Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : December 28, 2003
Jesus -- The Perfect Brother
1st Sunday after Christmas
During the Christmas and New Year's holidays, many of you probably had or will have the opportunity to get together with family and friends and celebrate Jesus' birth and another year of God's grace. But I've been noticing that when you get a little older, it's a little more difficult to get together with family. You might be pretty close with your brothers and sisters, but your children and your brother's and sister's children will be cousins, and certainly not as close. After another generation, they will be even further distant and might not ever see each other, unless they are forced by their parents to go to a family reunion where they don't know anyone. That's the nature of things: families get larger, and they drift apart.
This morning we're going to hear about how the very opposite happened. Instead of a family growing apart, we'll hear about a family that was brought together. Jesus was the one who brought you and me back into a good relationship with our heavenly Father, after we had been so far away from God that we were his enemies. Jesus did it by becoming our brother -- the most perfect brother anyone could ever ask for. Listen as the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is The Perfect Brother: he's our brother by birth; he's our brother by suffering; and he's our brother by death.
The Jewish Christians in the early church were as tight knit as a family. Luke tells us in Acts that "all the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts." (Acts 2:44-46) It's a very pretty picture that Luke paints about the early church. They shared everything; they gave to anyone if they had need; they shared their faith as well. They were one big, happy family. Unfortunately, some Jews didn't want that family to be so happy. Some Jews tried to discourage the new believers and tell them to go back to their old ways of Judaism and wait for some other Messiah. They were suffering persecution, and they were poor. Sometimes they didn't feel like they were united with all these other believers so much. Maybe going back to the old ways wouldn't be that bad.
It was this attitude that led the writer to the Hebrews to encourage the believers by reminding them again what Christ, their brother, had done for them. That is exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to do for us as well. You know that you are united with all the people here as a family -- the family of believers. But sin still rears its ugly head to try to destroy us as a family. There are accounts in Scripture of when the early believers began to quarrel and fight among themselves. Satan is using the same ploy today among the family of believers. It's interesting to see how skillfully Satan works and tempts us. He doesn't use all the so-called "big" sins that would make the evening news if they were discovered, like stealing or murder. He's much too smart to tempt us into those gross sins. And he doesn't have to. When was the last time you talked to someone cordially at church and then went home and fumed about what they said to yourself or to your spouse -- not liking what they said, or how they said it. Whenever you've helped out at church, have you always been happy to do the work of the church, or have you at times grumbled because no one ever helps you do it. Satan is smart. He doesn't have to use "big sins." He knows that you fall prey all too easily to the small sins of thought and word that won't show up on the evening news. Those sins of sinful pride and quarreling and grumbling won't get you thrown in jail here, but those sins do get you thrown into hell. Even those seemingly insignificant sins have separated you from your God. With those sins you have declared war on God. You have told God that you don't want to be part of his family.
As our Creator, God should have told us to get out of his presence forever since we showed that we didn't love him at all. But instead God sent his only Son to be our brother. Jesus showed that he is our brother first of all by his birth. He didn't want us to be out of his family. He decided already back in eternity that he would share our humanity by being born. He was not ashamed to share our humanity if that meant that he could restore us as sons and daughters of God. Our verses say, "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers." Sometimes your brother or sister does something embarrassing that makes you wish you weren't even related to them. God could have taken that path, but instead he chose to share everything shameful with humans in order to save them. With our mobile society, it's easy to lose track of our brothers and sisters when they move away. Jesus, the perfect brother, didn't lose track of us even when we were the ones who cut the lines of communication by sinning. Instead he had his Holy Spirit come to us through his word and tell us that we all have another brother who was born in Bethlehem. He came to endure all your shame and my shame as our perfect brother by his birth.
One of the shameful things that he shared with us is suffering. But it was suffering done to save us from our sins and to show us that Jesus is the perfect brother. How amazing that the most high God wasn't ashamed to be a lowly human being and be spit on and mocked! How amazing that he did it for you and me! Maybe you have witnessed a brother or sister or friend get really sick. Sometimes you think that you would rather take their place and do the suffering for them. Jesus did the ultimate in taking our place under God's wrath. He suffered terribly for all of our sins. The Son of God suffered as our brother so that you and I could be brought back into God's family by also being the spiritual sons and daughters of God. Suffering was one of the requirements Jesus paid to do it. Our text says, "He had to be made like his brothers 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." He was like us in every way except one -- as the Son of God he was without sin. But Paul tells us the lengths to which he went to save us. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, the Apostle Paul tells us that "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus, our brother, was perfect.
Jesus is the perfect Brother. He is our brother by his birth, by his suffering, and also by his death. The writer to the Hebrews also says, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy 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." Since he didn't have any sin, he didn't have to die, because only sinners die. But he exchanged his perfection for death so that we wouldn't have to die. By his death, Jesus destroyed the devil's work. That doesn't mean that the devil is destroyed; he is certainly still out to get us. But it means that all the power that the devil himself wields is ineffective against us. Christ's victory on the cross did it all. Even though Satan hold's the power of death, which means that he introduced death into the world and waits for that death to take each and every person out of this life, yet death no longer holds any fear for us. Listen to everything that Jesus' death has saved us from that is mentioned in our text: death, the power of death, the devil, slavery to the fear of death. All of that is nullified by Christ's death -- but Jesus didn't remain dead. As our High Priest, Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice of himself to nullify all our enemies and make us sons and daughters of God. God was our former enemy; now he is our Father in heaven. Jesus was also our enemy; now he is our brother. Jesus showed that he controlled death by giving his own so that all of our deaths would actually lead to eternal life. We know this is true because he didn't remain dead but rose from the dead to assure us that our sins are forgiven.
Since Jesus is our perfect brother, quarrelling and sinful pride won't get in the way of showing Christian love and concern for all our fellow members of God's family. We, of course, could never do it by ourselves, but we are told how we can hold up under temptation: "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." Our perfect brother will help us to live and act like brothers and sisters to others.
If you have a brother, you know that at times he can be a real pain in the neck. But the only pain associated with Jesus is the pain that he endured for you and me and all people. Jesus is the perfect brother. He showed us he is our perfect brother by his birth, by his suffering and by his death. Therefore, he can also help you to live your life as sons and daughters of God, and brothers and sisters of Christ himself. Amen.
