Well think of it this way. If you are at war, how best to defeat your enemy? Permanently! Defeat them with fire power, they’ll just go invent bigger fire power! Defeat them with brute force and they will have sympathizers or defectors or sleepers and they’ll just rise again. Just squash them you might say…well cut off one head and two grow back in its place…

• You see Jesus could have done all of that…two reasons why He choose a more fitting route…One, He had to make right what man made wrong…and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins (Hebrews 9), and so He had to come and come as a man…He had to fulfill the law as a man…and He had to offer Himself up, all of His precious blood, as a sufficient sacrifice, paying the penalty for my sin…He had to…and two, He did something much more lasting, much more powerful and permanent than just nuking Satan…He stripped him of all of his power…forever…
• Colossians 2:15 says that Jesus disarmed him and put him to an open shame…how, what does that mean? Let me ask you. What is the power of the devil? It’s actually right here…let’s keep reading…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verses 11 – 14

• There it is! The power of the enemy is death. The weapon of the enemy was always and still is…sin. He introduced it, he proliferates/advances it today and by that introduction he has captured all of mankind…All of God’s creation because we have all sinned and the wages of sin, the payoff, is death…and so ultimately Satan’s power source is death! But what did Jesus do? The perfect man…fully man…just like you and me, to the point that He calls us brethren in verse 12 and says, “Here I am, with them, one of them,” there in verse 13…and so fully man, and yet fully God…He steps into time sinless, fulfills the law, suffers the rejection of man and of the Father at the cross, intense suffering…and then walks right out of the grave. He defeats death! He strips Lucifer of all power...and then check this out…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 15

• See that!! He releases us! 1 Corinthians 15:54 – 58…, “So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord!  

• The devil was defeated inside and out! Completely and permanently. Death disarmed and now life isn’t fearful and aimless but filled with spiritual aggression! Joy! Purpose! And liberty!!! Because He set right as a man, what was set wrong, by the first man…thus becoming the Captain of our salvation…our Savior…wonderful Counselor, Mighty Father, Prince of Peace…
• Best quote ever from a brother at UTurn. I forgot why I was here! The Lord has done such a work. Addiction brought me here, but it’s not why I’m here…the liberating power of GOD made so plain in that declaration!!

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verse 16

• Although this is true as it written in the English man this is almost an entirely different point in the Greek! This is a very unfortunate translation because literally in the Greek this reads, “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” So yes it could be translated as we see here in the English but in that case it seems to me a bit out of context…I think what the author is saying here supports his previous point…that God partook of flesh and blood, became a man…fully man, fully God…and that is huge because that means He did not take on the nature of angels…so no He is not the brother of Lucifer…He is not Michael the Archangel…check out verse 17…

Hebrews Chapter 2 Verses 17 – 18

• And so the author sets us up for his future presentation…as he speaks to the Hebrews…that Jesus is the ultimate high priest…faithful as a man and yet merciful as God…faithful and merciful…and He has made propitiation for the sins of the people…big word…think of it this way…He alone has made us pure, holy and acceptable…He alone has made us complete and completely well in the eyes of a holy and just Father…how?
• By suffering. By not just ramming His head against the enemy but by stripping the enemy of his power completely…and that is what suffering in our lives does as well…if you know Him…if not, suffering is the joke of the devil…he laughs as you lose at life…and lose to death…and your suffering is for nothing but his sick pleasure…but if you know the Lord…if He is your Captain…then He is your aid it says here…He is your very present help, in your time of need and that suffering, being tempted in the flesh and yet selecting the things of the spirit will serve you as it served Paul…the scales will fall from your eyes…and you will be made to see, more and more truth…and it is truth and truth alone that makes you free!