Hebrews: There Is Something About the Name Jesus

Former CoaH pastor and Anglican priest Claude Atcho preaches from Hebrews 2:5-18. Discussion points: Jesus is the pioneer or founder of our salvation, Jesus joyfully and proudly accepts us as siblings, we have victory through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

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  Scripture reader: [Hebrews 2:5-18] For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man, that you care for him. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You've crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside of his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the 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.

  For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." And again, "I will be, I, I will put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children of children God has given me." 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 to lifelong slavery.

  For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of 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.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: Wow, it is wonderful to be here. It, it is remarkable, an outsider's perspective to come back into this building and to see God's faithfulness, to, to you, to this congregation, it is, it's really, it's really moving, it's really tremendous. God, God really is faithful, so I'm, I'm so thankful to get to spend this time, worshiping with all of you.

  I also wanna, give thanks to Pastor Fletcher, and to elders and team, at City on a Hill, for, letting me come back, and letting me come back and preach, and, but I also, it, I was reflecting on this, as I got here this morning. I had the Uber driver, drop me off, over on Heath Street because that's where my family lived just a couple blocks away, and I was like, let me take my old walk to church that I used to take, and just walking down the street and coming here. And just kind of remembering this place and, remembering what it was like to be here and what it was like seven years ago, thinking about, how much, God had done, how much I could see God about to do, how much I liked Fletcher and like wanted to work with him and stay, and how I also felt called, to go, and so it was really interesting to be in that space this morning and to be here today.

  And I was reminded that that was seven years ago, that was 20, 2018, are my numbers correct? Seven years from seven years ago, 2018, which means, that Fletcher, and Megan and their precious family have been serving and leading here for seven years, and so I just wanna take a moment to honor them, for their service and their sacrifice, to all of you. So can we give them a hand, for their service and faithfulness. That was not a requirement of my preaching here, but as from a pastor's heart, we, pastors love each other because they know the ins and outs, and we, we, yeah, I wanna honor them.

  Let me pray, for us, briefly, and then we're gonna turn to Hebrews 2. I also wanna thank Pastor Fletcher for not giving me something from Hebrews 6, but allowing me to be in the easier domain and territory of this wonderful, letter slash sermon. Let's pray together. Lord, would the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable and pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, our rock and our redeemer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

  If you were to sum up the letter of Hebrews in one word, that one word would be. Jesus. That one word would be a name, and it would be the name that is above all names. The thing is though, at a theological level, that one word, that one name, could rightly be the summary of every single book of the Bible. I saw a writing prompt, recently that said to tell a sad story, try to tell a sad story in 3 words. Some of the examples were, she loves another. I thought that that is indeed sad. Out of coffee That's sad, scuffed my sneakers, also, also very sad. To the singular word, the singular name Jesus, Hebrews adds two other words, if you wanted to distill its message. The singular word of scripture, the singular name is Jesus.

  Hebrews adds the texture, Jesus is better. Jesus is better than angels, Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is better than the old covenant. Jesus is better than the old sacrificial system. Jesus is better than the best pleasures of this life. Distilled into three words, Hebrews tells the joyful story of the world. The gift offered, Jesus is better. Jesus is better because as we hear in Hebrews one long ago in many times, in many ways God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. But in these later days, God has spoken to us by his son. Whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he created all things.

  And it's this Jesus, who is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, who upholds the universe by the word of his power. Hebrews is all about Jesus. It's all about how Jesus is better, even better than you think, even better than you hope. This is great news offered to all people. But it's especially great news. It's especially good news for weary people. The audience of Hebrews, the first century audience, they were facing persecution, they were facing the threat of death, they were living under the specter of fear and exhaustion and extinction by violence. And so, the author of Hebrews wrote for them what in effect is a very long sermon. To show them that Jesus is better. How in that one word, that one name Jesus, they could look to the author of their faith, who endured for them. That they might endure through him.

  How does this intersect with us? Well, the news flash is that none of us are under that type of first century persecution. Were we to plot this text say in Nigeria this morning, then the story would be very different, but in our context we've been blessed, we've been privileged to not deal with the threat. Of physical violence and death for our worship to Christ. So we're not under that threat of persecution, but most of you are probably exhausted. Tired, weary, perhaps discouraged, afraid. In other words, most of us are human, beautiful and broken, made in God's image, marred by sin, and we're doing the best we can with what we have, which means we're not enough. Therefore, we need desperately and deeply, to encounter today, the singular word, the singular name that gives life. We need to encounter him.

  So what I want us to do for our moments together this morning is to attend to that singular word, to attend to that singular name together. We're doing so from Hebrews 2 as we just heard read from that itty bitty Bible. Pastor Fletcher, we can get you, our church, our church can support you, if you would like. We can get you one of them big old things. We heard it from the tiny Bible, but it's a big truth, and now we're, turning to, Hebrews chapter two. All throughout chapter one, the author has spoken of the Son of God, the radiance of the image of God, greater than angels, the sacrifice of sin, that the son was made lower than angels. This sounds strange. Well, this means the eternal Son became human. That's what it means, that he was made lower than angels. He became a human being, and we find out now in chapter two his name.

  The son has a name. Verse 9, his name is Jesus. This is the first appearing of the name of Jesus in the letter slash sermon that is Hebrews. And once Jesus' name appears here in chapter 2, verse 9, the sermon is off to the races. Hebrews shifts into a higher gear, and I want us to notice all that's attributed, not all, but some of the beauty that's attributed to the singular name of Jesus. That here in Hebrews 2, the name of the son is revealed through his mighty acts. But then even the things he speaks about you and about me. First we find in verse 9 the name of Jesus is qualified by this clause crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

  This intro leads us to the title given to Jesus in verse 10. Jesus, founder of our salvation. This is the first thing we learn about the singular name. He is the founder of our salvation. This could be translated author of salvation, captain of salvation, pioneer of salvation, trailblazer of salvation, the one who blazed open the singular path to lead humanity into the realm and gift of salvation, reunion with God. This is who Jesus is, this is what Jesus has done. Up to this point in Hebrews, salvation has been defined as purification and forgiveness of sins so that we can come with confidence into the presence and full enjoyment of the presence of God in worship, but in every part of our lives. No more fear. No longer a slave to sin, a child of God. Jesus blazes the path for that to be true for us.

  How does he blaze this path? Verse 9 explains it, which we can distill into three movements of the gospel story, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. This is what the founder of salvation does for us. Now there is such a thing, if you're in nonprofit environments or leadership environments there is such a thing as founders myth. I don't know if anyone's ever heard of this, this sort of reality that when new things start or when businesses do well or nonprofits start over time the story of how they were founded gets exaggerated so that the person who founded it becomes this sort of a larger than life heroic mythic figure. Details get changed, and the way that it was founded is sort of like, wow, it's all because of Jimmy. None of us would be here without him.

  This means a lot to me as somebody who could be put at the center of the founding of what exists here. Walking this morning, up to the building, I remember the day in early 2014 parking here on Central Street right there, in my, Toyota Camry which you knew it was mine through the city because I only had one hubcap. The other three had fallen off. I was riding dirty in the words of Chamillionaire. I remember parking there early 2014 and getting ready to come into this building for the first meeting with Pastor Luis to ask, could we, to translation to beg, to beg without begging like an R&B singer, can we please rent this space? We would love to move out of our house and have church in a building. I can remember this.

  So there's a way that you could build a founder's myth around me. But the truth of the founders founding reality of this congregation is not just my story, it's not just the story of the Langs. If you actually really tell the story, there are so many people, so many names, so many contributions that you need a whole evening to share how things really got started. It's the work of God's people. Not just the work of one founder. But when it comes to Jesus, and when it comes to salvation, it really is one person. It really is built on him. There's no myth, there's no exaggeration, in fact, we can't praise him enough for doing it all for our sake. He truly is the founder of your salvation. Which means you can exhale. You can relax, you can let your hair down, and you can receive all that he has done, is doing and will do to sustain you. He really is the founder of our salvation.

  And look at how he does this. He does this by taking upon himself human flesh. He became lower than angels. The eternal Son of God became a true and living human being. This is the humility and the mystery of the incarnation, which we'll reflect on as we move toward Christmas. He goes from glory in heaven to grime under his fingernails. He comes down literally and figuratively, to blaze the trail and to lead many sons to glory. And he does this by moving from incarnation to crucifixion. He founded and blazed the path to salvation with God, not through giving a theory or a philosophy or an idea, but by living a real life. Full of suffering and hardship, being a man of sorrows, he inhabited the fullness of the human experience. He had friends abandon him, friends betray him, people disappoint him. He lived all of that. And he didn't receive a king's welcome. But he took for his throne, a Roman cross. To die for our sins, tasting death for our sake.

  Incarnation, crucifixion, and of course, resurrection. He blazed the trail. He put a hole through the heart of death, knocked it out, and opened the path that death would lead his people into eternal life, the presence of God. This is the work of the founder. In partnership with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All of this, friends, is grace, a gift given, lavished upon the world, unearned. A gift given by God to us to set us free. Who else can free you from the weight of death? In the dead of sin. You know, our announcements were very theological. Dogs, dogs cannot save you. But I love that you all say every week, religion cannot save you either. In the sense of good devotion and activity. This can't save you. Neither can irreligion, trying to be creative, blaze your own path. The singular name, the singular one, Jesus, founder of our salvation. He doesn't lead, lead us into salvation reluctantly. He does this joyfully.

  And we see this, in the next movement of the passage. Jesus, founder of salvation. But then in verse 11, Jesus, proud to call us brothers and sisters. Look at verse 11. He is proud to do this. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. It's God. This is why he, Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers, siblings, family, brothers and sisters, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise. OK, what's happening here? Well, this is the beauty of the singular name. Jesus is better. Jesus is the founder of salvation Jesus is proud to call us brothers and sisters what's happening here? Well, we're all of one source one origin, one family if you will what we are by grace children of God, Jesus is by nature the eternal son of God in that sense we all have one source because we all belong to God.

  And Jesus feels no shame in calling you not just a child of God, detached sibling, locked in the basement. But his own dear brother or sister. I find sibling relations to be really fascinating as an only child. most of my best friends growing up were brother pairs, and, you know, they would, they would fight each other in ways that I thought one of them will die. But all of my sibling pair of friends would do this, so I'm thinking, is this, is this a normal, what is this? Is this fratricide? This is the killing of a brother. Like I was like, is this the Cain and Abel? Like what is, why, why do they fight this way?

  One pair in particular, Josh and Nate, they lived down in the apartments down the street from me, and, they were so large and so they would fight and it would shake the whole apartment. And then it's like, is this, is this normal? Is this what brothers do? But they had another element that Nate, the younger brother, he was better athletically than Josh, the older brother, which would make Josh resentful. He would become resentful, he'd become very bitter. And then to get back at his younger brother, he would begin to sort of spill all, Nate's embarrassing secrets when we go to the park, when we were on the playground, he would, he would just sort of gossip and he would try to find a way to get back at his brother. This was sort of their dynamic, half the time, half the time happy, half the time all of this sort of maliciousness.

  You, you hardly need me, need me to explain this, but Jesus is not that type of brother. He is not that type of sibling to the people of God. He's not that type of brother to you and to me. Jesus is as far from that as east is from west. Jesus could in a real sense resent you. He could resent us. We stumble and bumble along the way. We seem to be the type of children in the family of God who have to learn the same lesson over and over again. You could see in a sense Jesus being like, when will my people get it? But this is actually not the way that he operates. He doesn't look down on you thinking, get it together already. He also doesn't just sort of tolerate you out of politeness, thinking you're annoying, but you know what? I redeemed you, so you know, tag along.

  He's happy to be near us. He's happy to rescue us. This is Hebrews 12. He's happy to serve us. He's happy to help us out of the mess of our own making. He is pleased to do this. He's not like the older brother from the parable in Luke 15, who resents the younger brother for all of his sin and folly. He's the brother who's like the father from that parable, arms and heart wide open. Always saying, come home. Let me prepare a feast for you. This is true for you right now, through him. And if you know this, this is sort of like Teflon for the heart. To know not only are you a child of God. But that Jesus is pleased and proud to call you his own. And that anything that comes your way in the playground of life, the battleground of life. The founder of salvation, who's your Lord, savior and brother, is in it with you. Jesus is the founder of salvation. He is our brother in this sense.

  He not only acts for us in these ways, but if we look at the passage from Hebrews 2, he also speaks about us and to us. These are the words of Jesus that are eternal in the sense that they are these post-resurrection words of Jesus. The author of Hebrews is led by the spirit of God to reread certain verses from the Old Testament in light of Jesus' resurrection and now to attribute these verses in their deepest meaning. To being words that are truest on Jesus's lips. Not just as prophecy fulfilled. But as words that flow from his heart to us even now. Does that make sense? Some of you are like, it doesn't make any sense, but one of you nodded, so that's enough for me.

  These words that Jesus speaks that the author of Hebrews says these are truest on the mouth of the resurrected Jesus, they reveal more titles to us about the singular name. Jesus is the founder of salvation. He is our brother, but he's also the pioneer of praise. Did you hear that in verse 12? The words of Psalm 22 attributed to Jesus, I will tell of your name to my siblings. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise.

  Now if you've spent any time around a church on Good Friday, you know that the words of Psalm 22 come from Jesus's lips at another point in his life. The words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? These are words from Psalm 22. Psalm 22 flowed from Jesus' lips as he hung upon the cross, enacting his saving work as the founder of our salvation. But now here in verse 12 speaking about Jesus as the founder of salvation, incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection, now the author is saying, hey, there's another word from Psalm 22 that Jesus speaks, not just my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But he leads a word, a song of victory and praise. I will tell of your name to my siblings in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise.

  Interestingly enough, this is the conclusion of Psalm 22. So Jesus has moved from God, why have you forsaken me to now, Holy Father, I will praise you along with the people that I have redeemed. He's moved from crucifixion to resurrection. Victory and praise. These words reveal Jesus as the pioneer of victory and praise unto God. He speaks a word that I think is sort of a meta word. I will tell of your name, God, to my siblings. I will sing your praise. What does this mean? It means a whole lot. It means the risen Jesus is present right here helping make known to you who God is. There's no way to know God truly if you don't know Jesus. Jesus is the one who makes the Father known. John one, the prologue, right? This is, this is good classic Christian theology. So he's the one who shows us who God is and he's the one who leads us in worship to God. We end our prayers saying in Jesus' name, he's the mediator who brings us to the Father. This is who he is. It means Jesus is the one who you look to to know the character, the nature, the goodness and the presence of God. Jesus is the mouthpiece of his church. He is the one message the church is to preach he is its happy teacher he's the one who reveals to us the Father by the spirit.

  This means that when you gather to worship, Jesus is here. He is savior and worship leader. When you come to church, it is a family reunion with Jesus at the head of the table, the spirit at work in this presence, us praising God to the glory of the Father, here and now.

  Verse 13, not only is he the one who pioneers praise and victory, he is the one who is faithful for us. Verse 13, this comes from Isaiah 8, a bleak time in the history of the people of God. At this time Isaiah is realizing that the people of God won't lead, won't listen rather to his teaching, so in those dark times he says, I will trust in you, God. And so this is quoted here in Hebrews 2:13, but now it's quoted in regards to Jesus, that Jesus speaks this word, I will trust in him.

  This is speaking of Jesus' humanity, that in his humanity, he went to the cross, trusting in the plan of the Father, Son and Spirit, to suffer and then to be raised. He trusted for us, even in his darkest hour. Here's what this means for you and for me. You might be staring at a situation in your life in which you find it unbearable to trust God in his word. You might be in a place where there is too much bad happening for you to trust that God is good. You might think God is like that for other people. But for me, I feel forgotten. I feel forsaken.

  This verse from Hebrews teaches us that those trust issues can only be solved by looking to our founder. And to our brother. That the father wants you to lean on him. To know that Jesus trusted in the darkest times, and through him, he will enable you to endure with God. To keep going. He is the faithful one. We rest on him.

  Then we get the latter half of verse 13, the last title attributed to Jesus from this passage, at least from my reading. This is a fun one. Jesus, our future confidence. Look at the word Jesus speaks here again, the author of Hebrews attributing this to Jesus, another portion of scripture. Behold, I and the children God has given me. This too comes from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 18, Isaiah 8:18, referring back to Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 8 for the Bible nerds here among us. Isaiah interestingly enough, was instructed by God to give his children names that would teach a spiritual lesson to the people.

  Quite, quite interesting, this brings me back to another Boston memory. I'll tell it to just keep you awake with me for the last 5 minutes. you know, one of my favorite memories, in Boston was, at a park we're at a friend's, area in a friend's home in JP. And you know at a park, if you're a caretaker, auntie, or mama or, or, or dad, you know, you got at the end you gotta yell for your kids to come to, to leave. They never wanna leave the park. It's a very happy place. But you, so you gotta yell, you gotta yell loudly. So this woman was yelling for her kids, but she was yelling, King David, King David, it's time to go. And I just thought, well, my wife, there's a child in Massachusetts who was named King David. This is incredible. This is unbelievable.

  You know, names are important, and we, we often will give names to, to, to symbolize a lesson. my middle son, Adrian, who, who was born, who was born here, some of you have met and, and know, who he's now 11, very large, we get, we got him a bearded lizard for last Christmas, and so the discussion was what are you gonna name him. And he said, you know, I'm gonna name him Kevin. It's like, it's like, can, you gotta say more, dude, that's just, no offense to any Kevins among us, it's like, you gotta, what's the rationale here? And you know, his thought was, you know, if I ever lose him, I can slap my hands on my face and just like in Home Alone yell, Kevin. And I thought great work, son. Great, great. Our, our, our work with you is finished, like you're, you're, you've done well.

  So we, we know, we know how names are important, right? We're talking about Hebrews, the singular name of Jesus, the Lord saves, that's what Jesus's name means, but Isaiah, right, in reference to this verse, that Hebrews is quoting from Isaiah, God instructed Isaiah to name his, his, to name two of his children with a name that would give a lesson to the people of God. So he, he's instructed to name one of his children Shear-jashub, which means a remnant shall return. Basically, God hadn't abandoned his people. One of the other children, Isaiah, was instructed to name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. OK, good. Write that down if you need a name. This means the prey hastes. Basically, your enemies will flee. And so as God's people are in a time of captivity and suffering and exile, God says to Isaiah, name your sons these two things, a remnant will return, and your enemies will run from you.

  This was not present reality. So God says, give them these names so that they can learn this promise is coming for them. Not right now, but at a day that I appoint. And Isaiah could then point to these sons as living lessons and parables. He could yell out at the park, Shear-jashub, and people would know, Oh yeah, a remnant's gonna return. I hope that will happen next week. We, we need help. There would be lessons.

  And the author of Hebrews tells us that, yeah, that was true of Isaiah, but you know that's actually most true about Jesus. That Jesus is the fulfillment of the names that Isaiah gave to his children. That a remnant would return. God wouldn't abandon his people, that from the land of sin and death we would return to relationship and presence with God, and that your enemies would flee from you. But what did Hebrews just tell us? Jesus tasted death so that by going into death for our sins, he would destroy the power of death and the one who holds the power of death, the devil. That means the cross and the resurrection is an enemy being put to flight. So you can see how these two realities, these two names, they become real through Jesus. This means victory is ours through him. That these words that Isaiah spoke are really fulfilled in Jesus' life. And Jesus speaks them to us, that we might have confidence in him.

  So all of this stuff from Hebrews, Jesus as founder, Jesus as our brother, Jesus as the pioneer of praise and victory, Jesus as the faithful man, Jesus as our future confidence that death will not hold us. All of this means for you one question. Will you receive Jesus' acts and words to you? And will you let them define you? This is the gift of grace he extends. There's only one name under heaven given by which we can find comfort, hope, and salvation. That name is, as the old gospel classic says, the sweetest name one can know. It's the name of the founder, it's the name of the death defeater, it's the name of the faithful human, it's the name of our joyful brother, it's the name of the savior of the world. That's who he is for you. Trust in his actions, be strengthened by his speech. And most of all, rejoice in his name. Let's pray.

  Lord Jesus, you are good, you are for us. You are with us. Lord, with the words that we have reflected on and that I've spoken, Lord, would they only be used to that end. For your glory. And for our good and for our formation. Lord Jesus, we ask that you would comfort and encourage us with the truth of who you are for us. Lord, as we come to your table, would you shape us by your presence, by your gospel? And by who you are. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

  Each week we participate in a sacred meal, remembering what Christ has done for us. It's a physical way to remember that spiritual sacrifice that he made. On the night that he was betrayed. He took a loaf of bread and he tore it. He said, This is my body broken for you. He took a cup. And he said, this is my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so each week when we take the bread and the cup, we're being reminded that Christ's body was broken for us and his blood was shed for us. And we're proclaiming that he will return and that one day we will get to dine with Him in the kingdom to come. And so, if you are a believer here this morning, we invite you to come participate in this meal over this next song. So if you would stand with me as we prepare our hearts to come to the table.

  Father, we pray that as we come to this table. That the gospel would sink in deep home, that we would experience that good news of the gospel. That it would not be this theoretical good news, but it would be good news to our souls this morning. God, we need the good news, and the good news is that you are enough, that you are better. And Jesus, we come to this table pronouncing that as we receive this bread and this, this, this wine or this juice, that you are better than everything else that we have received this week, that this is a gift from you. And God, we pray that you would encourage us during this time. Remind us of the the the way that we've been called into your kingdom. And we're called to follow after you. We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.