Under His Control
Hebrews 2:5-9 ·March 9, 2025· Joel Passmore
Part of: Hebrews, Toward an Enduring Faith
Pastor Joel Passmore continues a sermon series on the Book of Hebrews and tells us that Jesus is the true and perfect Son of God, who came and suffered for us and continues to reign for us.
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What do you do when things feel out of control? Kids, especially explorers, do you ever try to do something and you really think you ought to be able to do it and you just get so mad that you just can't do it? It doesn't really happen. So that totally happens to me this week. I tried to fix my washing machine.
There was a lot of groans for that. Are there a lot of broken washing machines around? So it was running okay. It was going through the cycle. It was doing okay, but there was this clicking noise towards the end of the cycle. And the experts on YouTube, which can tell you how to fix anything, they told me what to replace, what was causing the problem. They even showed me how to do it. It seemed easy enough. I ordered the part. Monday late afternoon, it had arrived, so I decided to knock it out.
And it was really easy to swap out the part, I have to say. It was not hard. Just had to turn the washer down, take off a few bolts, pop the part out, take off the power, put the new one on. It was easy. I thought, I got this. I put it all back together, put it back up, ran it through a cycle, no clicks. So I'm like, hey, all right. Ready to announce my conquest to the whole family. Um, but then I went and opened the lid and the clothes were sopping wet.
They weren't wet before I did this fix. They were coming out normally, you know, the normal amount of wetness. Not, so I had made it worse. I put in a new part and I made it worse. And now I'm like, I don't even understand how I did that. How I made it worse. I tried resetting it, tried recalibrating it, over and over and over. That's literally the only thing I know left to do. So I'm just resetting it, recalibrating it, over and over and over. I kid you not, every time I touched it, it did another weird thing.
Every time I recalibrated it or reset it and I tried it again, it was like, well, it wasn't doing that at five minutes ago. It was getting worse and worse and worse. It was doing new weird and wrong things. It was like inventing ways to be broken. I ran out of ideas really quickly and I also ran out of patience big time. Everyone else was upstairs.
I hope they didn't hear me. But I tried to do something to help my family. I was trying to, it looked simple. I wanted to help my family. I thought it was an easy fix but I just made things worse. Over and over and over and I was so angry. Church, I'm not kidding right now. I was so angry. It was rage against the machine. That's a Gen X reference there for you. I was actually, I was both angry and then there was a part of me that was like, Joel, why are you so angry?
I was like feeling both of those things at the same time. I went to bed just seething. Nikki was like, how'd it go? I don't want to talk about it. It took me a little bit to understand this but behind that anger was definitely feelings of futility, of helplessness, of incompetence really. As someone else told me this past week, I hate failing. And yeah, me too. I hate failing. If I could have formed a coherent thought when I was in the throes of that washing machine as I was almost bruising my hand and gently persuading it, If I could have formed a coherent thought in that moment, it probably would have been, if I can't fix a washing machine, if I can't control this, what about all these really important things in my life?
If I can't do this, then I got no shot about this and this and this. This was the easy stuff. It just emphasized how little control I have over things, how little competency really I have and how little, how not very far that competency goes. It was a moment of out of controlness that was hitting me in the face. It was not the first time that I have ever felt that way and it certainly won't be the last time. Life feels out of control a lot of times and we're searching for that place that we can step into where we can be like, aha, here's a place that I can control.
Here's a place that I can have an impact. Here's a place where I do something and there's actually results and then I stepped into one of those places and no results, only failure and making things worse. How are we supposed to have an enduring faith in a world like this? In a world that's out of control that affects us in this way all the time and even the simple things we struggle with. How are we supposed to have an enduring faith?
Well, that's what the author of Hebrews wants to talk to us about today. About what to latch on to in a world that's out of control. He goes directly at this today. Turn with me, please, to Hebrews 2. Let's come to the text humbly because this is no ordinary book, church. This is the very word of God.
It speaks with authority because he has the authority and he's given us his holy word, his infallible word to teach and change us to give us a solid foundation. So let's come to it eagerly and humbly. This is Hebrews 2, 5-9. For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels.
You have crowned him with glory and honor, 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, 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.
Pray with me. Lord, come near to us. We have no hope except for you and your promise and your power to come alongside ordinary people like us and stir up spiritual life. Make that grow, Lord. Give it deep root and beautiful fruit. That's your work and your work alone and we know that you can and we know that you will. So we ask for it eagerly. In the name of Jesus, we pray.
Under his control. Under his control. Here's the big point of this passage. The true and perfect Son of Man, the true and perfect Son of Man came for us, suffered for us and reigns for us. Came for us, suffered for us and reigns for us.
Just like us, we have more in common with the recipients of this letter than we'd like to think at first. Like them, like us, the Jewish Christians that got this letter were subject to so many forces around them. They were in control of so little and this passage is meant to give them reassurance. We had a warning last week, but this passage is meant to be reassurance to them. Hebrews started with an announcement. In these last days, God spoke through his son.
Last week, the preacher said, pay attention, pay attention, don't neglect such a great salvation. But he hasn't really told us much about the salvation yet and now he begins to unfold it. What is this salvation? How does it address our needs? And he starts with this. He really unpacks this a lot. So he starts with this. Our design is glorious. Our design is glorious.
To understand yourself, to know why you have the longings and the desires that you have inside yourself, you have to go outside yourself. You have to go to the word of God to understand how you were created. You have to go to the creator and read about how he made you if you want to truly understand yourself. Maybe young people, you need to hear this particularly, you're going to be on a quest for the rest of your life to more fully understand yourself.
Don't just look inward. read the word of God to understand how he made you. That's what this author, this preacher of this sermon in Hebrews is doing. He takes them to scripture. He quotes from Psalm 8 to tell his readers about themselves. Psalm 8 is the passage that he quotes in this text. Psalm 8 tells us about God's glorious intent for mankind. What it was that God intended for us. Here's more of the psalm just for context. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.
You set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, David says, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Do you see what David is saying here? David wrote this psalm and he's expressing astonishment that a God so high, so mighty, so magnificent, so wondrous, so beyond all comprehension, why would God give honor, such honor to humanity?
It's a mystery. Verse 7, you made him for a little while lower than the angels. Angels are spiritual beings in the presence of God. We are here on earth. God made both of those things, angels and us.
We're here on earth in our physical bodies, the angels are in the presence of God, but according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, someday God's people will judge angels.
Did you know that? That's amazing. He doesn't say that ox will judge angels, dogs will judge angels, guinea pigs will judge angels. Only his people will judge angels. You made him for a little while lower than the angels. No other creature on earth has this status. It's amazing. Why, God? Why did you do this? You have crowned him with glory and honor. Again, why, God? We are made in his image. Angels are also created beings, but the only beings that scripture says are made in God's image are people.
Male and female, he created them. In his image, he created them. Such an important concept to know. Every person on earth, no matter what they are capable of, no matter how rich or poor they are, no matter how much education they have, they are all made in the image of God. And no other creature, according to scripture, is made in the image of God.
And the glory and the honor goes even further because he didn't just make us in his image and then walk away, he initiated a relationship with us. Amazing. He moved towards us. He did it to the first couple and he kept doing it even after the fall, even after sin entered the world. In Exodus, we read this, the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. What is man that you were mindful of him? Lord, that you would do that.
But this is all building to verse 8. He's building something to verse 8. This is where we see that we were made in God's image for a reason. And that reason is this, to have dominion over creation.
Verse 8 says that in making us this way, God was putting everything in subjection under his feet. This is a reference to Genesis 1, 26-28 which we read earlier. The passage that Cadence read, I think it was Cadence right? Oh, it was Bree, sorry, sorry Bree.
I can tell the difference. That passage is called the creation mandate, which she read, the creation mandate. Very important passage. It's the assignment that God gives to the first couple and therefore to all humanity. Remember, God, he didn't just say don't eat from this tree, he also said do, this. Do this. Have creation, have dominion over the world. We were meant to govern over creation in his place. We were made for that. We were made to govern righteously, dependently, in relationship with him, but still with real authority.
Conferred authority. It's like this. It's like if a world-renowned chef starts a restaurant, she works and she works and once it's established, she will soon hire chefs to work under her. She's going to train those chefs to cook and prepare the food and plate the food just like Shida. She's going to be molding them into her image so that they will be the ones running the kitchen in her place, doing it just like she would do in relationship with her.
That's purpose. We were designed to be stewards, caretakers, governors, directors of the earth. Not over heaven and certainly not over God, but over everything on the earth.
So, okay, this sounds like a theology lesson, but just following the text here, this is what the author of Hebrews is doing. He's telling us this for a reason. But this brings up something important. What do we call someone who feels like they need to be in control of everything? A control freak.
But according to Genesis 1 and Psalm 8 in Hebrews 2, God intended us to be in control. Do you see that? He made us that way. So, when you are grappling for control over a chaotic life, there is some depravity in that because you want to, your fallen human heart, you want to do that apart from God, right? But there is also a part of bearing God's image that's right there. Because you were made to have control. A conferred authority under God's authority living dependently on him, but still in control.
We were literally built for it. That's why we were made in God's image. But then something went wrong. And we all know it. Something went wrong because we look around and our reality is chaotic. Our design is glorious, but our reality is chaotic. It is disordered. It is out of control. The preacher has good news coming, but first he wants us to really feel our need for the good news. So stay with me here. Let's feel our need. He reminded us of the glorious design for mankind just to put a really fine point on it.
He reiterates in the second half of verse 8. He says this, Now in putting everything in subjection to him, that him is mankind. Now in putting everything in subjection to mankind, he left nothing outside mankind's control. Everything. Everything means everything. Everything in all the world, the animals, the plants, the land, the sea, the sky, God intended none of it to be outside of our control.
Just as we are becoming entranced with this idea, with this ideal, I should say, right when our spirits are saying that's what we were made for, that's what I want, a world under control, that sounds really great. Right then, he brings reality in full force. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, meaning mankind.
Now that's true, right? Let's just say amen to that. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to us. So we have this ideal and we have our reality. What are we supposed to do with that? This world is way outside our control.
It's supposed to be subjected to us, doggone it, but we're subjected to it. It's a complete reversal that's happened. Weather overcomes us. Animals overcome us. Even simple organisms that we can't even see overcome us. We can't even predict storms that well, much less control them and stop them. We try to protect ourselves from disease, and right when we think it's going well, bam, pandemic, our rain over the world is superficial at best and damaging at worst.
Right? That's the scale. It's either superficial rain or it's damaging rain. Occasionally there's some good things that happen. Listen, I've spoke often about the giant sequoias. I know I'm kind of obsessed with them. I've spoken about the giant sequoias before, the most massive trees on the planet when it comes to sheer size, sheer weight. When they were first discovered by Europeans, what they wanted to do, what they thought to do with these massive trees was to cut them down for timber.
Go ahead and put up that picture. There are hardly any of these trees on earth. There's only a few places that they grow. They live like six, seven, eight hundred years. That was the first thing that we thought to do with them, is to cut them down.
Now, if that's not crazy, it gets even worse because when they tried to cut them down, these trees were so huge, they were so massive, they so thoroughly overpowered the men that were trying to handle them and cut them down that many of them fell to the ground so hard that they just shattered. They were completely unusable for timber. they splintered up and were so beyond repair that many of them were made into toothpicks.
Magnificent trees that had grown for seven, eight hundred years became something that people picked food out of their teeth. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to us.
We try to exercise dominion over creation as we were intended to do, but we do it apart from God. We do it in our sin, out of our striving for power, out of this sense of wanting to live forever independent of God, of building our own kingdoms. We end up making a mess of things and looking stupid. And this story about the Sequoias, if that doesn't illustrate our incompetent rule over creation, I don't know what does.
What went wrong? Why are we in this situation? Because of the sin of the first man. Adam had the command to not eat and the command to exercise dominion, and Adam said no. I'd rather go my own way. He wrote that song before Fleetwood Mac did. I want to choose my own destiny. I'll find my own way to get this knowledge of good and evil.
As a result, sin entered the world. God pronounced a curse for disobedience. And now creation is wild. It is a wild world. I don't know, I just can't, It is a wild world. It is rebelling against our leadership, just like we rebelled against God's. You see? You see the analogy? Creation is rebelling against our leadership, just like we rebelled against God's. It groans for redemption while also producing thorns and thickets and frustrating our intent and our original design.
At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to mankind. When the Hebrews heard this, though, they weren't thinking about how difficult it is to manage forests or herds of animals. They were just thinking about how out of control their lives felt.
All their relationships have been reshuffled since they've come to Christ. Familiar people scorned them, strange people welcomed them. They're trying to figure out how to be a Christian in a culture that's pluralistic and yet hostile to their faith. Sound familiar?
Relationships reshuffled? coming to grips with how do I follow Jesus in a world that's very welcoming of all faiths but seems to be particularly targeting mine.
Their concern is not being about subject to nature. It's being about subject to authorities, to the search and seizure of their property, to arbitrary imprisonment. That's what they were subject to. They did not know what each day will bring. They just know that they're a long way from what God intended. And we know it too, don't we? Life is full of frustration and futility in work, in school, in parenting, in relationships, in friendships.
Very little of our good work seems to produce good fruit. Very little of our good work seems to produce good fruit. It feels in vain and that makes it hard to keep going, doesn't it? It's okay, you can admit these things. It makes it hard to keep going sometimes. And listen, we may not fear the authorities breaking down that door to come in here and stop our worship, but there are worldly authorities that try every day to break down your resolve and make you stop worshiping God.
They may not be trying to break down your door to your house or the door to this building, but they're trying to break down the door in your mind, in your heart, and put a stop to your worship of Christ to give it up. That's real.
So I'll return to the original question. How do we have an enduring faith in a world that feels so against us, so out of control? The preacher, do you see what he's doing? He's made us yearn for an answer. Tell us. Tell us what the answer is. And he has an answer. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to us, but we see him. That is the answer. But we see Jesus.
The announcement of verse 9 is like the turn of this little passage. This is the aha moment. This is the breaking of the dawn. It's like in an action movie when a train is out of control. The train is full of passengers and it's careening at full speed towards a cliff. The passengers on board are us. We are helpless. We're screaming. We can't get it under control. We're helpless. We're crying out. And just then, when tragedy seems unavoidable, the hero appears.
He comes riding in. We see him. He comes to our rescue. And he comes by stepping into our chaos. By getting on that out of control train and subduing it. Because we can't. He comes to save us, to be our rescue by becoming what we couldn't be, what we were supposed to be, the perfect human. He was made a little lower than the angels. This hero's mission meant taking a demotion. And not a small demotion. If someone were to ask me to take a demotion for a little while, I might be like, how big of a demotion we're talking about here?
Listen, Jesus set aside his place in the presence of the Father. He became one of his creatures. For us to be a little lower than the angels is great. It's an honor. For him, not so much. My first job was as a courtesy clerk at Ucrops. Ucrops used to be a grocery store, not just chicken salad and cakes. A courtesy clerk was the fancy name for a bagger. It was entry-level. For me, it was a great job at a great company. They treated their employees well.
I liked working there. But if the CEO of Ucrops was told by the board to go become a courtesy clerk for a little while, that is way beneath him, right? Same job, two different meetings. For me, it's great, it's an honor. For him, not so much.
We were made higher than we deserve simply by God's choice and we rebelled against him. Jesus went lower than he deserved by his own choice to go out and rescue the rebels. That's what he did. But he does not go out to us to show us up, to humiliate us. He's not like someone who sees you struggling to lift something, which we are, right? We're struggling to lift this job that God has given us. He's not like someone who comes along and is like, that's not heavy.
Watch. And then picks it up and just looks at you like, you couldn't do that. He's not like that. He takes our place out of love. With glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that he might taste death for everyone. My friends, he did not go around human suffering. He went through it. Directly through it.
The Son of God became a man, obeyed as a man, and then died as a man to take the punishment that men and women deserved. It had to be this way. He became what we had failed to be, the perfect righteous human that obeyed the Father and earned righteousness and life immortal. We gave that up, but he did it in our place. This is why Jesus' favorite way to refer himself is the Son of Man. That's the most often way that Jesus refers to himself, the Son of Man.
He's emphasizing his humanity. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He's the perfect Son of Man for us. He's the hero.
We see a world out of control, we see ourselves inept, incompetent, and then we see him, the one who comes to do it in our place, to rescue us. All of this, it says, is by the grace of God.
I want to close with two ways here, two ways that it's by grace, two ways to help you apply this to your life, to help you think about this. It's grace because he did what we could never do.
It doesn't seem to matter how old I get when someone asks me to open a jar, they can't. There's a voice in my head that says, a chance to prove myself.
It's usually Nikki that asks me to open a jar. She hands me that jar and I will not fail. If someone else says, let me try, I'm like, I got it, I got it. I got this. I haven't tried everything yet. I have my techniques in the rare, and I'm talking rare event, very rare, when I can't do it, and I hand it to someone else, one of my daughters, and they open it, what do I say? I loosened it for you.
Okay, that's kind of silly, but do you see the little microcosm of humanity there? we want so much to do it by ourselves, and we hate it when someone else does it for us.
Listen, Jesus opened the jar. You know that, right? You didn't loosen it for him. You didn't loosen it for him. He's the one who fulfilled the law. He's the one that obeyed the Father. He's the one who's the ideal human. My friends, give Jesus the jar. Stop trying to open it yourselves. You can't do it. Be humble. Hand him the jar.
And then don't say that you loosened it a little bit. He did it. That's why it's grace. He did what we could never do. Praise God indeed. This is good news. It's not good news for our pride. But it's still good news.
But listen, it gets better. Here's the second thing. It's also grace because he shares the victory with us. You don't have to say that you loosened it a little bit. He's going to share that victory with you anyway. Verse five says this. We're going to go all the way to come. The son is who he subjects the world to come. But if you have entrusted yourself to him, then you are united to him. And if you're united to him, he does the work, but you share the victory with him.
Look at this from 2 Timothy where Paul says this, if we have we will reign with him. Do you see that? We were meant to rule this world with God dependently on him as his people and that's how it's going to be someday. The original design is not defeated, it's not thwarted, it's not gone. God is going to accomplish it. His original intent for humanity will be realized. He will accomplish it. Sin has not thwarted his ultimate if we endure see the word endure we have enduring faith we will reign with him.
This is why this preacher wrote this sermon to help them endure because their life is out of control and your lives are out of control and my life is out of control we can't control it but he is already reigning he already wears that crown listen dear ones don't just look at a chaotic world don't just look at an out of control life look at Jesus the one who already reigns who already wears that crown the one with whom you will reign someday as you endure and persist in that faith futility and hardship they do not get the final word just like death doesn't get the final word your labor in Christ is not in vain at present we don't yet see everything in subjection but we see him exalted in control and working all things for us and for our