Why Jesus Died, Part 1

If you've got your Bible, turn with me to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 2, as we pick up our study.

Once again, the book that deals with the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ our Lord, unlike any other book in Scripture. Now, how do you know that Christ is supreme and sufficient in your life? And that's the question you're going to have to ask and answer as we go through these 13 chapters in the book of Hebrews. Because the writer is trying to set the tone for Christ's supremacy and Christ's sufficiency. If he is supreme, then there is a capitulation on your part. If he is sufficient, then there certainly is contentment on your part.

So, if you are not capitulating, submitting to the authority of God's word, then you don't see Christ as supreme. If you have not found contentment in God and his word, you don't see God and his word as sufficient. So, the writer of Hebrews is setting the tone for the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ our Lord. He wants the writer, or the writer wants the listeners, the readers, who are Jewish people, that's why it's called the letter to the Hebrews, to understand who Jesus Christ is.

Because there are people that were about to commit themselves to the Lord, on the verge of committing themselves to Christ, but had not yet done so. And so he was trying to help them understand who Jesus Christ is by helping them understand who he was and what he did. And so he begins this letter by unfolding for them the glories of the Christ. In doing so, he knows that the people he's writing to are more concerned about the rituals of Judaism than the reality of Jesus Christ. He knows that they were consumed with the types and the symbols and the pictures of the Old Testament.

And rightly so, because they would all point to a coming deliverer, a coming messiah, a coming redeemer. And yet they were all rituals that pointed to the reality. And once the reality came, Jesus Christ, he was the fulfillment of the law. That's why Christ said in Matthew 5, I've come to fulfill the law of the prophets, not to abolish the law of the prophets. And that's exactly what he did. He came in, fulfilled it. And so if I'm a saint in the Old Testament, I am looking toward the promise of his coming.

That's how I was saved. I was saved by grace to faith, just like we are in the New Testament. I wasn't saved by keeping the law. I was saved by grace to faith. I was saved based on the promise of the coming seed, the messiah, who would be my deliverer. I was saved based on the promise of his coming. We are saved based on the promise that he came and that he's going to come again. So they looked toward the coming of the messiah. We look back at the arrival of the messiah. We look to that one event in history of redemptive history, the cross of Christ, because everything in the Old Testament pointed toward the cross.

Everything in the New Testament points back to the cross. When the Lord gave the Old Testament, it was like giving the ABCs to his people. He gave them the ABCs of what it is they needed to know. When you come to the New Testament, you have those ABCs spelling out the name Jesus Christ, the messiah of Israel, our Lord and King. So while the Old Testament was filled with letters, the New Testament describes him in the words that paint the glorious picture of the arrival of the messiah who came to die for their sins and rise again.

And that's what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get across to the people, that what they're reading about, what they're hearing about, is what everything in the Old Testament pointed to. So they can move away from the rituals of Judaism and they can embrace the reality of Jesus Christ, their messiah. Now, there was a problem and every Jew had the problem. And that is, if Jesus is our messiah, if Jesus is our king, why did he die? The fact that Jesus died is a well-known fact. In fact, every religion talks about the death of one prophet, one messiah, one individual named Jesus who did die, except if you're Islam and then you don't believe he died at all, he just rose or ascended into heaven.

But they're wrong on many accounts, not just that one. But the bottom line is that if Jesus is, and I'm a Jew, my messiah, if Jesus is my king, then why is it he died? And so what the writer of Hebrews does in chapter 2, verses 5 to the end of chapter 2, is lay out in a very logical and a very systematic way why Jesus the messiah, the king of Israel, had to die and what he accomplished when he died. That's very important. But before we actually dive into that, we have to understand a Jewish mindset surrounding their coming king.

Did the Jews really understand and know that Jesus was that king? Did they understand that Jesus was even a king? Because if he is, the question naturally comes, why does a king die? Today we hail the king, long live the king! But with Jesus, it was soon kill the king. But why? And what do they understand about the kingship of Christ? Did they understand their messiah would be king? Did they understand that Jesus was the king? If I'm a Jew living 2,000 years ago, what do I know? What do I understand?

What did I see during the ministry of Christ? I want to spell that out for you because it sets the tone for you to understand something. If you're in Hebrews 2, which hopefully you are because that's where we are, look at verse 5.

It says, for he did not subject to angels the world to come. That's a very important statement because he tells them there's a world to come. So all of you who have friends that don't believe in a literal kingdom on earth, who are as theologians say, all millennial, there is no millennium, what is the writer of Hebrews talking about when he talks about a world to come? If there's going to be a world to come, the writer of Hebrews knows that they believe there's going to be a king who's going to come because there was Davidic promise, right?

That son of David would sit on the throne of his father David and rule forever. There's Abrahamic promise that has yet to be fulfilled. That is that king would sit on a throne in the land of Israel because Israel would be back in their land, their promised land, the land given to Abraham. So there'd be fulfillment of Abrahamic and Davidic covenant. And the writer of Hebrews touches on that by saying, there's a world to come. If there's a world to come, then there's a king who sits on the throne. But if there's a king who sits on the throne, why did the king have to die?

And that's what Hebrews 2, 5 to 18 is all about. So let's ask the question, what did they know? Over the last few weeks, as I've been sitting at home, especially this past week, come to realize how would I begin this section of Hebrews, all kinds of things go through my mind. And so I'm just going to give you a snapshot of what went through my mind over the last three weeks. And it'll probably take me two weeks to do it. But let me give you a snapshot to help you understand you're living 2000 years ago in the land of Israel, and you're a Jew.

And what did you know? What did you believe? This is important. They believed and understood the revelation in prophecy concerning the arrival of the king. The revelation in prophecy all throughout the Old Testament was about a coming king. We've already looked in chapter one at Genesis 49, verse number 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah until the one to whom it belongs, Shiloh, comes. And so they knew that there'd be a king that would rise out of the tribe of Judah. They also knew Psalm 2, that great messianic Psalm that said, verse seven, the father talking to his son, the Messiah, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord.

He said to me, you are my son today. I've begotten you, which speaks specifically of the resurrection. We've seen that already. Ask of me and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance and the very ends of the earth as your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter them like earthenware. In other words, my son will rule the world. He will be the king of the universe for all nations will be subject to him. So they knew that Messiah is a king. They also knew very simply that very familiar Christmas verse, Isaiah chapter nine, verse number six, the child will be born to us.

The son will be given and the government will rest on his shoulders. His name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, eternal father, prince of peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of host will accomplish this. So that very familiar versus scripture that we look at at Christmas time is one that tells us that the son is going to be given.

That's his deity. The child will be born. That's his humanity. And the governor will be upon his shoulders. That's his royalty. He is the king. There'll be no end to his kingdom. He will rule forevermore. So if I'm a Jew, I know about the prophecy of Isaiah nine, because I'm raised in the synagogue. I'm raised by parents who were keepers of the law, who are going to inform me about the coming Messiah. And you can go through and read about the Davidic covenant. Second Samuel seven and the promise given to David, how a son will be on his throne forever and ever.

And so they knew about Davidic promise. And even, even at the birth of the Messiah or at the conception of the Messiah, when the angel Gabriel came to Mary, what did he say? He said, you will conceive in your womb, which she did. You will bear a son, which she did, and you shall name him Jesus, which she did. And he will be great, which he was, and will be called the son of the most high, which of course he was. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, by the way, he hasn't done that yet.

The question is, will he? If the other words were true, would not these words also be true? Of course. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will have no end. And Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I am a virgin? You see, even in the revelation of prophecy given to Mary, the mother of Jesus, there was a promise that her son would be in the line of David and be the king forevermore. So you see, if I'm a Jew, I believe in the revelation and prophecy concerning the coming of a king.

I believe in the coming of a king. But if I move from the revelation and prophecy to a very simple understanding of the affirmation in his genealogy, which is point number two, then I begin to see even a clearer picture of the kingship of Christ.

So from the revelation and prophecy to the affirmation in his genealogy, it affirms the fact that Jesus is the son of David. That's how the genealogy begins in Matthew chapter one. Remember, Matthew was written to prove the royalty of the Christ, the Messiah. Luke was written to prove the humanity of the Messiah. John was written to prove the deity of the Messiah. Mark was written to prove the humility of the Messiah. And Matthew was written to prove the royalty of the Messiah. And so he begins very simply in Matthew chapter one with those beautiful, glorious words, the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David.

Now remember, never once in the history of the ministry of Christ did the Pharisees, did the Sadducees, did the Herodians, did anybody ever accuse him of not being a son of David. Because all they had to do, and I'm sure they did this, was run down to the temple to check his genealogical records to see if this man Jesus truly is a son of David. And so that's why there was never an accusation against Jesus, well you're not the son of David, because he was. But the interesting thing about the genealogy in Matthew chapter one is what the writer records in verse 11, which says, Josiah became the father of Jeconiah.

Now again, if I'm a Jew and I'm a religious leader and I check out the genealogical record, I know about the curse upon the line of Jeconiah. What is the curse on the line of Jeconiah? Well, if you go back to Jeremiah chapter 22, it says this in verse 28, is this man Coniah, which is Jeconiah, a despised shatterjar, or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they had not known? Oh, land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, write this man, Jeconiah, down as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days, for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.

Ah, now you have a curse in the Messianic line, a curse that says no descendant of Jeconiah will ever sit on the throne of David. Wow. Well, how is God going to handle that? It's not a problem. He made the curse, not a problem. And then you go over to chapter 23, it says, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, verse five, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch. That's the Messiah, a title for the Messiah. And he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is his name by which he will be called the Lord, our righteousness. So now you're a Jew and you read about the curse in the line of Jeconiah. Then you read that the Lord is going to raise up a righteous branch from the line of David. How does a Jew reconcile that? Simple. They know Isaiah seven, verse number 14, a virgin shall conceive and bear a child. That's the sign. But it goes beyond Isaiah 7, 14, because people could say, well, the word used there, I know eight other times in the Old Testament, it's used for virgin, but it could be used for young woman.

So it's just a young woman, but that's not a sign that a young woman having a child is not a sign, but a virgin conceiving is a sign. So you go to, again, the book of Jeremiah and you turn over just a couple of more chapters because the Lord's going to answer this for Israel. You're going to go to Jeremiah 31, verse number 22, which every rabbi taught before the time of Christ, that this was proof positive of a virgin birth. How long will you go here and there, oh, faithless daughter, for the Lord has created barah, out of nothing, a new thing on the earth, something new.

What is that? A woman will encompass a man. A woman will encompass, the word used gay bear, not just any man, an extraordinary man. And the word for encompass would be to be in her arms as she held him or in her womb. Her womb would surround the man, meaning that the rabbis taught that this was proof positive of a virgin birth. And that's exactly what took place in Matthew chapter one, because David was a descendant of, I mean, Jesus was a descendant of David through Joseph. And yet he wasn't in the bloodline of Joseph because he couldn't be because of the curse.

But he was a descendant of David through Mary, through David's other son, Nathan, which would give him the bloodline. He became the legal heir to the throne because Joseph adopted Jesus and therefore he became legally the right to the throne of David. There's no problem for Jesus. There's no problem for the Lord God in this situation. The affirmation in his genealogy proved he just not only was a son of David, but he was the king of Israel. This is good stuff. If this doesn't make you hungry for more, something's wrong.

So I'm going to give you more. So you have the revelation and prophecy. You have the affirmation of his or in his genealogy. And then you have point number three, the recognition of the Magi.

The recognition of the Magi, Matthew chapter two. Remember, Matthew was presenting Christ as the king. And in Matthew chapter two, it says in verse number one, now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Magi from the East arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who was born king of the Jews?

Wow. Magi are not Jews. They're Gentiles. Could it be that the first people to recognize Jesus as king were Gentiles and not Jews?

Now, these Magi, these kings, okay, these Persian kings, who by the way, would ride into Jerusalem on the backside of Persian steeds. One day I'm going to do a sermon on how to correct your modern day nativity scene. Magi, Persian kings did not ride in the backside of camels. So take your camels out of your nativity scene, put all your Magi on Persian steeds, because that's what they rode. And they came into Jerusalem, not three of them, not 30 of them, hundreds of them, because they traveled in packs of six to 800.

And that's why the text would say, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him. In fact, everybody was afraid because all these Persian kings were coming into Jerusalem asking about the king of the Jews. See that? And so they'd come and you don't think anything is about this. Now think about this. The Magi were led 600 years earlier by a man by the name of Daniel in Babylon, in his captivity. And he would teach the Magi in his day about the arrival of a star. That would mean, listen carefully, they would have to pass down father to son, father to son, father to son, father to son, the coming of Messiah, king of the Jews.

Talk about the parental responsibility to pass down the truth to your children that they can then pass it down to their children. And then to their children, talk about the succession of truth in the Gentile world, proof positive, the Magi. It was passed down because they would know as Daniel would know, Numbers 24, 17, that a star shall rise out of Jacob. And then it says that star will be the scepter in Israel, the king of Israel. So now Christ is born. They follow the star. They've been taught well by their parents, their grandparents.

It's been passed down. And now they are journeying to look for the king of the Jews. And they come into Jerusalem. Where is he who's born king of the Jews? So Herod quickly gathers the scribe together and says, you guys got a king being born anywhere around here? Oh yeah, Bethlehem, just a few miles down the road. Really? Yeah, Micah 5, 2. They go to Micah 5, 2. They help him see that in the city of David, the city of the king, Bethlehem, the Messiah would be born. And so as you read on in Matthew chapter 2, the Magi find the Messiah as led by the Lord in a house.

And what do they do? They give him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold symbolizing what? Royalty. He's the king. Frankincense representing deity because it's a perfume offered to God himself. And myrrh, when mixed with spices, deals with his humanity because he would die. Even the Magi in their gifts would foreshadow that the king would die. And they were Gentiles. This is just so good, isn't it? Man, this is much, there's got to be more. There is. There's just so much more, but I can't give it all to you today.

That's why you got to come back next week. So if I'm a Jew, I know about the prophecy and revelation. I know about the affirmation in his genealogy, but I also know about the recognition of the Magi because all Jerusalem was afraid. What were they looking for? What were they doing? Now think about this. If I'm a Jew, I believe in the coming Messiah. I believe that the Messiah is the son of David. I believe the Messiah, son of David, is king of Israel. But why does he have to die? And that's what the writer of Hebrews explains to these Hebrew listeners.

That's why he goes into great detail in chapter 7 through chapter 10 about the new covenant. Now the new covenant is better than the old covenant. How Christ is better than the Aaronic priesthood. How he's in the line of Melchizedek. How the beauty of this Messiah, Jesus, is king of Israel. Because he wants them to understand the absolute supremacy of Christ so that they will capitulate to his lordship and the sufficiency of Christ so they will be content with his Messiahship. That's the whole purpose of the book of Hebrews.

And that's why we've come to study it, that we might understand it. We have now gathered together on the first day of this month to celebrate the death of the king because that's how he wanted to be remembered.

But isn't it interesting that the book of Revelation, which is the unveiling, the apocalypsis, the uncovering, the unveiling of Jesus Christ as the king of kings and lord of lords, that in the book of Revelation he is not the lion king but the lamb king. In fact, if you look at the book of Revelation you will note that when he returns in Revelation 19.16 he has on his sash king of kings, lord of lords.

But note this, you will note in chapter 5 that the one sitting on the throne is not a king but a lamb. You will note in chapter 17 that as lamb, not as king, but as lamb he fights the kings of the earth and subdues them. You will notice in chapter 12 that as lamb, not as king, but as lamb he defeats satan.

You will note in chapter 19 that not as king but as lamb he weds the church. You will notice in chapter 21 that not as king but as lamb he lights the eternal city.

And in chapter 22 he sits on the throne not as king but as lamb and from him flows the water of life that refreshes the eternal city of God. It's almost as if Christ is making sure that everybody throughout all eternity digest one supreme fact, the king came to die. And that's why his apocalyptic name is not king of kings and lord of lords, it's lamb of God. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you for today. What a great opportunity for us to worship you as king. Our prayer, Father, is that as we partake of the Lord's table, we would be reminded once again of the beauty and the glory of the crucifixion, which was a foretaste of the beauty and splendor of the resurrection of the Messiah of Israel, king of kings, lord of lords. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.