And as you look back in history, there are many examples of the underdog triumphing. Someone who's not down, coming back. And maybe you've heard of, or you were alive then, Miracle on Ice. The Miracle on Ice, the American hockey team in 1980 that was made up just of college players. And they went to the Olympics as total underdogs, and they beat the might of the professional players in the Soviet Union's team and went on to win the gold medal. And it just showed how underdogs with resilience and determination and team spirit can triumph over the odds. I was reading recently about a young girl in Pakistan. Maybe some of you will have heard of her, Malala Yousafzai. She was 12 years old when the Pakistan Taliban refused to allow her education. And they threatened any female who wanted education and pursued it, they threatened them with death. And this young 12-year-old Malala stood up against this, and she got on the bus every day to go to school. And one day, the Pakistan Taliban targeted her for assassination and shot her, even hit her in the head. And yet, she continued to campaign for women's education and eventually became a Nobel Peace Prize winner and has become a champion of women's education around the whole world. So you see again how a little girl against the might of the Taliban and that kind of Islam triumphs and with determination becomes a force for good in the whole world. I remember there was a, I think I might actually have a, that's her there, Malala Yousafzai. And I remember when I used to live in the UK, there was a team called Leicester City, a soccer team made up of no names, like nobody knew who anyone was in this team. They just scraped into the top division and everyone expected just them to go straight back down again. And yet they began winning and eventually won the Premier League. with a team of people who nobody knew over all the Manchester United's and Liverpool's and all that and again just showing how sometimes the underdog can become the top dog. And there's been a lot of talk about that this week hasn't there? as we have lived through what's been called the greatest comeback in political history. Someone who was down and out and exiled, and this is not an endorsement, but regarded as just as good as dead and yet has come back and become the president once again. Why is it that we love these comeback stories so much? I think it's because we've all been the underdog at times, haven't we? We've all faced overwhelming odds. We've come up against a situation or an organization that we are not expected to triumph over. We are maybe expected to be crushed. And so when we can see other examples of the underdogs becoming the top doggit, We relate to it and it encourages us. It gives us hope. It inspires us to keep going and who knows, maybe end up there as well. And there's another thing. Those who go through that process of being knocked down and coming back, becoming the underdog and then becoming the top dog, they're changed by the experience. They're not the same people. That whole experience shapes them and transforms them in the most amazing ways. And this evening we want to look at the greatest comeback ever. It's the comeback of Jesus Christ from the cross and from death and from defeat to total triumph. What a comeback. that was. We want to ask this question, how does Jesus' comeback give us hope? When we look at this passage, it gives us a framework for Jesus' life, as I hope we'll see. We can look at it in four acts, as in a four-act drama. Or we can look at it as a series of four crowns. And we'll do both as we go through this this evening. But basically, we've been looking at how Jesus is better, haven't we, in Hebrews. He's better than the prophets. He's better than the angels. He's a better focus. And this evening, he gives us hope of a better future. And we want to see that. First of all, Act one, the ideal set-up. Those who write dramas for the movies or television series or books, they tend to follow a very standard four-act sequence. The first sequence is called the set-up, and it goes like this. In the set-up, introduce the environment, the characters, and the central conflict. And that's what we have here. In verse six, we are taken back to the ideal world. We're taken back to humanity as created in the Garden of Eden. We read here, it's been testified somewhere, Psalm 8 is where this quote comes from. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? So he's pointing us back to the creation of Adam and Eve and he's saying, You look at how tiny and small and insignificant and almost unnoticeable they were in relation to the massive universe that God created. They're just little tiny nobodies. And yet, of all that is in the universe, God picks them out and he is mindful of them. He thinks about them. And more than that, he cares for him. And this emphasizes to us how the world, the stage is the world. And we've got two characters. We've got humanity and we've got God. We've got the creature and the creator. And the creator is thinking about the creature and the creator is caring for the creature. And then it goes on here, you made him, for a little while, lower than the angels. So here is humanity, and we have God, and then we have angels, and then we have humanity. Lower than the angels, but that's still a massive, important status. In some translations it actually is written, you made him a little lower than the angels. So like it's not a massive gap between humanity and angels. What an ideal world this is. And then it goes on. You have crowned him with glory and honor. God took Adam and Eve and gave them glory in that He made them in His image. He put His glory upon them. And He honored them with saying to them, I want to walk with you throughout life. I want to be with you. What a crown of glory and honor. Putting everything in subjection under His feet. Remember, God brought all the animals and made them subject to Adam and Eve and said, rule over them. And their rule was indicated by them giving the animals names, indicating ownership. In putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. God puts humanity on earth and says, rule this whole arena, this whole globe, in my place, be my many kings over my creation. It's astonishing. Hard for us to imagine when we are not in such a world. So that's why we call this the ideal setup. It's not an ordinary setup. It's the ideal. And I want you children especially to think of this beautiful crown, okay? This is the first crown, crowned with glory and honor. That's what we once were. God thinking of us, God caring for us, God giving us glory and honor, God making us rulers, putting everything under our control. Who feels in control today? Not many people, eh? And so we have this beautiful, ideal picture. And yet, that's not the case today, is it? Despite the ideal setup, despite this beautiful crown, we enter Act Two. which the dramatists tell us has to illustrate rising tension, increasing conflict. Or if we're to look at the crowns, what was once beautiful and golden is now rusted and tarnished and misshapen. In this act two, We can expect the main character to face obstacles and escalating challenges. The stakes are raised to a pivotal midpoint. Because having said all that about the ideal world, he then admits, at present, right now, we do not see everything in subjection to him. That ideal world no longer exists, does it? As we look at humanity in general, there's no sense or very little sense of awe of God, that God would make us, that God would think on us, that God would care for us. We don't see many signs of this original glory and honor, this rule, this control over everything, do we? We do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. We did see it, we no longer see it. We're not as we once were. And this of course is speaking of when sin came into the world, isn't it? and ruined humanity and ruined the world and caused this conflict between God and humanity and God and even his world. And he puts a curse on the world and on the man and on the woman. And the whole Bible narrates the story of rising tension, increasing conflict between humanity and its maker. So we're here. Can it get worse? Or is it going to get better? We've gone from an ideal to increasing tension. Well, act three is the testing climax. For all the skirmishes and battles that have been along the way, there comes one climactic moment where the darkness meets the light, where the final battle is fought. You can go through multiple novels, you go through Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, whatever, you'll see the same pattern. And here, of course, we have the crown of thorns. Because what happens in this climactic moment when everything seems lost, the ideal humanity is now far from ideal. We're knocked down. We're knocked back. We're knocked out. We're out for the count. We have no hope. We don't see everything in subjection to us. What happens in that moment? The hero steps in. We don't see everything in subjection to us, but we see him. who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus. Jesus seeing this ideal world so smashed and broken and bruised and dark. Jesus who made this world and humanity. This same Jesus says, I'm going down there. I am going for a little while to be made lower than the angels. We see him, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, ignore what I've grayed out here, we'll come back to that, because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. Seeing the consequences of death, seeing the wages of death, Jesus comes and says, I will eat death. I will take it into my experience. In the Bible, the words for taste and eating and drinking, when you symbolically are meaning taking it into yourself and making it part of your experience. That's why when Jesus says, this is my blood, drink it. This is my body, eat it. He's saying, take me. deep into your own being. And so when it says Jesus tasted death, it's saying he, the maker of life, the one who could not die as he was, said, I'm gonna become not just at the angel level, but lower than the angels. and I'm going to suffer death and taste death." Well, what a peak. What a climax. This rising tension has come to its peak. We think now of Jesus in the grave. bloodied, bruised, battered, dead. Death seems to have swallowed him. But we have act four, a transformational resolution. Remember we talked about the way the main character going through this knockdown and comeback himself experiences things he never experienced before. And that's what we see here. We see him, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. Because he has endured this, because he has swallowed death, God raises him up and crowns him. with glory and honor, humiliated and then exalted, underdog then top dog, knocked down then come back. And God has put everything in subjection to him. If you go back to verse 5 in this passage, it says, Hebrews 2 verse 5. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking. And he really, here he starts off with the future. We've put it at the end because that's the chronological order. But what this is all about is it's saying to the readers of this, angels, you know, they're big and they're important. But Jesus is better. It wasn't to them. He didn't promise the angels, I'm going to make your enemies your footstool. He didn't say to angels, you are going to have glory and honor and everything be in subjection to you. No, it was said to Jesus. crowned with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing that's outside His control. The world to come is His as well. By winning in this world, He wins the world to come. And so, children, do you see this crown? We started with a simple gold crown, it was beautiful, better than nothing. But we end up with an even better crown, with an even more beautiful crown, with more jewels, more worth, more value. And that's the crown that Jesus wears, not this one specifically, but Jesus wears the most glorious, honorable, valuable crown in all the universe because of his comeback. And do you know what he says to people like you and me? Come and share in my victory. You think of, you think back to that miracle on ice. It wasn't just that team that won. The nation won. The nation celebrated. The nation still remembers. You think back to Malala. It wasn't just her who got an education. Young girls all over the world benefited and got education. You think back to Leicester City. Nobody knows who won the league the year before or the year after. because it was one of the top teams. But they'll always remember the underdog, Leicester City. You think of what President Trump has said this week. This isn't just my victory, it's our victory. And so Jesus comes and says, I don't want you just to admire me and praise me for what I've done. in going through these crowns, laying aside my crowning glory, and putting on the broken, battered crown of living as a broken human being in this world, and then taking on the crown of thorns the most mocking, painful crown anyone could wear, especially he whose head was so holy, but now crowned in a way that he wasn't before, because now he is the Savior. Now he has that glory and honor, and he says, come and share it with me. It's not just for me, it's for you. I want you all to come along and be my supporters, my fans, my beneficiaries, part of my Jesus movement. So this is not just a stand and admire from afar. Come and join. Come and be part of this. Come and be inspired by it. Come and let it give you hope. Come and find relatability in here. When you feel like you're the down and out, and you're the knocked out, and you're the underdog, there's somebody who perfectly understands that. come and share in His victory, and He will give you a crown as well. So, how does Jesus' comeback give us hope? Become a supporter of Jesus to share in the victory of His fourth act comeback. Will you do that? Do you want that? It's been interesting, hasn't it, to see how many new supporters President Trump has since his victory, hasn't it? Happens to every president. People who were previously their enemies are suddenly their friends. Jesus doesn't mind. Jesus doesn't say, well, where were you? two years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. He says, no, just come. Come and join my movement. Come and share in my victory. It doesn't matter if you're a Johnny-come-lately. It doesn't matter if you've been last in line. It doesn't matter if you've spent your life mocking me, laughing at me, disobeying me, rebelling against me. Come. Come and share in my victory. It doesn't matter if you feel knocked out and down and out. I've been there, He's saying. And I can lift you up. And I can make you a victor again. Come and share. Come and benefit from His victory. And you do that by faith, by coming along and seeing Jesus crowned in heaven and then seeing Him broken on earth and then seeing him crucified, but then seeing him raised again and saying, he did that for me. He tasted death for me. He swallowed, he brought into his own experience the awfulness of the wages of sin, death, so I don't have to pay them, so that death is completely transformed. And if you say, well, you know, very interesting, you know, four crowns, four acts, and you go away and you just shrug your shoulders, what will your final act be? It won't be sharing. in Christ's victory, will it? By then it's too late. If you die, or if he comes back first, And you have not come alongside him and said, Jesus, I see it now. I see your beauty. I see the wonder of your comeback. And I want to share in it. Will you take me on your team? Will you accept me as a supporter? Can I be your forever fan? Can I join your movement? He's never said no. He will never turn you away. But if you die before joining Him, your final act is not victory and it's not triumph and it's not a glorious crown. It's the exact opposite. And even if you've lived life as a top dog, You'll then be a dead dog, dying forever. And that's, you know, sometimes we speak of eternal death. It's not that you die and then you're just out of it forever. Eternal death means that you're passing through the experience of death constantly forever and ever and ever. It's not a sip or a taste or an appetizer of death. It's a waterboarding of death that never stops. It's conscious and it's forever. Is that what you want your final act to be? When here is someone saying, I've done everything for you. Now, come share, come and support, come and follow, come and believe, and share in my awesome victory.