Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith. In the Bible, the angel of the Lord is a mysterious divine figure. Unlike other angels, this one speaks with God's voice and accepts worship. Many scholars identify this figure as the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, the Son of God, appearing in human form before His birth. Stay with us from the Moody Church in Chicago.
This is Running to Win with Dr. Irwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, how do we know for sure that this angel is Jesus?
Well, Dave, it's because as you study the Old Testament, you discover that the Angel of the Lord turns out to be the Lord, and that's why scholars believe that the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is indeed a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. Even as we anticipate the coming of Christmas, we're reminded of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I want everyone to listen carefully. It's because of people just like you that this ministry of running to win can go around the world. You've heard me say this before, but.
We are in fifty different countries in seven different languages, and we continue to expand. Not only that, because of people just like you, I can hold in my hands a letter, actually two letters, of people who came to saving faith in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, I'm going to tell you the story of one of them immediately after this message. And for a little while, we are lower than the angels, and so was Jesus in Bethlehem. It's not going to always be that way, either for him or for us.
We will be above them, but for now, we are all a little lower than the angels. But why was Jesus made lower than the angels? You'll notice it says, verse nine. But we see him who, for a little while, was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor, because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. All right, it's time to pause.
If Jesus had remained simply as the angel of the Lord, he would not have been able to redeem us. Because you see, God says, "The soul that sins will die." We all sin; therefore, death, both physical and eternal, is our lot. The only way that we can be exempt from this judgment is if somebody dies for us and gives a sacrifice that God the Father will accept. I can't die for you; you can't die for me because we're all sinners. We can't even die for our own sin, much less the sin of somebody else.
But if a perfect sacrifice comes, if a perfect man comes, if a man comes who has the kind of righteousness that God is willing to accept, and if he dies on the cross as one who is in experience innocent, but if he dies in our place, there is hope of redemption. Or to put it more clearly. You cannot take a spirit and nail the spirit to a cross, and then expect that blood is going to flow. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.
So God says, "If I am going to redeem humanity, I am going to have to do it because there is nobody out there who's qualified, because they're all sinners.
So I am going to have to do it myself." I am going to let the angel of the Lord Jesus become a man as the second member of the Trinity. He will die in the stead of others, and he will taste death for anyone who is willing to believe on him. Amen. That would not have been possible. If Jesus had simply remained as the angel of the Lord, so the first purpose is that we might have a substitute who is one like us, who can redeem us.
That's number one. Let's go on now. It even gets better. Verse ten. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist—that is, God—in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation, that's Jesus, perfect through suffering.
I have to stop here again for just a moment. You say, "Well, did Jesus have to be perfected?" In his person, he was absolutely sinless, so he didn't need to be perfected in his person. But in his work, absolutely, he needed to be perfected. I mean, if he had quitted Gethsemane and said, "As far as I'm concerned, from what I've seen of humanity, it isn't worth it," if he had gone directly to heaven. His work would not have been perfected because he came to die.
So that's the idea that's here. His work had to be finished, and it happened through suffering. And then it says, "For he who sanctifies—that's Jesus—and those who are sanctified—that's us. We all have one origin. That means we all share the same life." That is why he is not ashamed to call us brothers.
Are you serious, Jesus? You're not ashamed to call us brothers. I tell you, if he had remained as the angel of the Lord, we wouldn't be brothers. I mean, you know, we might have some kind of relationship with him, but it wouldn't have been brothers. You know, angels.
If you're talking about the general. Run of angels, they they don't have brothers and sisters and cousins. They don't have grandchildren when they have Thanksgiving Day, etc., etc. Because they were created individually, and if somebody is going to be our brother, he has to be a member of the human race.
So now God wants to. God had one son, and God says, "I want to bring many sons into glory." And in order for him to bring many sons into glory, he needed to have one who would be sacrificed, and that's Jesus, as we mentioned a moment ago. And then that one who is the captain of our salvation becomes our brother.
Now, why is that important? Why is it important for you to be a brother? To Jesus or a sister to Jesus? Why is that critical? Oh, my friend, it all has to do with our inheritance.
Because you see, when God got into this business of salvation, He says, "I'm just going to lavish blessings upon these people that they can't even imagine." And one of them is to be heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
So, when the title deed of the universe is read and all of the glory that is attributable to Jesus finally is revealed, we're a part of it. Jesus said in John 17, "The glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be with us where we are." So Jesus becomes our brother, and then the shock is He's not ashamed of it. He's not ashamed to call them brothers.
Now you know in every family tree.
Sometimes it's said that every family tree has a little sap. There are many of you, family trees, and you're not very proud of your brother. And when your brother is mentioned, you wish that you had a different last name. Jesus looks at us. Silliness, foolishness, hardness of hearts—often very self-focused—and he says, "I'm not ashamed to call you my brother." Now, here's the thing that just really stings us: there are Christians who are ashamed of Jesus.
Some of you are ashamed. You don't tell the person in the cubicle next to you where you work that you are a believer. You don't want to get into it. And you don't know how they'll be able to handle it, so you've thought of no creative way to give them a book to read. Tell them read this book, and then let's talk about it.
There's a hundred different ways to witness, but you don't do that because you don't want to be identified with Jesus. And here, the text is telling us that he's not ashamed to be identified with us. And so, the second reason. That Jesus couldn't stay as the Angel of the Lord, but had to become a man, was so that he would share a common humanity with us, so that he could say, you know, you're my brother, as he said to Mary. Remember, at the time at the tomb, he says, "I ascend to my Father and to your Father, and to my God and your God, Mary.
We're brother and sister here because we share the same Father." So the second reason is because Jesus wanted to be her brother, and he's not ashamed of it. There's a third reason, and that has to do with death. Verse fourteen. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject lifelong to slavery. For it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
And if he's going to help the offspring of Abraham in his victory over death. He has to be able to die, and angels of the Lord do not die. Grandchildren, they ask you the most puzzling questions, and then they think that their grandfather should know the answer. Another one over Thanksgiving, from another grandchild, Anna. Dashes into my room and says, "Papa, can God get sick?
Did Jesus ever get sick? I don't know how.
Somehow, I missed that one in seminary. You know, does Jesus ever get sick? I'm thinking, well, sickness is the result of sin. I really don't think so. But on the other hand, he did die." And you see, in order for him to show victory over death, he had to die, and he had to become a man in order to die.
And what he did is, he took Satan, who holds people in bondage because of death. Fear of death makes people make oftentimes awful decisions. Fear of death. Makes us not being willing to risk sometimes great things for God because we think that there could be some danger involved. Fear of death prevents some people from going to mission fields where the gospel is not received and where Christians are known to die.
Fear of death. We we love our lives, and fear of death often plagues people. Jesus came to deliver us from fear of death. Because what he said in his death was, "I died, I was raised. You believe on me.
You died, you will be raised. You will be with me forever. You will see me as I am." And therefore, look upon death as a great entrance into my presence, and look at it differently. And we should look at it differently. I know I referred to this last week, and I won't continue to refer to my mother.
But yesterday was her one hundred and second birthday, so they had a little party for up there in Canada, which we couldn't attend. And so I talked to my sister as to how it went, and so forth. And before. The day before, my sister said to my mother, "Maybe you will go home tomorrow because that's what mother wants. She's weary of life." And my mother said, "Oh, that would be first class." I'll tell you, she has no fear of death.
It's the thing that she longs for, very, very much. But you don't have to be a hundred and two. You can accept. Death, because Jesus, he didn't destroy the devil in the sense of annihilate him, but he, but he weakened the devil. He disarmed him.
That's a good word. He disarmed the devil's power over us because we need no longer fear death. Jesus had to be a man to prove all that. There's another reason, and that is that, so that he could be a high priest. You'll notice it says, verse seventeen, he had to be made like unto his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
So you see, Jesus here to be our high priest.
Now this is remarkable. In the Old Testament, you know how the priests offered sacrifices; they offered lambs and they offered pigeons and all these sacrifices. Jesus comes along as a high priest, and he ends up offering himself.
So he becomes both the high priest and the offering at the same time. And he does that for us, so that he could be our high priest, making an offering to the Father, which the Father accepts finally. Whereas the blood of bulls and of goats was never finally accepted; they were symbolic. And and Jesus makes this offering, and then Jesus says, "I am your high priest. I intercede on your behalf." And when you and I sin, this high priest turns out to be our advocate, standing in for us.
And reminding the father, though he needs not be reminded, standing there as a representative of a redemption that was fully accomplished, and saying, "Even though that person sinned, he is my child, and I therefore side with him in the great battle that is taking place in his heart, and I become his advocate." You couldn't have that. It says he had to be made like unto his brethren to be that kind of a high priest, to be able to both give the offering and then to intercede as an advocate. He had to become one of us, and that's why Christmas is such a great celebration service. The angel of the Lord becomes a redeemer. Becomes a savior and takes upon himself humanity, so that he could redeem us.
It's a great and wonderful story, and it's a story that will have no ending because someday we will be with him, and when we are with him, as his brothers and sisters and reign with him forever and ever, will finally understand what redemption was really. All about it is a very complete work.
Now, what about you? I've been talking to you as if you are old believers. I assume that most of you are, but some of you came here today with your minds made up. You felt very self-satisfied without a savior because you said to yourself, "I'm doing quite well. Thank you very much." And God has not yet revealed to you your desperate need for a Savior.
I know it was years ago, but I was on a plane with a woman who was very self-assured. She needed Jesus. She thought as a great teacher and as a great model, but not as a Savior.
So I looked at her and smiled. You know that you always smiled. I said, "Do you consider yourself ungodly?" No, she was offended, as I knew she would be. Oh no, I'm not ungodly. I said, "Well, that's too bad." Then Jesus didn't die for you because the Bible says He died for the ungodly.
So if you're not ungodly, there's not much hope for you. Actually, Jesus died for the ungodly, but those of you who are ungodly and know it, would you respond to Jesus today and say, "I receive Him"? Kind of love that story that comes to us from the days of the Tsar Nicholas in Russia. Nicholas II, at least, was the last, I believe, of the Russian czars. World War I, not World War II.
There is a story that he was very close to a friend, and the friend had a son who was responsible for the distribution of the money to the soldiers. In those days, you didn't get it mailed into your account, and you didn't get a check. You actually got money. That'd be an interesting thing to happen in America today, wouldn't it? Imagine actually seeing money.
But this young man had a gambling habit, so he gambled a lot of the money away. He didn't have money to pay the soldiers, and it was New Year's Eve, as the story goes. And he drank some vodka, thought he'd sleep it off, and then blow his brains out. But he did leave on the table. The various amounts that the soldiers were due, and wrote across it, nothing to pay.
Well, the story is that Nicholas himself came there that night, inspecting the soldiers, seeing what was happening. And saw the dilemma and understood the dilemma. And Nicholas wrote across it in his own handwriting. Consider it paid. He didn't believe the kid didn't believe when he woke up that actually was Nicholas, but they had his signature on file.
And sure enough, a day or two later, money came from the Czar to pay off the soldiers. Nothing but undeserved grace. And you and I have a debt before God that we can't pay, and the Angel of the Lord couldn't pay it for us. As the Angel of the Lord, the Angel of the Lord had to become one of us to die in our place, to redeem us, to forgive us, so that God would accept us. And that's the reason that we celebrate Christmas has to do with God's inbreaking into history.
To redeem us, as the angel said, to save His people from their sins. That is Christmas. Let's pray together. And as I pray, you pray. Even those whose hearts may be only partially open, you've not talked to God in a long time.
You talk to Him now, Father. We thank you today for Jesus. Thank you for the gift of the incarnation. Thank you that we can celebrate it with deep thanksgiving and gratitude. And therefore, we do give you thanks in all things, especially.
For your son, for those who've never believed on Him, cause them to believe, help them to see the light of the gospel. May they see themselves as ungodly, that they may be saved.
Now I'm speaking to people, all who are listening. You talk to God. Hear our prayer, the Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen, Amen. This is Pastor Luther.
I want to share some joy with you. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm sure that you rejoice every time you hear that someone has come to faith in Christ.
Well, here is an Arabic-speaking listener. That writes to us and says, "When I first discovered running to win, I was angry, frustrated toward God. Through your ministry and your team, I discovered God's love and redemption. Over time, I became more open spiritually and eventually prayed to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. My hope is renewed because God is our support, a helper in the time of trouble." That, my friend, is not only a testimony of our ministry; it's a testimony of your ministry.
Would you consider helping us consistently, so that we can continue to get the gospel of Jesus Christ to even more people? I hope that you have a pen or pencil so that you can write this down. You can go to RTW offer. Of course, RTW offers all one word. rtwoffer.com.
Then click on the Endurance Partner button. We can't run this race unless there are those who run with us with endurance. Once again, go to rtwoffer.com. Click on the Endurance Partner button, or you can call us at one eight eight eight two one eight. Ninety-three thirty-seven.
Because of people just like you, running to win, is in fifty different countries in seven different languages. I mention that repeatedly as a note of thanks to God for His mercies toward us, and also because of you, who are a part of this ministry. Thanks for joining hands with us. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life.
The Book of Hebrews is full of amazing teaching, yet we don't know who wrote this book. We refer to the writer of Hebrews when we quote from it.
Next time we begin a series we're calling Highlights from Hebrews, and we'll begin by learning about someone better than angels. Plan to join us. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Irwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
