Adopted into the family of God, we become joint heirs with Christ – our older Brother! But this relationship is not just one of symbolism or figure – Jesus actually became a part of our human family, drawing close to us and experiencing what we experience, that He might understand our weakness and be not only our Savior and Lord, but our Example!

<p>Adopted into the family of God, we become joint heirs with Christ – our older Brother! But this relationship is not just one of symbolism or figure – Jesus actually became a part of our human family, drawing close to us and experiencing what we experience, that He might understand our weakness and be not only our Savior and Lord, but our Example!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Dalton SDA Church

The Characteristics and Titles of Jesus

Chester Clark

Jesus: The Creator

Jesus: Prince of Peace

Jesus: The Promise Keeper

Jesus: The Good Shepherd

Jesus: Older Brother

Jesus: Wonderful, Counselor

Jesus: The Truth

Jesus: Light of the World

Jesus: The Morning Star

Jesus: One of Them

Jesus: Promised Seed

Jesus: One of Us

An old Indian proverb said that you don't understand someone until you've walked a mile in their moccasins.

I think we talk about walking a mile in their shoes, right?

And the idea is that we don't understand what somebody is going through until we've gone through it ourselves.

You know, it's 1 thing for us to go and turn on the television and see people who are going through hard times.

Probably You all have seen on the news some sort of a tragedy.

I know I've seen floods and hurricanes and tornadoes all from the comfort of my home.

But there's nothing like seeing it in person.

I remember I was 1 time I was in the Philippines and I'd heard about hurricanes, I'd heard about typhoons and I had never been through 1 though.

And this time I was in the Philippines and they said this typhoon was coming and it was coming.

We were hoping that we were going to be gone by the time it arrived because, well, you know, it could complicate things a bit.

And where I was in the Philippines, we had, I had a group of young people there with me and we were staying up in this town, this more or less village up in the mountains and the largest house, they rented the largest house in the town for us to stay in, but it wasn't a very big house.

In their way of looking at things, it was a pretty big house, but when we got there, I think there was 20 something of us, we got there and we looked at the house and the family had moved out so that we could stay there for this week and there was like 2 rooms, you know, and then the kitchen.

And so we thought, well, what are we going to do?

So we decided that we would put the girls in the house, chivalrous as we were, and the men would stay outside.

And we actually got some bamboo, and we went into the town, we got some tarps, and we built a little lean-to shelter next to the house, which was actually very roomy.

It was quite a bit larger, it had walls, well, tarp walls that went around it, And this would be our headquarters for the next few weeks while we were there.

And so there we were, we were hearing the news that the typhoon was coming.

But we were going to be leaving on Sunday.

The typhoon was scheduled to come Saturday.

Well, Saturday we had Sabbath, we had our final meetings, we had a big baptism, we met with our churches, we had a wonderful day and still no rain, still no wind, so that all sounded good.

It was going to, we were going to have to leave at like 6 or 07:00 in the morning to go down to the city to catch our flight and about midnight it came.

Now I'll never forget the sound of that rain on that tarp.

It was deafening, it was pounding, and, but everything was going fine.

We fell asleep to the sound of the rain pounding on the tarp until somehow during the night part of the tarp began to collect a puddle, a pool.

Now when that happens it starts to stretch and when that happens it gets a deeper pool and all went well until about 2 o'clock in the morning, when that pool reached its fullest capacity or the bamboo reached its greatest strength, and all of a sudden a piece of bamboo snapped, And that puddle that had been gaining, getting bigger and bigger on the tarp suddenly emptied right onto my bed.

Now you would think the Philippines would be warm.

And I was very thankful that I happened to be laying on my stomach because when it landed on my face, I don't know what would have happened.

And I was awake, everyone was awake, we started trying to get our stuff out of the water, trying to get, I remember 1 of our team members, George, he's a Filipino guy that can fix everything, and so we looked to find him and he had gone, he had abandoned his tent and had gone into the van to sleep and with the thunder and the lightning and the rain and the wind rocking the van, my pounding on the doors on the glass did nothing to awaken him.

And finally, finally I roused him and we tried to dry out and that was the end of our sleep for that night.

But you don't understand torrential downpours, you don't understand a typhoon or a hurricane until you've been through 1, until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

Now, our scripture today in Hebrews chapter 2, it tells us here that inasmuch then as the children, we back up a few verses, inasmuch as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, and as much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham.

He came to break the power of the devil, to give us liberty, to release us, to give us freedom.

And it says, therefore, in all things, he had to be made like unto his, what?

You remember when Jesus' literal brothers and sisters, or half siblings, and his mother came to him to try to convince him to stop being so radical and start being more, you know, complicit with the religious leaders of the day.

And Jesus said, Who are my mother and my brethren?

He who does the will of my Father in heaven.

They are my mother, they are my brethren, right?

So here the Bible is referring to Jesus as our brother.

This is an amazing thought that the Son of God, God, the creator God, would come and become a part of the human family so that we can consider him our older brother.

There are several things that distinguish Christianity from other worldviews.

1 thing that distinguishes Christianity is that Christianity teaches salvation by grace instead of salvation by works.

Every other religion teaches a salvation that comes by what we do.

Salvation by grace through faith is the hallmark of Christianity, but there's something else.

Christianity teaches that God became 1 of us.

Now we've spent some time looking at Jesus as the Son of God, what that means and how God is, He is the Creator God, I believe He's the Creator God.

But we cannot forget that not only was Jesus God, He was also human.

He became a human being, a part of our family, like our older brother.

In all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted." What is Paul trying to say here in Hebrews chapter 2?

In order for Jesus to really be able to help us, He had to come and be like us so that he could understand us.

In order for him to represent us before the heavenly throne, he has to be 1 of us.

In order to give us aid in our tempting times, in our trials, in our difficulties, in our hardships in life, in our pain and our suffering that we go through, Jesus had to experience that too in order that he might be able to help those who are tempted.

Today we're talking about Jesus, our older brother.

How closely did Jesus identify with fallen humanity?

How closely did He come to understand who we are?

The incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries, and this is written by 1 of my favorite authors saying The incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries and this is written by 1 of my favorite authors saying the incarnation of Christ is the mystery of all mysteries.

The Bible even speaks of it as a mystery.

I don't think however that means we shouldn't understand it.

I realize though there are some things we won't completely understand.

We'll never, for example, be able to completely understand how Jesus could be 100% God and 100% man.

We can't understand why he would choose to condescend to such a level that he would become 1 of us.

But I will say this, what the Bible says about that condescension, we can believe.

So I want to stay very close to Scripture here without trying to split too many theological hairs, but we are going to be talking about theological issues today.

We're going to be talking about Jesus and how close He came to be a part of the human family.

Let's start with our Bible study in John chapter 1.

John chapter 1, we remember we've looked at this passage previously in this series.

John chapter 1, we're going to look at how Jesus became incarnate.

We start in verse 1, and we'll just take that review.

John chapter 1 and verse 1 it says, "...in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word..." What does it say?

Without him was not anything made that was made.

Now if we skip down to verse 14, there's an amazing, amazing statement made here.

We can't really fully comprehend it, but we're gonna try to at least believe it.

It says in verse 14, the Word became what?

Flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

In order for God to show us his character, because remember, the great controversy between Christ and Satan, between good and evil, the great controversy is a controversy over the character of God.

Can he be just and merciful and fair all at the same time?

Is his government based upon fair principles or is His law unholy and unjust and unfair?

And so there's a great controversy going on between the law of God and the character of God and the accusations that the enemy of God has brought against Him.

And in order for God to demonstrate His character, In order for God to say, I'm not selfish, I am not self-seeking like the enemy is, like Satan is, Lucifer, full of self, God Himself would come and demonstrate a character of selflessness.

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Series

The Characteristics and Titles of Jesus

Jesus: Older Brother

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Who Then Can Be Saved?

46m

Loss

41m

Power

39m

The Mystery of Unanswered Prayers

28m

A Study in Hebrews

A Study in Hebrews 9: Once for All

32m

The Now of Prophecy

40m

Father of the Fatherless

1h

The Healed

1h 3m

I Met God

I Met God 9

40m

Lovely Lord of the Lord's Day

9 - Our Impartial Christ

28m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

20 The Judgment Continued Phase 2

50m

There’s No Thief Like Fear

59m

Sound Doctrine