The following is a sermon transcript from our Sunday Service at The Rock Church in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Each week, we gather to worship, learn from God’s Word, and grow together. This transcript is provided as a free resource to encourage and equip you in your walk with Christ. While you’re welcome to read and share this content for personal use, we kindly ask that it not be redistributed or published elsewhere without prior written consent from The Rock Church.
Introduction
Here you are, walking down the streets of Philadelphia, surrounded by heavy traffic, flashing lights, honking horns. The city does not pause. It doesn’t even slow down. It doesn’t even notice you.
You stand on the corner to stop for a moment and you feel this overwhelming sense of smallness in the middle of something so large. Everyone appears to be going somewhere important. They seem to have purpose and meaning, significance. And then you start to feel this question rising within your heart. Where am I in the middle of all of this? Not just in Philly, but in life. Not just in the city, but in the universe. What are we to make of ourselves? What are we to make of this world?
There’s something that just doesn’t seem right. It’s a sense that you know this is not how life was intended to be. Surely God has made me for something more than this. But why can’t I experience it? We talk about meaning and purpose, but we feel pretty small. We focus all of our attention on the here and now, trying to make things better. But we sense deep down, is that really going to happen? We know that life has dignity and value, but it doesn’t always feel that way. It seems that there’s a gap between humanity, what we believe there, and our actual experience. And that gap raises a deeper question. Is this all there is, or am I missing something?
It’s exactly where the Scripture meets with us today with striking clarity. It takes that sense of being disconnected and that feeling of insignificance and it says something important. You’re right. Something is missing. Something is wrong. But you may be wrong about what is missing because the answer is not found in changing your circumstances. It’s not found in finding a better life or career to find significance. No, it’s found in a person. And that person is Jesus Christ.
And the focus of our passage is that we do not see the world as we ought to. But we do see Jesus. And that’s right there is where everything begins to turn. You see, focus here. Even though we don’t see everything under Christ’s rule, we see Jesus. And that is enough.
If that’s true, we’re forced to ask something deeper. What is God actually doing in the story underneath what we can see? What is His purpose in all of this? What is He doing with humanity, with history, with redemption itself?
And we could summarize verses 5 to 9 in the following four ways, quickly: destined to rule. That was our original design. That is our future hope. Secondly, created to rule. That was the original design. Third, fallen from glory, certainly sin. And then fourth, restored to glory through the pathway of suffering.
So Hebrews 2, 5 to 9. It begins by taking us back to God’s original design and His future intention for His people. And it starts with this surprising declaration. It’s in verse 5. Do you see it?
Destined to Rule
We are destined to reign with Christ.
Read that again, shall we? You might have missed it. Verse 5.
“For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.”
Listen, there is a world to come. Everything broken in this world is on a countdown to renewal. It will be made new. Every tear will be wiped away. No more wondering. What God has prepared is far beyond all comprehension. It’s the great promise that what has been broken will be made whole. It’s a cherished comfort to our hearts in the middle of the suffering, in the middle of the pain, as many of you experience the groans that all of creation shares with you know this.
Yes, this world is not as God intended it to be, but what is this world to come? This new heavens, this new earth, this new creation in which every believer will dwell for all of eternity, will declare together over and over, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb who was slain, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.
A feeling of insignificance that you might feel right now, a feeling of smallness, will be wiped away. But here’s what the text is telling us. This world to come, it’s not created for angels to rule. It’s for the redeemed to rule. The world here is not your home. This is not all there is. You need to hear that. This is not all there is. I need to hear that.
Because there may be many times when you wake up in the morning and you think to yourself, man, I don’t think I’m making much difference in the world. You might be right. I don’t feel like my life matters that much. Oh, but it does.
Do not be discouraged, dear Christian. God’s ultimate purpose for His people, for history, for redemption, is found not here. It’s found in the future with Christ as the ultimate ruler. And we have that unique privilege of ruling with Christ.
Rule with Christ. Well, 2 Timothy 2:12 tells us that believers who endure will rule with Christ. Romans 8:17 talks about the fact that we are co-heirs with Christ. That has implications both for the here and now and the future to come. Be encouraged that you share in Christ’s reign even now.
Consider some realities. The fact that sin no longer has dominion over you. It’s no longer your ultimate ruler. You’ve been united to Christ. You’ve been united to Him in His death, raised with Him in His resurrection, and seated with Him in the heavenly places. The Lord Jesus has given us the prophetic role, which is to proclaim His gospel to all. He’s given us a priestly office to offer sacrifices of praise as well as our bodies as a living sacrifice. His kingly role to war against all spiritual forces of wickedness, being part of His means to expand His kingdom.
And that certainly changes how we think about our lives in the here and now. We do have meaning, purpose, and significance. And even though we don’t see everything under Christ’s rule, we see Him, and that’s enough. We pray, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And that’s a powerful request. It’s a desire within all of us to see everything that is broken. Lord, make it right. And it’s a confidence that God will destroy all wickedness, that there is a world to come where everything will be well with our souls.
You see, what has its beginning in grace will be completed in glory. And the pathway to glory is always marked by suffering.
But if glory always comes through suffering, we have to ask a deeper question. Was glory ever actually lost or was it just misplaced? You see, that’s where we find Psalm 8 come to us.
Created to Rule
We were created for royal rule, secondly. And we’ll see that under God’s authority. Vice regents is one of the words that you might want to take note of.
Verses 6 to 8a. We’re going to chop verse 8 in half.
“It has been testified somewhere, ‘What’s man that you’re mindful of him? Or the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels. And you’ve crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything under subjection under his feet.’ Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.”
Pause right there. In Psalm 8, verse 3, David considers the heavens. He looks up at the sky and the stars and everything that’s in creation and says to himself, what am I? Maybe that’s been your experience too. You step out on a cool, breezy, summer, clear night. You look up into the stars, into the vastness of the universe, and you’re overwhelmed by the sense of how glorious and expansive all of creation is. It’s humbling to consider God’s power and His wisdom here. And it was carefully made like the work of a master craftsman. The Lord created everything by the word of His power. And not after all of that work did He say, oh, I’m so tired. That was really hard. Amazing. Amazing.
So we move from wonder to God’s glory in creation to then humility. It’s when we consider our smallness in light of God’s greatness. What is man? That’s a question people are asking today. What does it mean to be human? And how you answer that question makes all the difference.
If we are simply products of random chance over a long period of time, life doesn’t have much purpose at all. What does it matter who we are and how we live? Oh, but you see, there is significance to our humanity. We were created in the image of God. This means we were created with a spiritual capacity to know God, to love Him, and to worship Him. I’ve never seen a dog do it, or an elephant. We were given the ability to reason, to know right and wrong. That’s a gift of God. That’s how we’re created in His image. We were made for relationship with God and each other. All of that encompasses the idea that we are made in the image of God.
But it doesn’t stop there. No, we were also given dominion over all of creation. This was the original design. Name the animals, expand My kingdom. We were intended to reflect God’s rule in heaven on earth. Do you see that?
And you see, David, as he asked the question, so do we. You ever ask that question? What am I, Lord? Why do you care for me? And the answer lies not within our own worthiness. We’re small. We’re but a worm. David said it. You remember Psalm 22. We’re small. We’re sinful. We can’t obtain God’s favor, earn it by our good works.
So God cares for us because that’s who He is. He is love, mercy, grace. That’s our Lord. He embodies that perfectly. And there’s another important thing to consider here. God has chosen to set His love on us. You know that? God’s love is free, sovereign, covenantal, yeah, and Christ-mediated. That’s some rich stuff right there. Consider all that.
Doesn’t say, oh, look at that one. So much better than the other. I’m going to set My love on that one. No, He chose to set His love before the foundations of the world. His love flows from His sovereign care. It’s not random. It’s intentional. His care for us is most clearly displayed in the person and work of Christ, as He enters into our condition, He suffers and dies, but then He’s crowned with glory and honor.
So why does God care for us? It’s not because we deserve it or because we earned it. He is love and He chose to love. He created us for Himself and He proved that love in Christ.
Now look at verse 7. You’ve made him a little lower than the angels. You’ve crowned him with glory and honor. This was God’s, this was His design for us. You see it? It’s two truths that are held together. If we’re simply lower than the angels, we’re going to get a little despair. And yet, if only crowned with glory and honor, look at me, the result is pride. Pride. But both humility and dignity are the worthy ingredients for our humble royalty under God’s authority.
That’s the narrative. If you go back to Genesis 1 and 2, it speaks to His original design for us as His vice regents. Write that word down. Vice regents. Underneath Him.
Picture in your mind for a moment a wealthy landowner. He has vast estate of fields and forests and rivers and homes. And he appoints, maybe you, as his manager to care for all of his estate. And he tells this manager, here’s what I want you to do. Care for it. Cultivate it. Expand it. He says to his manager, “Everything that you see is mine, but I’m entrusting it to your care.”
You see, the manager has real authority. He makes real decisions. He’s got to direct workers and employees, and he’s got to establish division to expand the future of the estate. But listen, he never owns it. Now imagine that same manager begins to act like the estate is his. He exploits it instead of cultivating it. He consumes instead of cares. He forgets all about the owner.
That’s humanity. We were given dominion, not ownership. It’s a responsibility rather than autonomy. From the beginning, God did not create humanity to be passive observers in His world. No, He created us for royal rule, to reflect His character, to exercise His authority, and to steward His creation.
And that’s why, exactly why, our fathers in the faith confessed when they say, according to chapter 9 and paragraph 2 of the 1689, man in his state of innocency, He had freedom. He had power to will and to do that which was good, that which was well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable so that he might fall from it.
In other words, we were truly dignified in the original, but never independent, truly honored, but never self-sustaining. And when man reached for autonomy, He lost that very glory that he was intended to reflect.
And yet that is not the world we see. We know something is not right because when we look into the world, even into our own lives, it surely doesn’t look like everything’s under our control, does it? And that’s exactly what the author of Hebrews says next.
At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection under his feet.
In other words, we were crowned with honor and dignity, but not reigning like it. Which leads us to our next point.
Fallen From Glory
We have fallen short of glory. It’s verse 8b. Right at the second part.
“At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.”
See, we were created for glory, crowned with dignity, entrusted with dominion, and set over the work of God’s hands. But the author of Hebrews makes it clear with an honest admission about the present. Notice, look what he says. At present. Things are not as they are intended to be. We have fallen short of glory. Sin has come into the world.
Romans 3:23 says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. A phrase, fallen short. It’s not abstract. It describes something visible in the world and in us.
Imagine a beautifully polished mirror, ceiling to floor, set in your room, sunlight beaming through. Boy, it reflects wonderfully. But then something happens. The mirror is carelessly dropped and broken. But guess what? That’s still a mirror. It still reflects light. But now it’s cracked and warped and incomplete. You see, the reflection is distorted. And that’s what we mean when we have fallen short of the glory of God. We were made to reflect Him clearly. His holiness. His goodness. His rule in the world. But the good news is that sin didn’t erase that image. It fractured it. Damaged it. So humanity still reflects the image of God, but not clearly, not rightly, not fully. The glory’s there, but it’s broken within us.
And that’s why the Bible says that we are being transformed, we are being changed from one degree of glory to another. More and more of Jesus. Shine in me, Lord.
And we consider the fact that we don’t yet see. I want us to consider the effects of sin. Not only on the world, but on ourselves. Eyesight is something that many of us take for granted. But as we grow older, what happens to that eyesight? Ralph, what happens to it? It gets a little dimmer. In fact, it’s the realization I’ve come to. Man, what’s wrong with my right eye? I can’t read out of it. I need glasses.
But sin, you see, does something to our spiritual eyesight. All the way from birth, it’s dim and clouded. It keeps us from fully appreciating and understanding the glory of God. And sadly, what we often do is downplay the effects of sin. We try to improve ourselves. We try to make the world a better place. We make every effort to cover our sin, to make excuses for our sin.
The best way to understand ourselves as Christians is this. We are both sinners and saints at the same time. I have a little sticker here, and it says, Simul Justus et Peccator. At the same time, sinner, saint, I’m carrying around this corpse. Will somebody take this corpse from me, this dead man walking? Everywhere I go, this dead man is following me around. So it’s no surprise when we do sin, but surely no excuse.
We don’t just live defeated lives saying to ourselves, well, that’s just the way it’s going to be this side of heaven. I’m just going to give the old man a nice seat on the couch. Nice spot to hang out with me. No, no, no, no. We live in light of the new nature that we’re in Christ. The old man, although he’s still being carried around with me, he’s dead. Dead. We must keep reminding ourselves of that reality. We’ve got to keep putting this man to death. All the while knowing, Lord, I need Your grace. I need Your power. His strength, perfect in my weakness.
Yes, we have all fallen short of the glory. But that falling short reminds us that we need Jesus more and more. Lord, Lord, come quickly. I need You every hour, every moment.
We need that reassurance that even though the glory is faded in us, it’s corrupted and maligned, we hold on to a greater promise. And this is where the text presses in on us. Suffering, listen, suffering is always the road that we have to walk down as Christians. Not the American gospel, the biblical one. Suffering is the pathway to glory. If it was for Jesus, it’s gonna be for us too. To tell us our only hope is Christ. He is our life. He is our everything.
We live in the already and the not yet. It’s a tension. You feel it when you wake up in the morning and the bones aching. You feel it. It’s part of God’s plan of redemption for you to be in that tension unfolding day by day.
I mentioned it already, being transformed from one degree of glory to another. But Lord, it doesn’t feel like it. I feel a lot less glorious than I was 10 years ago. But you see, that promise doesn’t rest on our efforts to improve ourselves, but solely, solely on the one who makes all things new.
We’ve got to remember that even though we’ve all failed in Adam, that’s what the Bible says. He’s our federal head if we’re not in Christ. All believers, however, will succeed in Christ. This is what we’re seeing in Psalm 8. It’s what David understood to refer to man and his rule. But guess what? This can only be fulfilled in Christ. That’s the reality. This is God’s original design, but there’s only one who can fulfill it.
See, we’re no longer destined for destruction, but ordained for glory. Even though we’ve fallen from glory, we will be restored to glory only in Christ. Only fully at the consummation and the second coming.
And yes, of course, we clearly do not see everything in subjection, everything under. It appears that all that sin and death and destruction are very alive today. That shouldn’t discourage us from continuing to look to Christ. We must look to Him. We’ve got to take our eyes off the world. I know, it’s hard. But I’ve got things to do. I’ve got burdens. I’ve got concerns. Just look to Christ. Tell your brother or sister when you see him next, are you looking to Christ? Have you been looking to Him today?
We feel the weight of verse 8, don’t we? We were crowned with glory and honor, but we don’t see it yet. The dignity is real. The calling is still there. But the world is not as it should be. And the question now becomes unavoidable. If we have fallen short of glory, how are we ever going to get it back?
And you see, the answer of the text doesn’t give us a program. It doesn’t give us a philosophy. It doesn’t give us a strategy. It just gives us a person. And so we move from what we don’t see to what we do see. That’s verse 9.
Restored to Glory Through the Pathway of Suffering
We reach glory through suffering in Christ. That’s the good news you can take home. Tell your mom and dad, I just learned that I have to suffer for the rest of my life in order to reach glory. That’s how it is.
Verse 9, we read,
“But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Christ, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of his death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.”
This is the most important part of the text here today. And it all begins with that little word, but. But. Don’t move too quickly past that. Let it signal to you that something here is changing. This is the great transition point. We do not see, but we do see Jesus. We do not see, but we do see the one who reigns.
Wait a minute, pastor, I don’t see Jesus. Let me ask you a question. Do you behold Him by faith? If you’re a believer, you surely do. And that’s the key here.
Even though we were created for royal rule under the authority of God, even though we have fallen short of glory, there has been one who stepped into history. Jesus is literally the fulfillment of Psalm 8. See, that which was hidden, that which was supposed to be true of man, has been made complete through Christ. And we share in that.
This is what Scripture is about. This is the story of redemption. This is what makes the Christian faith so powerful, so amazing.
Listen, listen. We are not defined by what we don’t see, but by what we do see or who we do see. And if you’re a Christian, you have been given the greatest privilege of all of humanity. All of the history of man, the greatest privilege is to see Christ. It’s not just an accident. You didn’t just stumble upon faith. You didn’t just draw it out of the well of your heart. It’s not because you were seeking God or because you’re worthy of His honor. But the Lord Jesus extended His hands of riches of kindness to us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That’s the heart of the gospel right there.
And it begins with this doctrine we call the incarnation. It’s a fancy word. It just means that Jesus became one of us. He took on flesh. The eternal Son of God stepped out of glory to dwell among us. Philippians 2 verse 8. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Keep in mind that Jesus maintained His deity and His humanity in entirety. This mystery, if you’re taking note, write it down. It’s called the hypostatic union. It’s one person with two natures, truly God and truly man. Jesus Christ. You might say Jesus is His humanity, refers to His humanity, and Christ refers to His deity. But nonetheless, they are perfectly one.
Here’s the point of Jesus’ humiliation. So His incarnation is humiliation. He became one of us. Without Him, without Jesus, listen, without Him becoming a human being, He could never represent us before the Father. But Jesus could also not truly save us if He was not God.
And the good news for you and me is that His suffering and His death were the very grounds for His exaltation. What happened after His death? That’s right, He rose. And after He rose, what happened? He ascended. Where did He go? To sit at the right hand of the Father. To make intercession for us.
Look at the middle of verse 9. Right now, Jesus is crowned with glory and honor. You see it? Yeah, that was the original design that we would be crowned with glory and honor. Imagine that for a moment if sin had not entered the world. We’d be hanging out with Adam and Eve. We’d be walking with God. We’d be enjoying perfect rule under God’s authority. We’d be reflecting His image rightly and fully.
And yet, if sin had not entered the world, would we know the grace and mercy of God? No, we wouldn’t. But pastor, why did He have to do that way? Why did He have to allow sin to enter the world? Wouldn’t it have been a lot easier if He didn’t? Surely it would have. But we also wouldn’t know the full glory of God on display.
Listen, Christian, this is a hard truth. I’m going to tell you right now what I’m about to tell you. God’s glory is best displayed in both the redemption of His people and the punishment of the wicked. I know that’s hard. How could a good God allow people to go to hell? I want to come back to that understanding of sin. Is sin really that bad? Are people mostly good?
See, without the Holy Spirit showing us our sin, awakening us to the knowledge of the truth, we will walk in deception that we think we are good. But we are lost. Without the Spirit showing us that we’re in Adam, that we’ve been storing up God’s wrath day by day, every day that we’re not in Christ, more and more wrath being stored up, we’re hopeless. And the day of judgment is sure to come.
But the second part of verse 9 tells us this. By the grace of God. Titus 2:11 says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. To the young, to the old, to the rich, to all tribes and nations and tongues. This is the goodness and kindness of our Savior. This is why the eternal Son of God became a man. He became acquainted with us. With our weakness. With our suffering. With our pain.
And it says here, the author tells us next, He tasted death. Tasted death. That’s a way to say that He experienced death in a very personal way. See, the sting that was reserved for the sinner was given to the Savior. We may suffer now, but nothing in comparison to the suffering of our God, the Son of God, Jesus.
Now you might be asking, that last word at the end of verse 9, everyone, it says, did Jesus die for everyone? No. Let’s let the Scripture answer that question. Just a few verses later, we read of many sons brought to glory, verse 10. Brothers, verse 11. Children God has given, verse 13. And the seed of Abraham, verse 16. These are not general categories. These are specific people.
So how do we understand Christ’s death? Not uncertain, not incomplete. Christ did not merely come to make salvation possible. He came to actually save a people. Period. His death is of an infinite value. There’s no limit to its worth. But it also is definite in its purpose. Always accomplishing what God intends. Jesus lays down His life for the sheep. He loves His church. He gave His life for His church. And He doesn’t fail to save those whom He redeemed.
This is not meant to weaken your assurance. It’s meant to strengthen it. Because your hope is not this. Did I choose strongly enough? No. Better ask this question. Did Christ accomplish enough? Let me let the Scripture answer that question for you. He did. Fully. That’s the atonement. Full, sufficient, effective.
Conclusion
So where does that leave us? We were hanging out in Philly on the street corners. Small and unseen, wondering if this life matters. Hebrews doesn’t remove that smallness from us. It gives you a bigger story. You were made for glory, but you fell short of that glory and you cannot recover it yourself. But we see Jesus. He entered our condition. He bore our curse. He tasted death and now He is crowned with glory and honor.
So your life is not measured by what you lack, but by who you behold. And one day, one day, our faith will be sight. What begins in grace ends in glory because Christ not only opened the way, you know it, He is the way. So fix your eyes on Him and bring everything to Him. Your sin, your weakness, your need, and receive His mercy.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray together.
Lord, this day we receive Your mercy. We receive Your kindness and Your forgiveness. And we give You thanks. Lord, You bore the penalty. You took our sin. All the riches of the kindness of our God and Savior.
So we do confess our sin. We do confess that we have looked to this world for our joy, for our satisfaction. But You are our joy. You are our satisfaction. We want to enjoy You. We want to glorify You.
Lord, restore the glory that was lost. Come quickly. Come, Maranatha. We long for the day. Until then, Lord, help us to keep looking up. Keep reminding ourselves that the story is bigger than our individual lives. It is Your glory.
And we pray that Your gospel would continue to go forward to the ends of the earth. That You’d use this little church to get Your gospel out to the lost students in our high schools and middle schools and elementary. This next generation, raise them up to be proclaiming Your gospel without any shame or fear.
Boldness, Lord, give to Your church. Raise us, send us, and restore Your glory. We pray in Jesus’ name.
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