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1:32That was the contest. He was made for a little while lower than the angels. His name was Jesus, Son of God. And he suffered death and was so crowned or wreathed in glory, a victorious crown. He suffered death so that, verse 9 says, by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. So last week we looked at the contest from which Jesus rose victorious. Today we want to look at the accomplishment of that victorious effort. Today's message is entitled, Jesus Bringing Many Sons to Glory, Bringing Many to Glory.

2:31I was recently asked about suffering. Does God ordain suffering for his people? Not just does God allow it, I think we all get that, he allows it, but does he ordain it? And the answer, as you survey Scripture, is an emphatic yes. Yes, he ordains suffering for his people. And nowhere is that more clearly seen than in Jesus Christ. One thing about God's ordaining of suffering, it always has a good and sufficient purpose. I mean, the alternative is for God not to be in control, which is neither comforting or true.

3:20But there's always a good and sufficient reason behind the suffering that God ordains. Sometimes it's for judgment purposes. Yes, there's suffering in judgment because the punishment of evildoers is right and good. Sometimes he ordains suffering to discipline somebody to equip them for greater service, and that is good. And sometimes it's for his glory to make himself known in ways that he otherwise could not have been known except through suffering. And sometimes it involves all the above.

4:11Sometimes it's for judgment, sometimes it's for discipline, sometimes it's for the well-being for others, and sometimes it's for his glory. And there is no greater example of this, all of this, that comes together in the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he ordained. Thought through, planned, for good and sufficient reasons. Look at what it says in verse 10 of our text. 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 sufferings. First word, they're fitting. It was fitting, something suitable, something appropriate to do.

5:04Notice it was fitting for him. Who's the for him? God the Father. This is the one who brought all of creation. It was his will behind all of creation, and the one ultimately to whom all creation is for. He's the one. And it's clear that this is the Father because he's going to perfect the author of their salvation, and that is Christ. So it's God the Father who thinks it's appropriate in the process of bringing many sons to glory, many children to glory.

5:47In that process of bringing many people to glory, see, it's God who wants many people in glory, God the Father. And so he sends forth the one, the Savior, who's going to bring them to glory. For it was fitting, it was appropriate, for whom are all things and through whom all things, in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation. Think about that. Jesus as the founder, the writer, the one who gives rise to your salvation and my salvation. And all that involves what an author thinks through it. He's thought through our salvation. He's thought through our deliverance. He knew what it needed to take to deliver us. He knows what it takes to keep and hold us. And he knows what he's taking us to. He's thought through all of that salvation.

6:43And it was fitting for him. It was appropriate. This one who is leading many to glory to be perfected through suffering. That's a very unusual statement when we're thinking about Christ. How can Christ be perfected? How can he be completed? Well, the word for perfect means to complete, to mature, to bring to the goal line. You see, in what sense did Jesus need perfecting? Well, it was not that he was morally imperfect, of course not. God of God. Or that in some way he was less than God.

7:34But in his office of savior, he needed to complete something. Something had to be completed in him in order for him to be that qualified savior. To bring him to the goal line of his saving capacity of humanity, he had to go through his suffering or else he could not save. The author had to be endowed to be qualified to save. And to bring that about, God-ordained suffering is what qualified Christ to be our Savior. Now, if you've grown up in the church or even remotely aware of Christianity, this idea sounds very familiar to you, doesn't it? Jesus, the Messiah, had to suffer and die for his people's well-being.

8:33We get that. We've heard it. It's familiar. However, this concept was completely foreign to the Jewish mindset of Jesus' day. You see, because by definition, Messiah reigns. He doesn't die. He is honored and he rules. And he rules the nations. God would not and certainly could not allow his anointed one to suffer and die. That was foreign thought. So the notion of a crucified Messiah was a stumbling block for the Jews, and it still is. It was very difficult for the disciples to get their minds around that. Does God ordain suffering? I think a lot of people could then look at the Bible and say, yes, we see Job. Yes, we see all these things. But for the Messiah, absolutely not.

9:34Even Peter said, this will never happen to you. Remember when I introduced the book of Hebrews, we spent a lot of time looking at Paul's synagogue ministry. He spent an untold number of hours debating the Jews on this very issue. Christ crucified. That was a hard thing to get. But he spent hours. He sought to prove to them over and over from the scriptures that Christ had to die, that he had to be raised again, and that Jesus is the Christ. And so the writer of Hebrews gives us a window into the kinds of texts that Paul used, or no doubt used, to make his case.

10:25So proving to the Jews. That Jesus had to be crucified and that they crucified their Messiah was indeed a great challenge then, and it continues to be a great challenge today. For what possible reason could God have for a suffering Messiah? Well, for starters, he suffered for the purpose of bringing many sons to glory. In order to be qualified to be their Savior, he had to experience God's wrath on their behalf. So the bottom line is: no suffering, there would be no sacrifice, there would be no perfect savior, and certainly no perfect high priest who can keep us.

11:25No suffering, no sacrifice, no savior. And so, in this process of bringing many to glory, three things had to happen. In fact, this will advance the first slide. For the very first thing, well, I'll tell you where we're going. For anyone to be brought to glory, three things have to happen. Number one, God has to become your father. Number two, Jesus has to become your brother. And number three, Christ-like trust has to become your pattern. First of all, to be brought to glory, God must become your Father. God must become your Father. Look back at verse 11.

12:19For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father. He who sanctifies. So look at the one who is sanctifying. This is an active verb. This speaks of the one who is making someone holy, the one purifying, the one consecrating, the one setting apart. You see, he is holy because he's the one doing the sanctifying. He couldn't sanctify if he wasn't sanctified himself. He couldn't make someone holy unless he was holy himself. That's not hard to get. For both he who sanctifies, the one doing the sanctification, and the ones who are sanctified, notice that one, that's a passive verb. These speak of the ones who are being made holy.

13:24So there is one making holy, and there are those being made holy. And the one who is being sanctified becomes holy because of the work of the one who sanctifies. Pretty simple. For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father. You see, the one who sanctifies is competent. He knows how to sanctify from one. Notice they are from one father. Now, some versions say he is from one source or one family.

14:09The word is just one, for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one. One, one lump, one kind, one spirit. It's the idea there. I think the New American Standard has the right ultimate source, and that is the Father. From one Father, from one will, from one source, which is ultimately the Father, from one family, which is where God is ultimately the Father. You see, it's the will of the Father that many sons come to glory.

14:59Holiness. Is necessary for such to occur. All must share in the Father's holiness if you're going to be brought into his family. And so he sent his son to be the sanctifier. And we can think about this. Yeah, there's a general sense in which God is the father of all humanity and that he created the fatherhood of God, brotherhood of man, in the sense of a big creation standpoint, but that's not the sense that's being used here. It's talking about an intimate relationship. Is God your father in an intimate kind of way? It speaks of a place where God is no longer judge or adversary or a state of in a position of hostility to you, but in a state of loving affection. And because of our sin, it took one to sanctify us in order to bring us into that place, to remove us from the hostility of God as our judge, into a loving state of God as our loving and affectionate Father. But it could only happen through the suffering of the Son. This is something we could never do on our own merits. We cannot sanctify ourselves.

16:35To even think that we could achieve God's righteousness in our own strength is to bring God down to our level. But by Christ's death, we are consecrated to God. And in that way, he becomes our Father. The Father becomes our Father. Hebrews 10:10 says this, By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. One family with one Father. This thing just, oh, it is up there. Okay, I'm looking back there. Has this been going on the whole time? Thank you.

17:27Okay, so God has to become your Father. Second, Jesus has to become your brother. Jesus has to become your brother. To be brought to glory, Jesus must become your brother. Look back, verse 11. For which reason, he is not ashamed to call them brethren. This is the one who sanctifies. 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.

18:06For which reason? What reason is that? They are one family with one father because of the sanctifying work of the sanctifier. Because of that, he is not ashamed. That is, he doesn't feel shame in identifying with his people who were once sinners, still are. But because of his righteousness, he's not ashamed to identify them as his family. Have you ever been ashamed of one of your family members? Have you ever been ashamed of some of your friends?

18:50Have you ever felt like your family is ashamed of you? Well, Jesus is not ashamed of those he saves. You know why? Because he removed that which was shameful in them. To feel shame is to say, like, you know, it's not quite right for me to be identified with this person. And Christ is like, he's not ashamed to call us brethren. He's like, it's not unjust, it's not improper, it's not unfitting for me to be identified with those I have sanctified. Let's see. Thought. He has removed that which is shameful in us, and so we have a common big brother.

19:39He has made us holy. And so, what a thought. Jesus isn't ashamed of me. He isn't ashamed of you or any of his people because he is a competent sanctifier. Now, let's face it, some babies are just cuter than others. But you know, I've never met a mother ashamed of her newborn. Always quick to show off as if her baby is the cutest in the world, even though they look nothing like my grandchildren. But even if a baby is, by some standards, lower on the cuter scale, there's no such thing as an ugly baby, but there are some lower on the cuter scale.

20:37But a mother is quick to show her baby off, as if that baby is the most delightful, cutest in the world. No shame in a mother with her newborn. Jesus is not ashamed of us. He's quick to show them off. I love this. He goes to Psalm. Psalm 22, the writer of Hebrews. I will proclaim your name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. This is somebody who is not ashamed to call his people brethren.

21:19And so he uses Psalm 22, one of the most sacred portions of scripture. In the sense of depicting the suffering of our Messiah, Jesus cited this psalm while he was upon the cross. The early church certainly saw it as a depiction of Christ's suffering, accomplishment. I read the psalm to you earlier. There's 31 verses in the psalm, and there's no time for us to walk through this psalm this morning, and I hope to do that in the future. But I do think it's important to point out a few critical details, just so you'll understand how the writer of Hebrews is using the psalm and what he's trying to prove from it. Turn to Psalm 22.

22:22It's a psalm that is about trusting God in the midst of suffering. Trusting. God in the midst of suffering. David encountered a trial, not disclosed as to what happened, but it's a psalm of David. Intense suffering that God used to prophetically describe the crucifixion long before there was anything like a Roman crucifixion in history. In the first ten verses, there is a temptation for the psalmist to cease trusting in God because of the intense suffering. Psalm 22, verse 1, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest. People are mocking him. Commit yourself to the Lord, verse 8. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him. You put your faith and trust in God. Let God deliver you. Mocking.

23:35The psalmists resist the temptation. Verse 9, he says, Look, I have nowhere else to go. You caused me to trust in you from my mother's womb. Upon you I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. And certainly Christ trusted in God. But his trust was tested to the most extreme degree upon the cross. The second ten verses of Psalm 22, there is a choice. It goes from a temptation from ceasing to trust in God to the choice to trust in God through his suffering. What he says in verse 11: Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Saying, look, I'm not going anywhere else. There is no one else that can help. My trust is in you. You caused me to trust from my childhood, and I continue to trust now, even in the midst of the most intense, horrific suffering.

25:01Bulls have surrounded me, lions, dogs. Verse 16, they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They are looking and staring at me. They divide my garments. And for my clothing, they are casting lots. But you, O Lord, Be not far off. Hasten to my assistance. Deliver my soul from the sword, my only life, from the power of the dogs. Save me from the lion's mouth. And then in verse 21, from the horns of the wild oxen.

25:47Then he says, You answer me. I heard. You've heard my prayer. You answered me. So, despite the temptation, there in the midst of this intense suffering, and think of Christ on the cross, despite the temptation to take matters into his own hands or to curse God and die, the psalmist chose to trust in God, and Christ did the same. He trusted in God at all times and in all circumstances, even upon the cross. But then at the end of verse 21, he gets his answer, you answer me. And this is the pivotal moment in the psalm.

26:37And look at the very next verse 22. I will tell of your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will praise you. This is the verse that the writer of Hebrews picks up and lifts out. In the midst of this great suffering, there is this. Temptation to cease trusting. And then there is this choice to continue trusting through suffering. And then there becomes the sufferer, comes out victoriously and exhorts others to trust in God.

27:24And certainly that was Christ. And certainly in the book of Hebrews, this is applied to Christ. The writer of Hebrews is applying this text to Christ. I will tell of your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will praise you. Look at what he says in verse 27. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship you. Your posterity will serve you, all the prosperous of the earth, the kingdom of the Lord's, he rules over all the nations.

28:05And so, what he's saying, praise him. Verse 23, you who fear the Lord, praise him, trust him, glorify him, stand in awe of him. Why? Verse 24, he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of. God has heard the prayer of the sufferer and has answered him. Well, God delivered the sufferer. Psalmist, and as a result of his suffering, you can imagine if God, when he delivers you or provides for you, and some, there is a new voice in which you can magnify God and make him known.

28:46Likewise, Christ, having been delivered out of the mouth of the lion, he became a preacher and a praiser of the greatness of God and his mercy. And who is his mercy upon? All those who trust in him. That's the message. Trust in him. Psalm 22, and the long-term result is that all of the ends of the earth will trust in God. But it's an interesting thing. You can go back to Hebrews. Like I said, I intend to take a night and look at Psalm 22 in more depth.

29:36But it's a matter of the gospel record that Jesus does not use the word brethren to refer to his disciples until after his resurrection. He calls them disciples, calls them friends, calls them sheep, calls them children, but he doesn't use the word brethren until after the resurrection. Listen to what, when in John chapter 20, verse 17, when Mary meets Jesus, Jesus says, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brethren. And there it is, go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and to your Father, and my God and to your God.

30:32But the point of this is that those who Jesus brings to glory, he is not ashamed to call them his brothers because it's right to do so. He has taken away that which was offensive and made them nothing to be ashamed of before a holy and all-knowing Father. That is how effective his sanctifying work is. So to be brought to glory, God has to become your Father, and Jesus has to become your brother. And third, Christ-like trust must become your pattern. Christ-like trust must become your pattern. Now look back at verse 13.

31:45And again, I will put my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. So what's happening is the writer of Hebrews is saying, look, the one who sanctifies, the author is being perfected through suffering, and it's through that suffering he's going to bring many sons to glory. The one sanctifying them is going to sanctify them through his suffering, and as a result of his suffering, bring them into the family of God, where God is their father, Jesus is their brother. And then he quotes Psalm 22 to make his point, and then he again quotes another passage of scripture that comes from Isaiah 8, from verses 17 and 18. And he quotes two parts of it. And again, I will put my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. So what he does is he continues to deepen this family connection, and he's emphasizing, again, trust, trust, but he's using the image of children, children of Christ.

32:59Children. You see, as spiritual brothers of Christ, we share the same father. As children of Christ, we are his spiritual descendants. It's the difference between the analogies. Brothers, we have the same fathers. As children, we're his spiritual offspring. We share the same spirit that he has. That's the idea. As children, we share his spirit. And he gives us his spirit so that we can reflect his likeness. You can't reflect Christ without his spirit. And this is what he gives us. This is how he sanctifies us. We are like him already, and we are becoming more like him. That is what a disciple is, and that is what a disciple does. We have been made like him, and we're becoming more like him.

34:02But one of the main things as we learn from Psalm 22, one of the main characteristics of Christ is trust in God. And the thoughts of Isaiah 8 are also emphasizing this trust. Let me give you a brief background of Isaiah 8. I plan on spending some time in Isaiah 8 this evening. But here's the. Have to turn there, but I'll give you a background to what's going on here so we can make sense of what he's trying to say here, what he is saying. Okay, so in Isaiah 8, that's that wonderful section of scriptures, Isaiah 7, 8, and 9, where we're introduced to this sign of Emmanuel, God with us. Now, King Ahaz was facing this national crisis, and Isaiah was called by Yahweh to go and speak to Ahaz and to encourage Ahaz and the nation to put their trust in Yahweh.

35:11God told them they're not going to listen, but go anyway. And so Isaiah did as he told, and in the process, he announced the coming of Emmanuel. Isaiah 7:14 said, Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. And so this was Isaiah's message to Ahaz. God is with his people, and he wants his people to trust in him.

35:48So trust in him. It was a message of Psalm 22: trust in God. He can be trusted no matter what. In Isaiah 8, the same message, Ahaz. Trust in God no matter what he can be trusted in. Ahaz didn't listen, but God still wanted Isaiah to speak to them for future generations for the benefit of future generations, including us. But Isaiah had two sons, Shir Joshua, and Mahar Sha'al Hashbaz. We'll talk about their names tonight, but they had prophetic significance, and the whole reason they were brought into the picture was to help Ahaz and the nation trust in God.

36:50But even though Ahaz didn't trust in God, neither did the Jewish nation of the day, there were some who did believe Isaiah's message. And they wrote down Isaiah's words, and they entrusted those words to others who believed them, who in turn then passed them along to the next generation, until at last the sign of Emmanuel became reality. In Matthew 1:23, the angel tells to Joseph, Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.

37:36Point of what took place in Isaiah 8 is that everything that Isaiah predicted would happen in his time did happen. And then Emmanuel came as prophesied. He spoke to the Jewish nation because he was God in the flesh. He was Emmanuel. And he cried out to trust in him many times. Come to me, and I will give you rest. He who believes in me will have life. From his innermost beings will flow rivers of living water.

38:10But like Isaiah's generation, Christ's generation rejected him, rejected him and his words. But some did receive him. They did believe in Christ's words. They did proclaim them. They stored them in their hearts. They wrote them down, and they passed them on to subsequent generations. So looking at verse 13 in Hebrews, again I will put my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. If we understand these words in the context of Isaiah, the I refers to Isaiah. The children refer to those whom God gave to Isaiah. And those would certainly include his two. Boys, but probably also all those others who trusted in him.

39:06But in the Hebrews context, if we understand this in the Hebrews context, the I, the parallel is made to Christ. Christ, behold, and again, I, Christ, will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I, Christ, and the children, the disciples whom God has given me. You see, they are given by God to Jesus. And that's how the writer of Hebrews is explaining it. Now, see, this is easy for us to understand. Jesus understood that God had given his disciples to him as children. Listen to what Jesus said in John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. John 13, 33, he identifies his disciples, little children, I am with you a little while longer. In John 17, 6, as he's praying to the Father, Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. They have believed your word. They have trusted in your word. That's what the disciples. And so what's happening? The author is exhorting, the author of Hebrews is exhorting his generation to trust in God, just like the other ones. God is with us, and God can be trusted. Let me just now put all this in a perspective. What was the message to Isaiah's generation? Trust God, Ahaz, Israel, trust God, trust Emmanuel, God is with us. What was the message that Jesus had to his generation? Trust me, trust me, come to me. What was the message to Paul's generation? Trust Jesus. Trust him. What was the message that the writer of Hebrews is saying to his audience? Trust him. Trust Jesus. Trust God. Trust him completely, like the psalmist, the Psalm 22.

41:30To us today, God is with us. The same message. Trust him. Are you trusting him? Has Christ-like trust become your pattern? You see, in bringing many sons to glory, we must become like him. We must become his spiritual offspring. We must be born of the same Spirit. So to be brought to glory, God has to become your Father. Jesus has to become your brother. And Christ-like trust has to become your pattern. As the writer of Hebrews is going to go on to say in chapter 11 and verse 6, without such faith, it is impossible to please God.

42:26So for anyone to be brought to glory, these three things have to happen. God has to become your father. Jesus has to become your brother. And Christ-like trust has to become your pattern. Where are you today? You see, Jesus knew that if he refused the path of suffering, there would be no people to share glory with. Listen to what he said in John 12, 24. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Speaking about his own death. John 13, 8, Peter said, Never shall you wash my feet to Jesus. And Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

43:25John 17, 24, Jesus praying, says, Father, I desire you. Desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. And that's in that garden where Jesus is saying, Lord, let this cup pass from me. But he knew, in order to bring many sons to glory, whom he wanted to show his glory to, he knew he had to drink the cup of suffering. You see, Christ had to trust God in times of suffering, and so do we. We can too.

44:13God has a good and sufficient reason for suffering. And it was fitting to put his son to such suffering. Suffering fitted Christ to be the perfect Savior who could then raise to life a whole race of sanctified humanity. So then, what is our responsibility to all this? Same message. Trust him. Trust him. Maybe today you've never put your faith and trust in Christ. Let me say this. Come to him today. Meet him at the cross. What should you do? Let Christ's suffering bring you to glory.

45:09Come, look upon him with faith. Take in who he is. Take in what he's doing there. And let his suffering there meet him at the cross. The invitation is there for you today to meet him at the cross. Let Christ's suffering bring you to glory. Let his suffering make God your father. Let Jesus become your brother. And let Christ-like trust become your pattern. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we recognize the enormous cost it took to bring many sons and daughters to glory. Father, we thank you that you sent a Savior who so delighted in you and so personified trust in you, showing us that you can be trusted at all levels in all situations, Father. And we thank you for his settled trust, and we thank you for his obedience, and we thank you for what he accomplished. There on the cross. We celebrate his life. We celebrate his suffering. We celebrate his resurrection. We celebrate those implications, Father, of all that, that we can let you become our Father. We can let Jesus become our brother. We can let Christ-like trust so dominate our spirit. Father, we thank you for his work. We thank you for this morning. In Christ's name, amen.