freedom

Grace Church Sermon – Sunday 2026-10-11

“Helper and Deliverer” — Hebrews 2:14-18 Sermon Recap

Speaker: Pastor Troy

Opening Context and Aim

  • Pastor Troy opened with community updates: prayer for Grace Church amid recent Somali gang violence in Eden Prairie, and an announcement that digital voters’ guides would be posted on the church’s Connect page ahead of the November election.
  • He shared how early in his own Bible study he realized Scripture isn’t an exhaustive answer manual to every “why” question in life, but it does give us endless reasons to trust God’s character, even when it doesn’t answer every question.
  • He framed Hebrews 2:14-18 as one of the rare texts that directly tackles a big “why” question: why did Jesus have to become human?

Scripture and Narrative Overview

  • Passage: Hebrews 2:14-18
  • “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15).
  • “For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16).
  • “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).
  • “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18).

Six Reasons Christ Became Human

  1. To truly share our humanity. He didn’t merely look human; he became fully flesh and blood, entering our condition completely, minus sin, so he could understand and empathize with our weakness (Hebrews 2:14).
  2. To break the devil’s power through death. God, not Satan, holds ultimate authority over death, but Satan wields the fear of death as a weapon. Through dying, Christ disarmed the devil and stripped that weapon from his hands (Hebrews 2:14).
  3. To free those enslaved by the fear of death. Christ broke the psychological grip that the fear of dying holds over people, a fear visible in obsessions with youth, safety, control, and relevance (Hebrews 2:15).
  4. To rescue God’s people, not angels. Christ’s saving mission was directed at humanity (the “offspring of Abraham”), not fallen angels (Hebrews 2:16).
  5. To become our merciful and faithful high priest who atones for sin. As mediator, Christ’s own human experience makes him merciful, and his obedience to God makes him faithful. His propitiation satisfies God’s wrath against sin, reconnecting sinners to God (Hebrews 2:17).
  6. To help us when we are tempted. Jesus doesn’t just know about temptation because he’s all-knowing; he experienced it himself, without sinning, and is therefore able to help those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:18).

Key Theological Themes and Applications

1) A New Way to Think About Death

  • Christ’s incarnation and victory over death should shift believers from viewing death as a terrifying end to seeing it as a defeated enemy and a gateway to glory.
  • Satan still exists, but his weapon, the fear of death, has been stripped of its power.

2) A New Way to Think About Salvation

  • Salvation isn’t a shallow transaction or self-help system; it’s a profound rescue. Christ didn’t shout instructions from heaven, he entered the pit himself to save us.
  • Salvation begins not with what we must do, but with what Christ has already done, and continues to do.

3) A New Way to Think About Help

  • Temptation doesn’t disqualify a believer; it can drive them toward Christ rather than away in shame.
  • The word “help” in Hebrews 2:18 pictures someone running to the aid of a person crying out for rescue. Jesus is not just a Savior who helped in the past but a living High Priest actively helping now.

Who God Is

  • Sovereign: God, not Satan, governs life and death.
  • Merciful and Faithful: Christ fully identifies with human weakness and is wholly obedient to the Father.
  • Rescuer: God doesn’t shout advice from a distance; he enters our condition to save us himself.

Who You Are in Christ

  • Reconnected to God through Christ’s propitiation, no longer condemned by sin.
  • Freed from slavery to the fear of death.
  • Welcomed to cry out for help without shame, knowing Christ listens and comes running.

Examples and Illustrations from Pastor Troy

  • The red spiral notebook from his early Bible study years, used to illustrate that Scripture doesn’t answer every “why” question but gives reasons to trust God.
  • A $20 (later $10) bill offered to anyone who could guess the sermon’s central “why” question, livening up the exposition.
  • The image of being trapped at the bottom of a pit, needing a rescuer to climb down, not just someone shouting instructions from above.
  • A Puritan quote: “Death used to be an executioner, but Jesus Christ made death just a gardener.”
  • The picture of a defanged snake that can only “gum” believers rather than bite them, illustrating a defeated but still-present enemy.

Practical Calls to Action

  • Let your view of death be transformed: live with fearlessness, faithfulness, and freedom instead of dread.
  • Recognize salvation as a divine rescue, not a self-improvement project; stop trying to “clean yourself up” before coming to Christ.
  • When tempted, run to Christ for help rather than hiding in shame.
  • Use the moment of communion to confess sin, receive grace, and recalibrate your life toward Jesus.
  • Pray for Grace Church’s gospel witness into the Somali community and for discernment as Christians prepare to vote in November.

Closing Thought

Hebrews 2:14-18 rewrites the human story by taking three things that naturally terrify us, death, salvation, and our need for help, and filtering them through a Savior who shared our flesh and blood. By becoming human, Jesus tasted our suffering, defeated death, and now actively helps those who cry out to him. He doesn’t judge when we come to him; he runs to help.

Selected Scripture References Highlighted

  • Hebrews 2:3
  • Hebrews 2:14-18

Sources & attribution

Sermon outline from Morning Selah.

Based on the sermon “Helper and Deliverer”, Hebrews 2:14-18, preached at Grace Church by Pastor Troy on October 11, 2026. Watch the sermon.

Jesus and the Man in the Tombs

Mark 5:1-20 – ESV

  1. They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.
  2. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.
  3. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain,
  4. for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.
  5. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
  6. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.
  7. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”
  8. For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
  9. And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
  10. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.
  11. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,
  12. and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”
  13. So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
  14. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.
  15. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
  16. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.
  17. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
  18. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
  19. And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
  20. And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.

The demoniac of the Gerasenes is a picture of a man completely undone. He lives among the tombs, cut off from people, driven by forces he cannot control. He tries to restrain himself, but nothing works. Chains break. Shame remains. Night and day, he is restless and tormented. This is a story of bondage.

Then Jesus steps onto the shore. The man does not clean himself up first. He does not make promises. He runs to Jesus in desperation. Jesus does not recoil or negotiate. He speaks with authority, and what ruled this man is forced to leave.

When the people arrive, they see the impossible. The man is sitting, clothed, and in his right mind. The one everyone avoided is now whole. Jesus restores dignity. He brings order where there was chaos. He gives identity back to a man who had lost his name.

For men in recovery, this matters deeply. Bondage thrives in isolation, shame, and the lie that change is impossible. This passage declares the opposite. No man is too far gone. Jesus is not intimidated by what has controlled you. He has authority over it all.

Jesus sends the man home to tell what the Lord has done. Healing leads to purpose. Freedom leads to testimony.

Called to Freedom

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
—Philippians 1:6

Embraced

Then I turned and looked down the corridor at the David, the statue fully chiseled by a master artist. As I walked toward it, I whispered,
“O God, chisel me. I don’t want to be locked in my hard places forever. I want to be free. I want to be all that You have in mind for me to be.”

It is beautiful when the Master chisels. God doesn’t want us to label ourselves and stay stuck. But He does want to make us aware of the chiseling that needs to be done. So instead of condemning myself with statements like, I’m such a mess, I could say, Let God chisel. Let Him work on my hard places so I can leave the dark places of being stuck and come into the light of who He designed me to be.

God is calling us out—out of darkness, out from those places we thought would never get better, out of being stuck. And with His call comes His promise that He will complete the good work He began in us (Philippians 1:6).

Lord, You are the Divine Artist. Thank You for applying Your creativity to me—first in creating me, and now in continuing to shape me into who You designed me to be.
I surrender to Your work. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Excerpt from It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way by Lysa TerKeurst

How the Faithful Pray Differently

Great men of the faith think differently than the rest of us.

The reason some men and women of faith rise above the rest, you decide, is that they think and pray differently than those around them.

Many people wonder if it’s wrong or selfish to ask God for more blessings, fearing that persistent or bold requests might come off as greedy. But rather than being self-centered, such prayers can be a sign of spiritual maturity. In fact, these honest, faith-filled requests are exactly the kind our Father longs to hear.

Summary:

True spiritual growth involves boldness in prayer. We honor God not by holding back but by trusting Him enough to ask for great and abundant blessings, knowing that our trust pleases Him.

Excerpt from The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkerson