The Author Of Their Salvation Through Sufferings (Good Friday)

So I want to start by asking you about a funeral because that's what this service often feels like is a funeral service. And funerals are an interesting thing because you have a range of emotions. And when you go to a funeral, what's the one thing that you want to know? As a Christian, what do you want to know about the deceased? Were they a Christian? That's what you want to know, right? Because if they were a Christian, then you have comfort that though they've died, they're now at rest. And if they're not a Christian, then you have a warning. And you often have grief because not everyone goes and enters their rest after their days here are done. Some enter their torment. However difficult their life in this world may have been, their life in the world to come is far worse or will be far worse. And so this evening, we've come together to talk about and to consider our Lord's suffering and his death on our behalf.

And the question that is in front of us is, do we love him? That's really the question. Do we love him? Every time we come to Good Friday, I suspect only a handful of you guys actually remember Jim Striedelmeyer. He was a pastor on the Near East Side and a dear friend and a huge encouragement to me. He's gone to be with the Lord now two years ago. He came to faith in a Good Friday service and was the most joyful man I'd ever met. And he wasn't joyful because he didn't know his sins. He was joyful because he knew his Savior. And so what I want to set before you is what your Savior had to go through to give you the joy that our brothers now entered into without sin and death and pain anymore. Death is an enemy. And Jesus faced down death on our behalf.

We don't think about it as much as we should. We don't carry it around in us. The scriptures at one point tell us that we ought to carry around the dying of Jesus in our bodies. We don't carry it around the way we should. Now that might sound miserable or difficult or bad news. I hope by the end of it, that sense of that burden and that weight is also mixed with joy. That's what I hope for our time this evening. And so this evening's text is going to be Hebrews chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. It focuses on Jesus dying in our place and through his death, his securing of our salvation. And so my hope is that God will use our time together this evening to make us grateful, grateful and unashamed of Jesus Christ because of all that he's done for us. Would you stand now as we read the word of the Lord from Hebrews chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. This is the word of the Lord and it is eternally true.

But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation, This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated now. So Jesus had one purpose in coming to earth. It wasn't primarily to teach. It wasn't primarily to heal. It wasn't primarily to reform. He did all of these things.

Jesus' primary purpose in coming to earth was to taste death for everyone. That's what our passage says, that he came to taste death for everyone. In theological terms, this is called substitutionary atonement. And what that word means or that phrase means is that one person fully pays the debt of another person. There's atonement to be off made, which is payment for a debt, and that someone else pays that debt. And so Jesus came to taste death, to pay with his life for the death that we deserved. And so the goal when he came to earth wasn't for him simply to die. That was all the Jews were concerned with, was putting Jesus to death. They wanted him to die. He was a threat to their way of life and their hierarchy. And so they just wanted to see him die. But that's not why God sent him to come. He didn't just come to die. He came to pay. He came to pay.

the penalty for our sins. And so we ought not be like the Jews at that time who were interested simply in his death, but were blind to what his death accomplished. He did something for us. He did something for us. Something that we cannot, through all of our strength and all of our time and all of our efforts and all of our sorrows and all of our guilt and all of our trying harder, can't do for ourselves. Can't even get a B in our efforts. He did for us. If you feel guilty over your sin, it's not a payment for your sin. If you resolve having fallen into sin the next day or the next week or even the next hour to never do it again, that is not a payment for your sin. Refusing to take responsibility for your sins, to blame other people, to redefine sin away from things we actually do to things that are away from us is not a payment for sin.

Our sins, you see, they have to be paid for. We live in a time where a lot of talk about God is that he's very gracious, he's very merciful, he's forgiving. And I don't mean to say any of those things are true, but what I mean to say is that we have watered, we've poured so much water into his mercy and into his grace that they no longer have any pungency, any strength to them in our understanding. They're very watered down. And so I don't mean to say his grace is unimportant or that he's not gracious or merciful. Praise God that he is. But we don't understand really why he has to be gracious or merciful toward us. Everything that we want in our lives or need to do, need done in our, my wife's been correcting me. I've been in Indiana long enough. I don't say needs to be anymore. I says just needs done. It's needs to be done. What we need to have done for us, we can't do for ourselves.

But that's not how we think. If we want something in our lives, well, we just go make a plan and get it. And if we can't go and get it, then we grumble and complain about not having it. We hope someone else will get it for us, and we'll come up with another plan. My question to you is, have you ever had something done for you that you could not, through any efforts of your own, any amount of time, something you could not do for yourself? Can you think of something like that? Something been done for you? Now maybe you've got in your mind something that someone else has done for you. Some kindness, some mercy, some gift, some grace. But what I really want to impress upon you is the thing that you need done for you that you can't do for yourself is you need your sins forgiven. And that you can't do. You can't forgive yourself because you're not the judge. You're the defendant. The defendant doesn't get to stand up in the courtroom and say, I declare myself innocent of all charges.

Now let me go. And so that's what we ought to be thinking about on a day-to-day basis is that we need our sins forgiven and that it creates tension in us, this reality of needing our sins forgiven because we can't forgive them ourselves and we can't petition another one of you to do it for us. Even if you come to me as your pastor or to one of your elders and you confess your sins, I'm not God and I can't forgive your sins. I can tell you what God says. I can assure you of what he's capable of, but the authority to forgive your sins doesn't reside in me. It belongs to God. And so Jesus' death satisfied the wrath of God against you for your sins. It is what we deserve. We deserve death. However much, you know, when I think of the phrase, you know, we deserve death, what I think of is someone who lives on death row.

Like what is true of someone who lives on death row? What do they think about every day when they get up? I'm going to die. Here I am waiting to die. I don't want to die. Or maybe I deserve to die. Or maybe the governor will pardon me so I don't die. But everything they think about is their own death because their whole life is defined by the fact that they're going to die and that they deserve it. Or a judgment has been made that they are to die. That's what it means to deserve death. To have done something worthy of death. But do we think like we live on death row ever? When we come to thinking about our own sins, our own failures, do we think they deserve death? Maybe a firm hand. Maybe a strong rebuke. Maybe some mercy and some good kind words because we feel bad about them.

But I mean to tell you, if you feel bad about your sins, that is not repentance and it is not forgiveness. It is a step toward those things if God is gracious, but it is not the thing itself. When God is merciful and brings you under conviction for your sin, you should know a couple of things are true. One is you're not feeling as sorry as you should for your sins and you don't recognize how many there are and how bad they are. You might recognize some little part of it. And praise God for that. It actually is his kindness that pulls back the curtain enough for you to see that part. But with it, you should go, that's just a part of a lot more and that I'm guilty for before God. Forgiveness is a strange thing these days because it's separated from the death of Jesus Christ. I believe that we think forgiveness is just something that is without cost.

That there's a debt that's owed, and when that debt is forgiven, that the cost is just, that the one who's owed the money or the justice, that they just go, no problem, don't worry about it. I mean to tell you that is not how forgiveness works. That is not how forgiveness works. Isn't that why you were all so upset last year or the year before? They were talking about college loans and forgiving the debt, and everyone's going, that's not how forgiveness works. They owe the money. And how was it going to be paid for? Just as an example. How was it to be paid for? Was the government just going, oh, don't worry about it anymore? They had a plan for how that money was supposed to be paid, right? Somebody else had to pay it. Not the person who incurred the debt, but somebody else had to do it. Was anyone thinking, isn't this a good picture of the substitutionary atonement and death of Jesus Christ? Were any of us thinking that? Well, shame on us. Debts have to be paid, you know? Do you know?

That if you owe money and it goes into collections and you settle with them, let's just say you owe them $10,000 and it goes into collections and you settle for $5,000. You say, yeah, I got it. What happens to that other $5,000? Does anyone know? You will be issued a tax form from the collection agency and that $5,000 will be counted as income on your next year's taxes when you file. And you will pay your taxes on the money that was forgiven. Because while the creditor might let you off the hook for a little less, the government won't. You'll pay taxes on that money. So there, you've learned something about debt. It has to be paid, and it has to be paid in full. But we think of forgiveness as just the washing away, the just, oh, don't worry about that. That's not how forgiveness works. Forgiveness that we need comes by the death of Jesus Christ.

There was a payment that had to be made, a full payment that had to be made. If the payment was only partial, then the remainder would still be ours. And we would go to hell as a result. And so when we think about Jesus' death, when we think on this simple phrase that he tasted death for everyone, I'm trying to give you some context for what that means. Our debts are not forgiven because God doesn't care about sin. Our debts are forgiven. Because Jesus paid for them down to the last cent. There's a cost associated with the sins you committed today. We don't live and think like this. We ought to. What do we do when someone sins against us? And they come to us and say, hey, I'm sorry. What do you say? That's no problem. Don't worry about it. I screw up too. If that's all we say, and if that's all we mean, then these sayings fall short of...

the actual gravity of the situation, even if the offense is a small one. If we just take an offense and go, I don't worry about it. I don't really care. It didn't really bother me anyway. You do realize that's not what God does with sin. He doesn't go, oh, you had a good excuse. You tried hard. You waited for 20 minutes before you gave yourself into it. It's not how God is with these things. So why are we this way with sin? Because we take it so lightly. It doesn't sit on us. We squirm and wriggle out of it as much as we can. And so if someone confesses their sins to you, don't say to them, it's no problem. Don't say, don't worry about it. Don't say, I screwed up too. Say to them, I'm a sinner just like you. And I forgive you because God forgave me. Cancel the debt. Pay for it out of the mercy that God gave you. That's what it means to forgive one another. That's why so much forgiveness between Christians is

It's like cotton candy, it doesn't last. Because they say the words without any of the substance. When you forgive somebody, when you say, hey, when someone sins and they say, will you forgive me? And you say, yes, I forgive you. What you're saying is, Jesus paid for my sins and gave me mercy and gave me life in him. And because he's done these things for me, he's also given me a bank account full of mercy and kindness and grace and forgiveness to then extend to other people. And so when we say Jesus paid it all, when we sing that song, we're not singing it today, but when we sing the song Jesus paid it all, he paid for all of our sins against the Father and all the sins that were committed against us by one another. There is a way for sins that were committed against us by other people to be paid for.

Because Jesus tasted death for every one and every sin. Good job, Andrew. He's got two of them and one of them just about made himself known. One of the interesting things about this passage is it says the sentence structure in verse 9 is long. It's difficult. It says, We do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. And then there's a comma, and then it goes on some more. I want to read something to you. I want to take out a lot of the dependent clauses, okay? But we see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. That other section, because of the suffering of death, is the means by which he was crowned with glory and honor. So his death was glorious and honorable.

You remember in Romans 5, it says, For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die. And Paul there is speaking of us. Maybe we'd be willing to die for a good man. Maybe. A righteous man, you know. But, you know, set in juxtaposition to how we think, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He died a glorious and honorable death. And by contrast, one that we would not naturally give ourselves to. We don't give ourselves to this kind of glory and this kind of honor. Do you think of his death as being a glorious death? It's kind of an astounding thought. It feels like it's out of place. It feels like a note that's out of tune. Glory? Honor? Right alongside shame and being despised and stricken?

But here we have the Bible telling us that his death was glorious and honorable. The kind of death that we wouldn't offer in our own strength for one another, he offers for us because of his love for us. It's incredible. Then the grace of God shows up after the comma. So that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. So it was the grace of God that led him to taste death. So not only is his death glorious and honorable, it's gracious. motivated by the grace of God. The grace of God led him to die for us, to pay for us. This is real grace. This is real grace. This isn't grace that's just been inundated and watered down. This is real grace, grace that leads to real actions, the kind of actions that men don't make on their own, that don't make sense to us. You start to get the sense that there's a big difference between how we think and live and our priorities versus how God lives.

Is motivated in what his character is like. There's this big chasm between him and us. Would that he would make us like him. So that we would do the things he does. With joy. Right? For the joy set before him. He endured the cross. Despising the shame. Would that we would sacrifice like that for one another. And I'll go one further. More than for one another. For our enemies. For sinners. For the unregenerate. This is how we ought to live. There's another strange construction in here. In the next verse it says, For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. And so my question is, who's being perfected? Jesus is being perfected. Assuming that he's the author of our salvation, he's the one that we're told is being perfected.

So how was Jesus perfected through suffering? What does that mean? What does it mean for Jesus to be perfected? Does it mean that he lacked something? No. That word author could also be translated captain or leader, like it's a military term. What makes for a good leader? Many things, but here's one thing, and it's universally true of leadership in any context. It's that the leader... will never call you to do things that he hasn't done before and won't do again. A poor leader is one who just sends people to go do stuff that he won't do. This is the leaders, this is the Pharisees, this is their leadership. Do all of this and do all of that and do the other thing, but they won't lift a finger themselves to do the very things they require of other people. And so when it says that Jesus, the author of our salvation, is perfected through sufferings, what we find is that we're not being sent into a world and into temptations and into difficulties that our Lord hasn't already gone into and come out the other side of. You remember in Hebrews it says that there's no temptation that has befallen to you except that which is common to man. I'm sorry, I'm misquoting. That's Corinthians, isn't it? I'm thinking if we have a great high priest. I'm getting the passages confused in my head, conflated. There's nowhere that you will go in your life.

Where Jesus hasn't gone before you. There's no temptation that you'll face where Jesus goes, I didn't know. And I don't know what to do. Even if you're being unjustly accused of crimes you never committed and are going to be put to death for them. Even then, your Lord walked that path before you and came out the other side of it. To the praise and glory of God and to our thankfulness and gratitude because by his resurrection, we're saved from our sins finally. If he had just died and hadn't been raised, then Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, like we're above all men most to be pitied. If all he did was die, we'll come to his resurrection in a few days. But for now, I want you to know that the debt had to be paid.

And so anything that you're called to do in your life, however difficult or hard or scary or burdensome or long, Jesus has gone before you and done it and will go with you as you do it. This is what it means for him to be perfected through sufferings. To show us the way is what it means. Then our passage ends with something I find very sweet and encouraging. It says, For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. The sweetness of this verse is that it shows our union with Christ through his death. The union is not just between the Father and the Son, but by the Son's death, we now have union and are joined to him. So the sum of it is to say, Jesus is not ashamed of you. I said earlier that your guilt for your sins isn't helpful. It's helpful insofar as it brings you to repentance. It's helpful as a step along the process. But it's no place to pitch your tent or build your city. Why would you feel guilty for something that God is not ashamed of? Now, is he ashamed of your sins? Should you be ashamed of your sins? Yes, but Jesus died for your sins. So you're not...

in them or under them anymore. Now, the reason this is important to us is you're not happy enough people. Seriously, you're good reformed people. You've got all your theology and your serious faces, but your joy and your gladness in the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to go to the gas station and you need to fill up the tank. It's missing. This is what we need. If Jesus is not ashamed of you, and that's exactly what our text says, for this reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, then you ought not to live in shame and guilt anymore. Walk the path of repentance, which goes by those stones on the path, but doesn't stay there. You ought to come to the place where you have rest and you have peace and you have joy in Jesus Christ. It's very simple. In fact, our kids are much better at understanding this than we are.

They get excited when they get told that Jesus died for them. They don't know all the big theological words, but they understand that they've done bad stuff and they're glad when they find out somebody fixed it. That's what Good Friday is. It's Jesus fixing it. That's good news. That's why it's a good Friday. It's a sad Friday because we're the ones who caused it, but we're the ones who are saved by it. So rejoice. Don't wait till Sunday to rejoice. I can understand that when Jesus died, there were three days of fear because they didn't know. Though if they'd had faith and really the Holy Spirit, they would have had a different perspective. But you're not in that place. And feeling sorry and acting like you've just been to a funeral for the next couple of days is a delay in the joy that you should have right now.

So you ought to be a happy people, a serious people, a sober-minded people who know their sins and why Jesus had to die, but a people who are very thankful that he did, who've been saved from their sins. And so Christians ought to be gracious and sturdy in every situation. Gracious and sturdy. And I say sturdy because Paul tells us to be immovable in another passage. Be immovable. You ought to be sturdy. You ought not to be... bounced around and sat back on your heels because you had a spiritual hangnail. Repent of your sins and come to Jesus and lay them at his cross and walk without your burden anymore. Otherwise, you have to ask yourself, have I actually laid them at the cross? Or am I still carrying them? Do I think I can shake them? You really do have to come to the place where you go, I can't shake these things.

I can't get them off of me. They're like a live octopus that's just, you know, got me. Yeah, right, you know. Bring them to the cross. Lay them there and leave them there. And let his blood drip down off of that cross and cover them and take them away before the eyes of the Father. You're not a victim. You're not oppressed, so you don't need to make excuses for your sins. You can just own them. and say, I did that. Awful and terrible and shameful and pathetic as it was, there it is. And I believe that Jesus came to save sinners, real sinners, not ones who feel like they're going to fix a little bit of a problem themselves, but ones who have nowhere else to go and say, if he can't do it, then it can't be done. But praise God that he has done it. You've been set free, is my point, by his death. And so you ought to act like it and you ought to be glad. Let's pray.