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Oct 01, 2023

Hebrews: Dominion

Passage: Hebrews 2:5-9

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Hebrews: Fulfilled in Christ

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: power, suffering, king, sovereign, control

We all struggle with power and control, and it most powerfully shows up when things get tough. We cry out to God and others, wanting (demanding) things go the way we want them to go. God created us to be Benevolent Rulers and we quickly became self-centered kings, and have stayed this way ever since. This is why Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, gave up his heavenly crown to become one of us, submitting himself under the Father and under the rulers of this world, even to the point of death, so that he can take on our suffering, heal us of our suffering, and deliver us into anti-suffering.

Central Text

Hebrews 2:5-9
5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere,

“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

 

Sermon Discussion Questions:

  • What would you do if you were the Supreme Ruler of the World?
  • What kind of “control issues” do you see in others and in yourself?
  • Where do you really try to exert control? Why? How does that go for you?

 

Read through this passage together as well as all of Psalm 8.

 

  • List and talk about what you see as “important” words, especially ones that get repeated.
  • Why is Psalm 8 centralized? It was originally seen as about humanity, but the author shows that it is also, and ultimately, about Jesus. What does it say about humanity and our “dominion”?
  • How does each part of Psalm 8 describe the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
  • Try to summarize the main point of this passage in 8 words or less?
  • How do you reconcile God being Sovereign and Good, and yet things can be so painful?
  • Talk about the “already, but not yet” issue of God’s Sovereignty (especially verse 8).
  • How does verse 9 reveal the type of Sovereign King we have?
  • How can applying the word “see” in verses 8 and 9 give us hope and peace in today’s pain?