outline for the entire catechism. And so we will see those themes brought throughout as we go through it. But the first question and answer specifically gives that gospel promise that we believe as a church, the truth of our only comfort. And so we will see that comfort that we receive from Hebrews 2. If you would turn with me there in your Bibles now. If you are following along in one of the provided Bibles in the back, which I encourage you to do so. It is good to have God's word open before us as we search and look at these scriptures and look at the truths of what it is portraying to us. It's good to refer back to it as I give the sermon. And I like to also refer back to them. I will read them out loud as well. So you can find that on page 1,197 in one of those provided Bibles. Let us hear now God's holy and inerrant word, which stands forever. We're going to read the entirety of chapter 2, but focus on verses 10 through 18. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through the angels proved unalterable, And every transgression and obedience received a just penalty? How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard. God also testifying with them both by signs and wonders and by various miracles, by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. For He did not subject angels to the angels, the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere saying, what is man that you remember him? Or the son of man that you are concerned about him? You have made Him, for a little while, lower than the angels. You have crowned Him with glory and honor and have appointed Him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under His feet. For in subjecting all things to Him, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But now, we do not yet see all things subjected to Him. But we do see him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children whom God has given me. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. For assuredly he does not give help to the angels, but he gives help to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. for since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted. So far, reading God's holy word. Beloved congregation and the Lord Jesus Christ, people are searching for comfort because of the fear of death. People are looking for something to hope for because they know that they will die, that they must die. Nobody has escaped death. Because of this, people go through great lengths to convince themselves of some hope that they can have in light of death. Atheists go through those great lengths to convince themselves that there is nothing after death. Absolutely nothing. So we just live and we want to live in the moment. Everything that exists is here materially on earth and there is nothing else. And that gives them hope because then they don't have to face a creator. One who has a requirement on their lives. Others seek to still cling to eternity, to some sort of immortality to give them comfort in light of death. So we get authors such as Emily Dickinson who says that unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality. And Chuck Palahniuk says, we all die. The goal isn't to live forever, but to create something that will. Albert Einstein says, our death is not the end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation, for they are us. Our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. Even J.K. Rowling says, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. We can see that eternity, immortality, brings hope to people, and they seek to cling these things back, even in light of all these things that the atheist proclaims. And in fact, researchers have found that simulating an out-of-body experience, such as those who have testified because they were lying dead on a table for some time, have said that it has helped them with the fear of death. They're seeking to find comfort, and they find comfort in some sort of afterlife. And so researchers found several people who have really feared death, and they gave them this out-of-body experience using virtual reality to simulate some sort of life after death. And after doing this, several confessed, or all of them confessed to being less afraid of death. But the Christian's hope, the Christian's comfort, the Christian's confession is much more firm in the face of death than what these others who are unbelieving have said. Emily, along with many others here in this room and abroad, have confessed that they joyfully trust in Jesus, the Son of God, as their comfort in the fear of death. The Christian deliverance from death is found in their relationship with Jesus Christ. And the Christian's comfort in the face of death is lasting and certain. And so we confess with the writer of the Hebrews that we are bonded in brotherhood to Jesus whose sacrifice delivers us from the dread of death. That is our theme this morning. We are bonded, we are united in brotherhood to Jesus, whose sacrifice, that fitting sacrifice, delivers us from the dread of death. So we will look first of all at that dread of death. What is it that we ought to feel if we are outside of Jesus Christ? What brings fear to us if we do not believe in Jesus Christ? Secondly, we look at the bond of brotherhood. Finally, we will look at the sacrifice of our Savior. In verse 15 we are told that Jesus died so that through his death he might free those who through the fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Now some might find temporary comfort or a measure of comfort in those things that I mentioned in our introduction, those quotes that somehow there's eternity involved and going on in our children. But this does not give hope or a certainty to the personal person, the individual. And if you trust in a virtual reality situation, it is mere fiction. It is trusting in something that is not true. It cannot bring true hope to anyone, true comfort, because it is fiction. And each of these other things have their downfalls as well, for love cannot last in the sense of that person being loved for generations. The love of them is forgotten. I don't know who my great, great, great grandfather was or grandmother. That love for them is not there because I don't know who they are. It is not eternal. Yes, love in and of itself in God is eternal. But it is not for this individual. The person who thinks Chuck Palahniuk who is an author, feels that he has become immortal through his writing. Yet, how many of us are able to write a great work that lasts for a long time? Many books are burned and lost, maybe even some books that would have become classics. There is no true eternity in this. And next, in reply to J.K. Rowling, if there is an afterlife, is there hope that this next great adventure will be better or the same as this one that you're living right now? Is there hope or comfort in any of these confessions? For the author of Hebrews, or for the author to the Hebrews and for all Christians, there is one certain and lasting comfort in the face of death. He says if you trust anything else, you will receive punishment. The author of the book is fearful for this church because they are tempted to throw away their confidence, which has great reward, as he says in chapter 10, verse 35. And he starts off the section that we just read by saying that we need to pay attention to the message of Jesus Christ, to what he proclaimed to us. Because if we don't, if we forsake that word from the God-man himself, the perfect revealer, how will we be saved? If everything before met its just penalty, then how are we, if we neglect Jesus Christ, not going to receive the same? Jesus' words are more reliable than even the angels. And so in chapter three, verse 12, he tells this Christian church, and I tell you, take care, brethren, that there not be any one of you, in any one of you, an unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Take care, brothers. Because, as he goes on to say in chapter 10, 31, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Outside of Christ, we can only expect judgment and the fury of fire which consumes the adversaries. And in chapter 12 he tells us that our God is a consuming fire. And so he says, church, hold fast to that confession which has been given to you through Jesus Christ, through the apostles. Hold on to that teaching that you have confessed as true, that you have professed that it is your only comfort in life and in death. Hold fast to it. For it is only in that that you will not receive the punishment deserved. So Emily, people of God, you have a responsibility to hold fast to that comfort you have in Jesus Christ. hold fast, strive, even in the midst of suffering. Because outside this confession that Jesus is your older brother, there is no salvation from death and there is no comfort but only misery and death. And following death, there is only judgment and the fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. However, the author of Hebrews says in chapter three, verse six, Christ was faithful as a son over his house, whose we are. If we hold fast to our confidence and boast of our hope firm until the end, because Jesus is the faithful son and serves his brothers by becoming one of them. He bonds himself in brotherhood, which brings us to our second point. Our text emphasizes that bond that Jesus has with his brothers. Look again with me at verses 11 through the beginning of 14. It says, For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partakes of the same. And so verse 11 starts off by saying that the one who sanctifies and the one who are sanctified are from the same father. Now if you're looking in the word there, and if you have the provided ones, you will notice that it is in italics. This means that they have provided this word in hopes of making it more clear. Now, you could simply read it to say that they are from one, or from the same, or one thing. Now, there are other versions such as the ESV that would use the word source rather than father, and the NIV translates from the same family. All these things get at the point in which the author is trying to make is that Jesus and humanity are one. They are of the same. They are of the same flesh and blood. And verse 17 also reports that He had to be made like His brethren in all things. They are all human, complete in nature, in that human nature. And so this God, Jesus, partakes of flesh and bonds himself to humanity so that he might become one of them and they might become part of his family. That he can confess in the midst of the congregation the name of God, meaning the salvation of God, the God who delivers. He confesses His name in the midst. Notice the personal nature of that. He's in the midst of this congregation. He's there with them. And He also, in verse 13, which comes from that Psalm 22, or actually verse 12 comes from Psalm 22, but verse 13 comes from Isaiah 8 where it says, I will put my trust in Him. Jesus Christ, too, has to trust in God the Father to provide for Him, to deliver Him from suffering, the unjust suffering that He goes through. He, too, is like us in trusting the Father in the midst of suffering. And so it is fitting for this man to bond himself to humanity, to bring sons to glory, to bring about salvation and deliverance from the dread of death. All these scripture quotations seek to do that. And so in Jesus, we can find true comfort in the God who knows our human weakness. He took upon Himself our nature to give us aid. He didn't come to help the angels, but the children of Abraham. He came to help the earthly family of Abraham. And we know that this does not just include that physical line of Abraham. Because Paul tells us, therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. He knows our suffering. He knows the fear of death and he has sweat great drops of blood before he went to death. And he tasted death for us so that we don't have to. That word tasted is not merely that he just took a little sip. but he experienced death to the full, eternal punishment, every punishment and every curse upon sin for our sake. And he is now qualified to be our brother and to give us aid. And so the purpose of Jesus taking on full humanity is so that he might be the author, or pioneer, or captain, as other translations say, for our salvation. It is fitting that for Jesus to be perfected through suffering. We confess that Jesus is God, so how is it that Jesus can be made perfect? How is it as a perfect God who's come down to earth, how can he become even more perfect? It is not so much that in his being he has become perfected, but instead he has become the perfect Savior. He is able to be our high priest because he has taken on flesh and he has made that fitting sacrifice and delivered us from the dread of death, which is our third point. The nature that has sinned has to pay that just penalty. And the penalty we have just mentioned is death and eternal death. The penalty is the righteous wrath of God, which is a consuming fire. But Jesus in the flesh took our place. And he is the merciful and faithful high priest who makes propitiation for his brothers. Now obviously that's not a word we use in our normal and everyday conversation. It's probably a word that some of us don't recognize. But the point of this word in which some of you may have learned the simple definition that propitiation is the wrath appeasing sacrifice. Meaning that the righteous wrath of God against sin must be paid. Because God is righteous, there must be a penalty paid. Judgment must be poured out. But God in his love says, I do not wanna pay that penalty on the children I have created. So I will provide a savior in my son who will live perfectly and suffer and go to the cross and appease my wrath. so that I myself absorb the punishment due for these people. He drank the dread of death and death all the way to its dregs. He drinks that foaming wrath of God down to the bottom of the cup. and he suffers and pays with his precious blood the price that needs to be paid. We owed it, he paid it. And he thereby renders powerless death, that power of death over our lives, that fear of death that we are subject to in our lives. And it then becomes the way to salvation. As united to Him, we too do die on this earth, but we are brought into salvation with Him, into the everlasting eternal life, where we dwell with Him in glory forever, as children, as sons, as brothers with Jesus Christ. The Word of God in Hebrews has just shown us where our real comfort comes from. that we can confess because of what he has said here that our only comfort in life and in death is that our faithful Savior Jesus Christ has paid the penalty. And it has no hold of us. Satan can no longer go before the Father and accuse us and say, he is a sinner, he needs to pay, he needs to die, he needs to suffer the same way that I need to suffer. Instead, the Father can say, it's been paid. So we need to hold on. Strive in this faith We need to continue to confess That I am not my own But belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ Because he has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and Has set me free from the tyranny of the devil Amen Let us pray. Gracious God, we thank you that you have revealed to us this wonderful salvation, that you have given us your words in Hebrews to know that we do not need to fear death. that we do not need to shrink back in faith even in the face of death and suffering because you have promised eternal life for us. So Lord, give us your spirit to help us hold fast to the firm confession that we are true sons of God. and inheritors of the great salvation and the great heavenly kingdom in Christ alone. Amen.