A Word is Worth A 1000 Pictures

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe delves into the concept of the "lag" between what we hear in God's word and what we see in the world around us. Using Hebrews 2 and Psalm 8, he illustrates how we were created to rule with God, but sin disrupted this plan. Ihfe points to Jesus as the true human who has fulfilled this calling and now sits at the right hand of the Father.

Ihfe acknowledges the tension we experience when we don't see everything subject to Christ yet, despite the promises we've received. He encourages believers to keep their eyes on Jesus, who has gone before us as our pioneer and guide. The sermon addresses the slavery to the fear of death that many experience and how Jesus frees us from this bondage.

Ihfe concludes by urging the church to persevere in faith, to meet together regularly, and to support one another in life's challenges. He reminds us that Jesus, being fully human, has experienced our temptations and struggles, making Him the perfect leader to follow as we navigate this "already but not yet" reality of God's kingdom.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, church, it's good to be with you. If you have your Bible, invite you to turn over to Hebrews chapter two. We're in week three of our Lenten series called Running for your life. Been thinking together about how apt I think this image really is. These days we feel like we're running for our life.

There's so much at stake and we feel the weight of that. In fact, we'll jump into that here in just a couple of minutes. But week one, we talked about how there's this weary church that the Hebrew preacher is writing to encourage, to challenge, to invite, to endure. Because they're asking this question, is it worth it? It's a question that we're all familiar with when we're faced with a tough decision or challenging circumstance, to wonder, can we truly lean on our faith?

Can we truly trust God to do for us what he says he will do, to be who he says he will be, to give to us what he has promised to give? Is it worth it to hold on? And the Hebrews answer is yes, absolutely, yes. Just keeps swimming. Hold on, hang in.

Don't give up now. Last week we looked at how in the midst of this encouragement, he's going to tell us, invite us back into God's grand story that began at creation, and it will be fulfilled when Jesus returns again that second time. But in between, then we keep our eyes on him, the one who endured, the one who persevered, the one who sacrificed so much. The Hebrew preacher, he is going to call this church to faithfulness, to be faithful. But it's this echo, actually, of the faithfulness that God and Jesus have shown to us.

In Hebrews chapter 10, he says, let's hold unswervingly to our faith, to the faith that we profess, because he who has promised us is faithful, right? So we're faithful to God in response to his faithfulness to us. And so he gives us a new way to deal with how we think about history. We don't pretend it never happened and we don't glorify it as if it was the greatest thing ever. Instead, we allow it to help focus us on the one to which all history points, and that's to the living God.

This week we're going to look at how name the message. A word is worth a thousand pictures. Because in Hebrews, what we'll learn from the preacher is that the word, the living word, is God's word. And he invites us, he challenges us to lean on that word because our eyes can deceive us. Sometimes they deceive us.

Have you ever noticed this lag between what I see and what I hear? Have you ever been outside and noticed you can see something from a long while, long before you can hear it? There's this lag in between the two. What I see, what I hear. And I think Hebrews is going to be illustrating to us this lag that exists in our own lives and our own faith journeys.

Everything seems to be going great as Hebrews opens up, right? And in the beginning, God spoke. In the past, God spoke this beautiful word. As chapter two opens up, there's this warning to keep listening to that word, to hear that word, so we don't drift away. Here we find in verse five of chapter two, he's going to point out the lag, that lag between what we see and what we hear, what we experience.

In fact, he begins with pointing us back to Psalm 8. It's not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking, right? There's not. This isn't a new topic. He's not shifting into something there.

He's continuing on this thought that we've been talking about this world. That's not a new topic. In fact, it's a world he's already pointed us to in chapter one, back in verse six and again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him, right? We're tempted to think, well, maybe that's the incarnation when Jesus finally comes to earth. No, no, no.

He's telling us this great grand story. Remember this world that he's talking about? It's this world to come. When Jesus returns, that final time to make all things new, then the angels will worship him. But still there's something ahead.

There's something that hasn't yet been realized. He's calling them to. There is this place, he says, where someone has testified.

The Hebrew preacher is going to take this young church and us back into the great story of God. It begins back in Genesis 1 and 2. We where at creation we were created in God's image. And after that creation, God empowers his people, humanity, to rule, to have dominion over the earth. We were created to rule with God over all that he has created.

Now we know in Genesis 3 that gets messed up. Adam and Eve and so many beyond have messed that up. But there's this desire to get back to our true humanity, which is to rule, to have dominion with God over all the earth. This amazing story that he's telling Us, he says, there's this larger narrative at play. There is a true human that has actually done this, who has been able to become, has entered in and is seated now at the right hand of the Father, who is the true human, who's been through what all of us will go through, including death and resurrection, that what has happened to him will happen to us.

So we get to Psalm 8, and it's here that, that the preacher is going to make a shift, inviting us back into the story to illustrate again this larger narrative. Psalm 8 says this. What is a human? That you are mindful of him, a son of man, that you care for him, you made him a little lower than the angels, you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet. If you go back and look at Psalm 8, this, this glorious declaration of this creation story where God has created and then called humanity to rule, to have dominion with him, this royal psalm, if you will, about this glorious declaration of humanity.

But for the preacher, in terms of his argument here, he's showing us that it's actually been fulfilled in Christ, in Jesus. How did we get to chapter one, where we're told that this amazing Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, is now the one ruling in authority, seated at the right hand of the Father. How did he get there? Well, this is how we got there. It happened just like this.

God did for the human Jesus. What will one day happen to us all? And so the good news of that, he says, is everything has been put under his feet, everything has been made subject to him. And that's really good news. Only we're confronted now with a crisis.

Have you looked at the news recently? Does it look like everything has been made subject to Jesus, that everything is under his feet?

The Bible doesn't hide the truth of the challenge, that not everything has been subjected to Christ yet. Yet at present time, the Hebrew preacher will say, we do not see everything subject to him. Right? When we look out into the world and we see car accidents and cancer diagnoses, when we see wars and famines and fires and floods, it doesn't look like everything has been made subject to Christ. It sometimes leads us to wonder when we encounter that, that did anything really change?

Has anything really changed? Right? You hear the echoes of this question that the young church is saying, man, I've become a follower of Jesus, but not much seems to have changed, except for now. I'm suffering for that decision. Now I'm being pushed and forced out of my community.

Now they're Coming in and taking away my property. They've expelled me from the temple or from our places of worship. That all that I've known has now been given over and given away. Is it worth it? The preacher and Psalm 8 says, there's this lag going on of what we've been promised in the Word and what we're seeing and experiencing in the world.

We were created as royalty, though things are not as they one day will be. Jesus has already gone down that road. He has owned all that order of creation. We just don't see it quite, quite yet, you know? The preacher gives us another hint to this if we're listening closely.

In chapter one, he quotes a psalm that's quoted actually all over the New Testament. Psalm 110, he says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for you, for your feet. See, we often hear that Lord, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. We just skip over the lag word there. Until, sit at my right hand until that word.

Until. I mean, it seems like if the Lord said to my Lord, we should be good, right? That should solve everything. If God said it, that's enough done. And yet, and yet there's that word under until, as if something has yet to happen.

Those of us who continue to preach funerals, as I do, those of us who continue to go to funerals, as many of you and I do, we feel the weight of that. Until. Right? There's this word that's been spoken that says this truth has happened until it does happen. And this is really a crisis, right?

In a world where all things are to be subject to Christ put under his feet, we shouldn't have to bury our loved ones. We shouldn't have to witness war and famine and poverty and exploitation. We shouldn't have to. It seems like in a world where Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God, where all things are under his feet, that should be enough. Things ought not to be this way.

But he's just told us, I'm talking to you about the world that is to come. Verse 5. It's already. It's not make believe, but it's also not yet. This already not yet, right?

He says we're leaning in chapter nine, he says we're leaning into this salvation that we're waiting on Jesus to bring to us. And yet at the beginning of chapter two, he says, you've already received a great salvation. Okay bro, which is it? We've already received it, or we're waiting for Jesus to bring it. And the preacher says, yes, that's exactly right.

The preacher doesn't make believe here. He doesn't pretend that things aren't really difficult. In fact, he points us back to the lag. He says, this word has been proclaimed and it is true, and it's being made true. And we live in that moment between it's true and being fulfilled, even though we don't yet see it.

He says, we do see something, or rather someone, right? Verse 9. But we do see Jesus. We don't see it, but we see Him. But we do see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for a little while now, crowned with glory and honor because he suffered the death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, that he should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Jesus, he says, is the pioneer. He has been down this road. He is the one who leads the way. He is our guide.

In fact, it's the same word that's used to describe the spies as Israel is traveling through the wilderness and they're about to go into the promised land, and they send spies out into the world to kind of sniff things out. What's going on over there? What's it like, that same word? Jesus has gone before us to lead us. Later on in chapter six, he's going to be called the first runner or the forerunner.

Our faith for you NASCAR fans out there, the pace car. And he's the one who sets the pace, and everyone follows in behind him. He's out front, so keep your eyes on him. So even though we can't see everything right now subject to him, we trust in that promise. All things are subject to Him.

And one day we will see it as it truly is. But we see him right now. We see him suffering and dying, crowned with glory and honor. It's this beautiful vision he paints. We see Jesus this human, and his outcome is the result of a very human experience.

Both the One who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters in the assembly. I will sing your praises. And again I will put my trust in Him.

And again he says, here am I, and the children God has given me. 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.

The Hebrew preacher says there's a slavery to the fear of death. And we feel it all around us, don't we? That's slavery to fear of death. I mean, why else would there be such a strong push toward grabbing power if there weren't this fear of death?

Why is it that when someone cuts me off in traffic, it feels like death?

I mean, can I be honest for a second? I want to lay on that horn. I've got a few signs I want to throw their way because it feels like they have wronged me, right? When I'm standing in line at the grocery store and I'm counting your basket and it says 20 or less, and you got 25, it is this small, silly little thing, right? But it feels like death.

When you walk into the cafeteria at school, you are scanning the horizon, right? When you walk into your office or when you walk into that situation, you're scanning for, who is it that I can. Who's got me? Because to walk in somewhere alone and isolated, it feels like death.

And if we feel that, we act on that, it forces us to behave in certain ways. And sometimes we do some really silly things, sometimes we do some really beyond silly things because we feel the weight of the slavery of death. It's real. Like, we know it in our bones. We feel it.

We feel it. The world tells us right here and right now, that's all you got. So you better make it count. You better get for yourself, because no one else is going to get for you, because one day you're going to die.

So you better make it last. You better make it count. This is all there is. Now, no one may have ever sat us down and told us that. The advertising is a lot more subtle, but the message is the same.

There's this slavery to the fear of death. And it will drive us. It will drive you. It's driven me, but not the Hebrew preacher. And he keeps calling us back to this great story, that there is a human who has lived it, who has lived the life that you're invited and empowered now through the Holy Spirit, to live.

There is one who's gone before us, who is the pace car. He is the reconciler. He is the forerunner, the first one to do it, and he is showing us the way. He has felt the weight of the slavery, of the fear of death. He felt it all around him.

I just listen to Jesus conversations and notice how he engages with folks who feel that weight the most, right? That father who runs up to him and says, help me help my unbelief, like I believe. But man, I am struggling here because this is my kid. Rem we feel the weight of the man who has been tormented his whole life and outcast and pushed to the side. We feel that Jesus felt that and he offers a different way.

I mean, our world is confused. And sadly, sometimes our churches too, they're trying to convince us, one day you're going to die, so you better seize the moment. And yet then so much is built around this idea of you're not really dying. Feel young, you're getting younger, you look better now than you did years ago. It's not true, but man, we want to believe it.

Just buy this, just go here, just do this in a prolong. That feeling of inevitability. Perhaps some of you watched this little theological movie that came out in 2023 called Barbie.

Did anybody see that movie? Ran a few of us. How does Barbie mess everything up? Right? We'living in this great pretend world.

Why do you have to keep asking these questions? Why are you asking us about death?

We want to just keep living in our dream house and keep pretending that nothing will ever change. It will always be like this. You see, there's a slavery to the fear of death. And it leads you to build your own version of a Barbie house and to want to live in it. And just think, if I could just get it set up this way, if I could just have this relationship, if I could just do these things, if I could just have this job and earn this amount of money, then everything would be okay.

As if you're not going to die.

Stop asking that, Barbie. It's messing with my dream house.

The Hebrew preacher says church life is too important to pretend that we're not going to die. That's part of the human experience. It's happening. But church, we can take hope in this. There's already a human who has s done it, and he's showing us the way to do it.

That there is life after death if we'll follow him.

I told you that all through Hebrews 86, references to the Old Testament. The last two in chapter 13 are these two references. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. The Lord is my helper.

I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? My drawing is back to. There's nothing right Paul would say, there's nothing that can separate you from God's amazing love that goes beyond the grave. Nothing.

And so we finish. For surely it's not angels that he helps, but Abraham's descendants. Verse 16, chapter 2. 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 and 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.

The breach, says churchy. There's a human who has done this fully man in every way. He's been tempted just as you are, and yet he was able to navigate. Would you follow him? He has felt the weight of death just like you have felt it.

Would you follow him? Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy brothers and sisters, he says, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God's house. And we are his house.

We're his house. If indeed we hold firmly to our confidence, the hope in which we glory, and there's a human who has lived a life, and if he were here living your life, he could live it. In fact, he would be happy to show you how to live it. Would you follow him?

Because there's this lag that we're living in the midst of, right? Between what we see, this word that we hear, and what we see in experience. But between there, we have a guide, we have a forerunner, we have a pace car that we can follow, who will lead us into the life that's truly life. Which makes sense then, that he would kind of redefine what faith is, what holding on to this hope looks like when he says to the beginning of chapter 11, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

And not only that. In chapter 10, just one chapter before we understand why the preacher would encourage the church. Don't give up meeting together. Don't let this go to waste, right? I always heard that as that's why you go to church every Sunday?

No, no, no. That's not why we go to church every Sunday. We don't go to church every Sunday because God needs us to be here. As if it's like the school system. Well, if you show up, then God gets a little extra credit.

He gets money sent his way. No, no, no. We need to be here. We need help with all the stuff that we're going through. As Tim reminded us, every one of us has a challenge and a circumstance in a way that we feel the slavery of death.

And our temptation is to give in to the fear and to try to build up our Barbie Dream House so that we don't have to deal with reality. But it's when we gather here in this place that we remind each other. We don't have to pretend. You don't have to pretend that life isn't hard and that you're going through some things. Like, we're going to go with them.

Go with you through them. We're going to follow the leader. We're going to go where he goes. We're going to do what he does. Why?

Because he has shown us being fully human in every way. Being tempted just as we are, and yet without sin, was able to navigate a world that tried to put this pressure on. You're not going to die or you are going to die, so make the most of it. Instead, Jesus shows us a different way.

You see, that's why a word is worth a thousand pictures. Because sometimes our eyes deceive us. But Jesus never will because he who's promised is faithful. So will we pursue him this week? Church.

I invite you. Jump back into Hebrews. If you haven't taken me up on the challenge yet. Invite you to read through the book of Hebrews and notice how he continues to challenge us to say, yes, it is worth it. Persevere.

Hold on. This is a challenge. This is hard. What you're going through. It's real.

There's this lag between what's been promised and what's being fulfilled. Right. This already? Not yet. We're waiting for it, but we're not doing it alone.

We're doing it together. God, may we wait together in the name of Jesus this week in a way that looks like the kingdom breaking through. A waiting that doesn't just mean we sit on the sidelines and watch life unfolded in front of us, but rather we engage fully with our minds and our hearts and our gifts. All that you've given to us, trusting and believing that as we Follow Jesus. He will lead us to life in a world that values so many things and sometimes too often a church that does too.

God, would you help us to hear this call once again that the human Jesus made human in every way a little lower than the angels came to remind us of that first creation story where you created us as royalty, as true humans to rule with you and that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth and that Jesus will return and make all things new and we will be with him, with you and with one another. But between that day and this, would you help us to not lose heart? Would you help us to not give up, to not give in? Would you help us to not just be deceived by our eyes, but to wait patiently, to endure, to hold on. And may we do that for one another, May we encourage one another all the more as that day approaches, to hold on, to keep going.

Father, thank you for the example, the witness, the testimony, that pace car, that pioneer of faith, Jesus, thank you Jesus for showing us the way of showing us how to live a truly human life. God, would you give us the courage to follow God? I know for some of us this week it's going to take a real personal turn and we are re going to have to stare into the mirror and ask God, how are we settling for a Barbie Dream House instead of the Kingdom of God?

For some it's gonna require us to take stock of a relationship, to have the courage to humble ourselves.

Some of us are gonna have to deal with the diagnosis or a challenge or a circumstance that just seems overwhelming. God, would you help us to lean into your promise that you're faithful, that you didn't just build the house, you lord over it and you're calling us to be just like you. God, would you help us to be community to one another this week? Because some of us are facing that weight of death eyeball to eyeball and it feels overwhelming. We feel the weight of it.

God, would you help us to gather around and help hold that, to bear each other's burdens, knowing and seeing and being reminded that it was Jesus who learned obedience through his suffering, that he experienced it just like we do. Thank you for the gift of the book of Hebrews, the challenge that it is to us, the encouragement. God, may it, may you speak to us through it. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.