Glory in the Lowest

So good to see you this morning. In just a few minutes, we will be in Hebrews 2. So if you wanna find your place there, please feel free to do that. If you're new to church or you're new to the Bible, feel free to look at a table of contents if that helps you out. If you've got a digital device where you can look at that, then feel free to do that. We'll be in Hebrews 2 in just a moment. Now, let me ask you a question by a show of hands. All right this is, I'm pretty sure I know what the outcome is going to be. Show of hands, how many of you have seen the timeless Christmas classic movie "It's A Wonderful Life"? Put your hands up in the air if you've seen it. Okay, that's the vast majority of people. And not everybody has seen it, but the vast majority of people, if I were to ask you, how many times have you seen it, that would probably be an interesting answer for some of you. You would probably answer as many Christmases as I have been alive, I have seen this movie, I haven't actually, I've seen it once. That's it. I've only seen it once. It's not a part of my particular, I don't watch it every Christmas. You're probably going, I used to like you, and now I don't know. That's fine. It's just not one of those movies that I watch. It's from the forties, Frank Kappra production wonderful movie. And because so many people have seen it and there's no spoiler alerts here, because it came out in the forties. So just everybody take it easy, if you haven't seen it yet, then that's your problem. It really is. It's not my problem. I'm not gonna go back through the movie, I'm not gonna tell you the chronology of George Bailey's entire life and what happened, what I will point out is that something interested me in that movie, and it was the guardian angel that George Bailey had. Does anybody remember his name? Clarence Oddbody. That's his last name Oddbody. He had a last name Clarence Oddbody. Now all by itself, that's just a weird name. But secondarily, he was an interesting character because he was this guardian angel, this silver-haired kind of grandfatherly looking man, who's apparently, according to the story, a low level angel who has yet to earn his wings. So through his care and direction of George Bailey, he does ultimately get his wings. And we're kind of reminded by the little girl, George Bailey's little daughter when he is holding her next to the tree. And she says, teacher says, every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings, and it's cute as far as the story goes, 'cause it's a made up story, it's not real, and that's wonderful. But in our biblically illiterate culture, our cultural narrative has a tendency to inform us far more than a biblical narrative. And that's true when it comes to angels. Now this message is actually not going to be about angels, but it's important that we understand them in relation to humanity and what that ultimately is going to say about Jesus. But the, the thing about angels is, is that many of us have a conception of angels as if they are either an silver haired grandfatherly type, or they're the little naked baby angels that come on all the Christmas cards, it's kind of one of those two things. And that's how we conceive of kind of this idea of angels. We like angels so much that we actually start ascribing things to them about the afterlife. So when people die, for instance, people like to then say, well, now they're an angel, or Heaven's got another angel. Nope, not the case. There is no testimony in the scripture that would give us that idea. And in fact, quite the opposite. First of all, human beings are separate creations from angels that have been created in the image of God. They're unique in that regard and do not become angels. Secondarily, when we see angels in the scripture, although there are some cases where angels can take some kind of human form for a particular purpose based on what God has designed, generally speaking, when a human being like me and you comes face-to-face with an angel in the scripture, we are terrified. We are mortified, we are thinking we're going to die, or we're thinking that this is God that has shown up and we must worship. This is what happens when you come face to face with an angel terror, as you can see in the Christmas story in Luke 2 when the shepherds are out in the field, and the angels show up, it says that they were terrified, they were sore afraid in the old kind of King James Version, they were terrified. If Clarence Oddbody came walking up in Bethlehem, in the fields to the shepherds and says, I bring you good tidings of great news born to you this day, they would listen and then they would go, okay, man, I hope you get the help you need and then ask you to leave. And they would just look at each other after it was done and go wow, man, Clarence, woohoo, right? But the angels are glorious. They show up in glory and they sing and testify and shout out the glory of God. And when we human beings are confronted with an angel, they appear so glorious and we appear so lowly. But even that is not completely true because angels are actually the pinnacle of God's creation in the heavenly realms. But the pinnacle of God's creation in the earthly realms are human beings. They're created in the image of God and have been tasked at the very beginning in the design of God with being image bearers, representatives of God in the world, and have been given authority and dominion and rulership over the place where they were really a glorious, glorious creation of God this thing called human beings, male and female, sons and daughters, a really glorious, beautiful thing. Why do I begin by telling you about this? Because the writer of Hebrews has a lot of interaction between the idea of angels and human beings. And this is important for us to understand. In fact, in Hebrews 1 it talks about this idea of angels. And then in Hebrews 2 he continues that theme, talking about angels and human beings. And listen to what the writer says in Hebrews 2 beginning in verse five. "It is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him. You made them a little lower than the angels. You crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet in putting everything under them God left nothing that is not subject to them yet at present, we do not see everything subject to them." Wow. When I begin to read this passage of scripture, it kind of stops me in my tracks. The writer is actually quoting from Psalm 8. It's interesting that he says someone has testified in the past and he's actually quoting directly from the psalmist in Psalm 8 and Psalm 8 is actually referencing back to the creation event. And it's talking about how majestic and glorious God is and how he's made everything that exists. And then the psalmist and the writer now of Hebrews quotes the same thing, basically saying this, how could a God so glorious that has made every, every, every, everything everywhere, even give any thought or attention or care to those that are like us, how could God be so caring and mindful and attentive to us as human beings, as mankind when he has so gloriously created everything that exists. And the writer of Hebrews is in awe of God, just like the writer of the Psalm, that God would even give us attention. And he says, it's this humankind that you have made a little lower than the angels and you've crowned them with glory and honor and you've made everything subject to them. Well that's calling back to the very beginning in creation where God created man and woman and they were glorious and glory and honor crowned their heads and they were given the world to be subject to them. They named the animals, the world was actually subject to them. But it's interesting that the writer uses that phrase, isn't it that they were made a little lower than the angels. What do I, have you ever stopped and thought about that? Like what does that mean? You're probably thinking, well my first thing that comes to my mind is this angels are humongous. We're not as big. Angels are shiny, we're kind of bland, that's not really what that means. To be made a little lower than the angels is an interesting thing to think about. And it's maybe not an easy thing to conceptualize, but I've got an idea, at least in part of what this means. And I got that idea from Jesus when he was having a conversation with a group of people called Sadducees. Now Sadducees were a part of the religious ruler class, like Pharisees were, and in Jesus' time, there were a number of different kind of classifications of people. You had Pharisees and Sadducees and Esines and zealots. And then Jesus is dealing specifically with the Sadducees. And the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And so they're questioning Jesus and always trying to trick Jesus. I always wonder what it is about the religious leaders that are always trying to trick Jesus. I kind of, when I read in the gospels, I just think to myself, don't do it. Do not do it. I'm telling you, he knows everything you're gonna lose. Don't even do it. They did it. You know, every time I read it, they still did it. But they're trying to trick him. They're asking him questions and then they pose this question to him. They pose a question about marriage to him to try and get at this like idea of there not being a resurrection or whatever. So they ask this question and they say, Jesus, there's this woman who's married to this man and he dies before they're able to have a child. So she gets married again, don't have a child, he dies, they do this seven times. So she's married seven different times, never has a child. And so then they go, so Jesus whose wife is she in the afterlife like whose wife? Jesus is like, come on man, listen to how he answers. He replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead," he's given that to the Sadducees, "Will neither marry nor be given in marriage and they can no longer die for they are like the angels," huh? See, what I think that Jesus helps us to see is that to be made a little lower than the angels is to mean that we are subject to death. That's what we're talking about, at least in part here, that to be made a little lower than the angels is to be subject to death. Now I find that interesting because humans are subject to death for a reason. And do you know what that reason is? Is that there was a brokenness that occurred when the first humans that were created with and crowned with glory and honor chose independence from God instead of obedience to God. At that moment, the crown of glory slipped off and was shattered and cracked. And now as a result of sin and brokenness, it has been passed down from generation to generation. You see, what we were designed to do in our glorious original humanity is that we were designed to have everything that is subject to us and to rule. Isn't it interesting that the writer of Hebrews says, yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. There's a reason for that. It's because sin entered the picture. And when it did, everything started to go out the window and listen to what sin did. Sin brought us lower than we were designed to be. Sin brought us down, it brought us lower than we were designed to be. Now because of sin, we're at odds with God. We're at odds with the world that he's made. We're at odds with one another. At the present time we do not see everything subject to them, do we? No we don't. But the writer doesn't leave us hopeless here. Some good news coming. Listen to what he says, verse eight and nine. "Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus who was made lower than the angels for a little while now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." You see what the writer is saying to us here is that what we saw is we saw Adam, we saw a fall into sin, we saw a humanity that had been corrupted. But what we see now is we see Jesus the true human, the second Adam, the one in whom is no sin. And we see him crowned with glory and honor as the true human, the arch type for everything that we were supposed to be. But it says that he was crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Now so that you don't get confused when the writer says that Jesus tasted death for everyone. I don't want you to think that you're at one of those little parties where you kind of go house to house and you go and yeah, I taste a little bit of this and I taste a little bit of that. That's not what we're talking about. When the writer uses that term, he's not talking about biting off a little corner of something and tasting it to see if you like it. He's talking about eating the whole portion. That's a different thing completely. I've got two friends, Todd and Jim, they're the only two friends that I have. But I've got two friends, Todd and Jim, and they live in the southern part of the United States. They were going to be doing some work in Ukraine, this was many years ago. And so they arrived and they were staying in a hotel and the next day the pastor that was going to be hosting them was going to pick them up and they were going to be involved in a very, very heavy scheduled day of ministry. And then they were gonna conclude that evening by eating dinner with the pastor and his family. They were like, great. So they came to the hotel, they rested, and the next day the pastor came and picked him up in his little bitty car. And it was summertime during that time and it was already starting to get pretty hot. And as they were leaving in the morning, the pastor said, before we go to our first appointment, I'm going to to grab something for dinner tonight. And he pulled off to the market and he bought a fish, kind of a large fish, and he put it in the trunk, just closed the trunk. And Todd and Jim didn't really know what was going on. They were just like, cool, got a fish, whatever. So they do their whole day, I mean the whole day. And then they get to the pastor's house, they pull up and he is like, it's time to come in and we'll prepare dinner. And they got there and the pastor opened the trunk and got that fish and brought it upstairs. And Todd and Jim are looking at each other going, nope, nope. So yep, pastor's wife prepared the fish gives everybody their portion, plates the fish for them. They're sitting at a very small table. The apartment is very, very, very small. Very small. Like the size of many people's just living rooms was everything they had in there. And so they plate it and they're sitting at the table together in this very small table. And Jim, none of them speak like they don't speak Ukrainian. Jim and Todd don't speak Ukrainian and the pastor and his wife don't really speak English, but they're just, there's a lot of, they didn't have their translator with them at that point there's a lot of just smiling and thank you and they kind of say just a couple of words or whatever. Well, Jim looks at Todd and basically turns into a ventriloquist. Todd, there's no way I'm eating this fish. I'm not eating it. Todd's like, you are eating it. You will eat it 'cause it will offend them if you don't. And he's saying, no, I'm not gonna eat it 'cause it's going to kill us and I'm not gonna do that right now. Todd said, oh, you're gonna eat it. We're eating the fish. Todd starts to eat the fish. Jim said, I don't care what you're doing, I'm not eating it. He said, you're gonna eat it. Said I'm not eating it. So sure enough, Jim says, I'm not eating it. And he was serious. And Todd's so serious that he doesn't want them offended that he says, all right, well start cutting some off like you're gonna eat it and slide it onto my plate. I'll deflect ah that picture on the wall and they'll look and he's putting some fish on Todd's plate and Todd's eating it. Jim just figures out a way during dinner to offload all of his fish to Todd. Todd eats it all, eats his portion, eats Jim's portion. Everybody thinks everybody ate their fish and nobody's offended. Everything's good until right after dinner when the pastor and his wife wanna show some family pictures 'cause at least you don't have to talk. You can just look and go, oh eh, you know, and just do that. And while that's happening, Todd starts sounding like a boiling cauldron of . It's like there's a small man inside of his stomach screaming. He's sweating profusely and just has to excuse himself to the facilities which are four feet to his right. With a door when closed that did not go all the way down. Let's just say Todd paid the piper. And Jim, he's just looking at pictures. Todd ate the whole portion and paid all the consequences for him and for Jim. This is what Jesus has done in his death for our sin. All of the sin and toxicity of our sin, Jesus took it upon himself and he didn't just taste it, he drank it down to its dregs on our behalf. And he suffered the consequences that we deserve to suffer. And he did all of this so that he could restore us to who we're supposed to be. See Paul actually talks about how Jesus descended to be able to do this in the book of Philippians when he writes to the church at Philippi, he said, "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature of God did not consider equality with God, something to be forcibly retained, but instead didn't use it to his advantage. Rather, he made himself of nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." You see this truth, I want you to be reminded of it because at this Christmas season, it just, it strikes me as so rich and so beautiful and it's simply this, that God's glory in the highest is seen in Jesus' glory in the lowest. God's glory in the highest is seen through Jesus' glory in the lowest. What a humble king that would be willing to come so low. So low. That's why this passage strikes me when the writer says present, we don't see everything subject to humanity, but we do see Jesus. We do see Jesus. That's the need that we have at Christmas is to see Jesus for who he is and for what he's done. Yes, glory to God in the highest. But because we see Jesus, we know that God is glorified in the highest as Jesus shows God's glory in the lowest and to the lowest. It is remarkable what the Son of God has done for us. We see Jesus. But do you know what I'm reminded of in this passage because I'm reading in Hebrews chapter two, there's others that see Jesus too, the angels, they see him as well. I want you to think about it for just a moment because when we sing Christmas carols, we remind ourselves all the time that angels see the goings on of what happened with Jesus. That these angels who are the pinnacle of God's creation in the heavenly realms also see what is happening in the earthly realms as Jesus does what he does. That's why we sing hark the angels sing glory to the newborn king or we sing angels we have heard on high sweetly singing all the planes and the mountains in reply echo back their joyous strains. Gloria . Do you know what Gloria means? It's Latin. We're actually singing a Latin phrase if you didn't know that, you probably figured it's not English I figured that out. It's a Latin phrase that means glory to God in the highest. So one of the things that we know that we remind ourselves with Christmas carols is that the angels saw what was going on, but I didn't need the Christmas carols that were written however long ago they were written to tell me that, there's actually a Christmas carol, an early church hymn that told me the same thing. You may not know it, but Paul actually quotes it when he's writing to Timothy. You may not see it, but you'll see it in your Bibles. You won't see it like this on the screen, but in your bibles you'll see it as being set aside because what Paul's doing is he's quoting something to Timothy very specific. I'll show you where it is. It's not this part. He says, "Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great." Here it is, here's where he quotes it. "He appeared in the flesh was vindicated by the spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world and was taken up in glory." This was an early Christian hymn, we could call it maybe the first Christmas Carol if we wanted to an early Christian hymn that Paul is reminding Timothy and reminding the church of Ephesus that Jesus was seen by angels. Now I love to think about this through the eyes of angels because if you could just pause with me for a moment and think for a second about what the angels have seen. See the angels saw long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, they saw the glory of Jesus in the heavenly realms. Jesus has always existed from the very beginning of everything because he is without beginning and without end. He is a part of the triune God, God the Father, God the son, God the spirit that has existed from eternity past. And if you saw what Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6 where he saw a vision in the year that king Isaiah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple and I saw the angels around the throne and they were saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Listen, what did Isaiah see exactly? I want to tell you because John tells us, John gives us a pretty good, clear perspective of what Isaiah saw. Listen to it John 12, "Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus glory and spoke about him." Some of you going, I didn't even know that that was in John's gospel. Yep. He saw Jesus glory. So the angels saw the pre-incarnate Christ. What that means is Jesus before he put skin on, they saw that. And then one day in the heavenly realms, Jesus was gone and the angels were alerted that Jesus is now a fetus in the womb of a human girl. What do you think they're thinking at this point? I know what I'm thinking if I'm an angel, what? What? And then the angels are sent. Tell the girl not to be afraid. Tell the husband, we know you're not a dad but don't leave her and here's what you name him. And then they saw the birth and there's Jesus in the manger and they show up to the shepherds in the Bethlehem fields and say, glory to God in the highest born to you this day in the city of David is a savior and is Christ the Lord. Could you imagine what the angels are thinking, making that announcement? They've got to be thinking when they're telling the shepherds this, these humans, they've got to be thinking this. Do you have any idea who just moved into the neighborhood? Do you have any idea? This is the son of God where we would be around the throne gathered singing, holy, holy, holy. And now here he is as an infant made like you. You people. Do you know what has happened here? They saw it as Jesus grew and began his ministry. They saw it when the most diabolical of all the angels. Satan himself was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, tempting him to walk away from God to act independently of God, even distorting scripture as he tried to tempt Jesus. And we know the angels were there as Jesus endured and overcame that temptation because Matthew's gospel says "The devil left him and angels came and attended him." They saw it. They saw it when Jesus was in the garden on his way toward being crucified and he was there praying so intently. "Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done. And an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him." We know that there were angels ready to do whatever they needed to do to help the son of God and they're in the garden as Jesus prayed. Ultimately he would get up from that prayer and Judas, his betrayer, bringing a bunch of other people with him would show up into the garden so that Judas would betray him. And do you think that Jesus had in his mind what he could do, what the angels were ready to do? Listen to how it's described in Matthew 26, "Going at once to Jesus. Judas said, 'Greetings rabbi,' and kissed him. And Jesus replied, 'Do what you came for friend.' Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. And with that one of Jesus' companions reached for his sword. This was Peter. He drew it out and he struck the servant of the high priest cutting off his ear, 'Put your sword back in its place.' Jesus said to him, 'For all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my father and he will at once put in my disposal more than 12 legions of angels?'" Can you see them behind the veil? Ready. And he said no. The one who had all power said no because his glory and honor was going to be through his death because he like us, had been made a little lower than the angels for a little while so that he could suffer death in our place. But the angels also got to see that he didn't stay dead. Matthews gospel says, "There was a violent earthquake for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow and the guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men." They wouldn't have done that with Clarence Oddbody. "The angels said to the women, 'Do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He has risen just as he said, come and see the place where he lay.'" And the angels were there after Jesus resurrected and spent 40 days ministering. They also saw him ascend back to the Father. Acts 1 says this, "They were looking intently up into the sky," the disciples were "As Jesus going, when suddenly two men dressed in whites stood beside them, men of Galilee. They said, 'Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven. He will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'" The angels saw it all. What do you think they were thinking? Jesus, you're doing all of this for them. You're doing all of this for these human beings that don't get it right most of the time. I can't seem to understand this salvation that you are offering to this people. Do you know what Peter said about that? It's a great comment. He said, "Concerning the salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you searched intently and with the greatest care trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing. When he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, even angels long to look into these things." Angels are dumbfounded that the glorious Christ whose glory reaches the highest heavens would descend to the lowest depths for our sake. What beautiful message of Christmas is this? Glory to God in the highest because we can see it in Jesus' glory in the lowest. This is the beautiful message of Christmas. So what does that mean for us? Is this just to inspire, it better. It should draw us to a place of awe and worship. It should lift our eyes, it should lift our hearts. It should lift our affections. It should lift our worship when we begin to think about what Jesus has done. But there's some practical things that the writer of Hebrew says that Jesus coming low actually does for us. Let me give you a handful real quick. Here's the first. Jesus came low to help us in temptation. That's why he came low because he wants to help us in temptation. Look in Hebrews 2, look with me beginning in verse number 16, it says, "For surely it is not angels he helps but Abraham's descendants for this reason he had to be made like them fully human in every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God. And that he might make atonement for the sins of the people because he himself suffered when he was tempted. He is able to help those who are being tempted." You see the son of God came and put on flesh just like us, became fully human just like us. You say, well yeah, but he's Jesus. He's fully God he is fully God and fully human at the same time. Not 50% God and 50% human to make up something but 100% God and 100% human to make up himself being 100% Godman. This is who Jesus is. 100% Godman. And because he is fully human, he's identified with every temptation that we have faced. The enemy has put him through all of these temptations. Yet he was without sin, he overcame. And so any temptation that we face, because if we put our faith in Jesus and his life is now in us, he can give us the power to overcome the temptation to sin. Because sin's where it all started, it's where the glory and the honor that we were crowned with got cracked and shattered on the floor. And Jesus says, I've come because you're destined to live a different way. You're destined to live differently than just being full of sin and and a slave to sin. No, I can give you the power to live above that. So maybe it's your pride. Well, Jesus was tested with pride. The enemy himself said, bow down to me and I'll give you everything that you see. And Jesus said, oh no, no, no. We get tempted that way. We get tempted with the lust of the eyes. Jesus was as well here, here it's all here for you Jesus. You can have all of this. And Jesus said, no, we get tempted to act independently of God. Jesus was tempted that way and we get tempted that way. Maybe we get tempted. Listen, we get tempted to avoid costly obedience. Do you think that temptation was not present to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, knowing what he was about to face, the temptation to avoid costly obedience, whatever the temptation, Jesus gives us the power to overcome it because he himself has, he came low to help us in temptation, but he also came low to free us from being slaves to fear. He came low to free us from being slaves to fear. Listen to what verse 14 and 15 say. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death that is the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. I'm guessing that for all of us, if we were making a kind of a top 10 list of things that we're scared of, I'm guessing death makes usually the top end of that list, for those of us that are in Christ that know what Jesus has done, maybe death itself, like being dead is not what scares us. Getting dead, still a problem, still a problem in our minds like getting dead. We're scared of but being dead not so scared of. But here's what we understand. Jesus has taken the sting out of death because of what he's done. He came and put on flesh. He died for our sins in our place to satisfy the justice of God because our sin brought on death. The wages of sin is death. He was made a little lower than the angel subject to death for a little while so that he could conquer it on our behalf so we don't have to be slaves anymore. You know what that means? It means that now we can just live with an abandoned obedience to God because the very thing that Satan would hold over our heads, you might die. Doesn't it have to cause us to live like slaves to that fear anymore? We don't have to. I've been to so many places in the world and I've been in danger in some of those places. I don't talk about that really here. I've been in danger in some of those places. My wife knows that. My kids know now they didn't know at the time. But I've been in danger in some of those places. Was I scared at times for my life? Yes, I have been scared for my life in places that I've been in the world, yes. But then I can be scared there and then come back here and preach like what? I wasn't scared, right? But I was. But I'm not a slave to its fear because I know what Jesus has done. Because what's the worst thing that Satan can hold over me? You're gonna die. And then what, I'm with Jesus to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. He will care for my soul. I will be in his conscious presence and when he returns, I will get up and I will be resurrected with him in a fully immortal body. That's what I'm looking forward to. And I don't have to live as a slave to fear of death because I know Jesus. But for those of us that don't know Jesus, you better be scared of death because you'll spend eternity separated from God 'cause of your choice to walk independently from God, not because of his. His choice was that even while we were sinners, Christ died for us. His choice was active love. Let me give you a third. Jesus came low because he's not ashamed of us. Man this is such good news. He came low because he's not ashamed of us. Look at verse number 11. "But the one who makes people holy and those who are made holier of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." Listen, have you ever felt unworthy? Have you ever felt unlovable? We all have. You're not alone in that if you've ever felt that, we've all felt that. We've all felt unworthy. We've all felt unlovable because we've all blown it. Listen. And he came for us anyway. We've all blown it. And he came for us anyway. 'Cause he's not ashamed of us. He's not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. He was made like us. He died like us. He conquered death for us. He's not ashamed of us. What great love, what humility in a king from, from the highest glory to descend to us who weren't paying him any attention to become like us, to die for us so that he could rescue us. What great love. There's nothing in all eternity like it. Nothing that you'll search for in this world that's like it. Nothing that will satisfy you like it. He came because he's not ashamed of us. He came low 'cause he's not ashamed of us. Lastly, Jesus came low to bring us to glory. He came low to bring us to glory. Look at verse number 10. "In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered." Jesus fully embodied humanity, suffered and died because we had lost the crown of glory and honor due to sin. He came to give it back. He came to restore it. So please know this. When you've put your faith in Christ, do not forget where you're headed. It's glory. And do not forget the love it took to get you there. We can say that the glorious Jesus came low so that we could proclaim glory to God in the highest because we see Jesus glory in the lowest and for the lowest. Thank God for the glory of Christmas. Let's bow our heads together. In a moment we'll be dismissed, but you may be here and have never before surrendered your life to Jesus. I wanna speak to you directly for a moment. If you're here and you've never turned from your sin and put your faith in Jesus, the Bible teaches us this, that all of sin and come short of the glory of God and that the wages of our sin is death. That means spiritual separation from God and it means physical death as well. Your only hope and my only hope for life with God is Jesus. There is no other pathway. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Why did Jesus come low? Because it's the only way we could be saved. This is it. Jesus took upon himself on the cross, our sin and our shame, our brokenness and God judged sin on Jesus. The sinless substitute. And Jesus knew what he was doing. He wasn't forced into this place. This is what he did out of love because of God's great love for us. So that God could be just in dealing with sin and also be the justifier of those who put their faith in Jesus. What great news is this. And if you've never before entrusted your life to Jesus, turned from your sin and put your faith in Jesus to know that your sins are forgiven, that your life can be made new right now, and that you can have the hope of eternal glory with Christ. Well today you can. His invitation stands, his arms are wide open. And it is only by grace that we can be saved through faith. It's a gift of God. It's not of our work so that no one can boast. So if that's your need today, maybe you'd want to pray something like this with your faith, not mine, yours. Maybe you'd pray something like this in your heart right before God. Just pray this in your heart. Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned and I cannot save myself. I believe only you can save me Jesus, because you died for my sin and you rose from the grave. And I confess that you Jesus are Lord and I am not. And by faith, I receive you as my Lord and my Savior and ask you to forgive me of my sins. Make me new. And Father, I pray that you would give courage to my brothers and sisters who said, I wanna follow after Jesus. Give them courage to take a step to draw a line in the sand. Father, for those of us that maybe have known you for some time now in real deep ways, I pray that we would be reminded of the glory of who you are and what you've done and that that would so fill our hearts and our minds that people around us would see the deep gratitude we have for the glorious Jesus who vacated the realms of glory to come low for us. May we live with gratitude and live with allowing Jesus life in us to live through us for your glory, I pray in Christ's name, amen.