Whether you just finished this 13-chapter trip through
Hebrews or just came upon this page and are up for a journey in faithfulness,
here are the links to chapters and messages in this unique book of Hebrews.
Son
of God. Son of Man. Divine Priest. The Christ.
Still
having doubts? Take his yoke.
Eyes
fixed on Jesus. Moving Forward.
Read Hebrews 13
We made it. We have read and studied
and tried to put words into practice for 13 weeks. Now, we come to the author’s
concluding remarks. Within them are these words that many know so well.
Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We will
tackle the laundry list of items that follow in the next service but for now,
let’s consider that Jesus Christ is the same as he was in the beginning and as
he will be for eternity.
We are to fix
our eyes on Jesus. He is our focus. It’s like having a star to guide you,
except that over time, stars move. Changes are relatively small and seldom
noticed in a lifetime, but everything you see in the sky is in motion. Our
relative position let’s us identify constellations and individual stars, but
everything is in motion.
Let’s say
that keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is like following the north-seeking arrow
on your compass. Except that the “North”
part of that moves. It moves slowly but it migrates about 3-5 degrees every one
hundred years.
If you look
at a map that has grid squares on it—we are not talking a gas station map or
Google Maps—look in the marginal information—the key—for a declination diagram.
The declination diagram depicts the relationship between True North, Magnetic
North, and Grid North. The difference
between Grid North and Magnetic North is called the G-M Angle.
Is the
church holding an orienteering meet? Why
do I need to know anything about land navigation?
We fix our
eyes on earthly points and navigate by them, but over time even these constants
change. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our only constant in the universe.
The world
changes.
We change.
The weather
changes.
Jesus is
constant.
Universities
change conferences.
Companies
change their branding.
We change
our clocks twice a year and think we have saved money and daylight. I’m ready
to cash in my DST CD. But the point is
that we change our clocks, but Jesus doesn’t change.
Jesus is
constant.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
A whole
bunch had changed for the Hebrew people. Yes, scripture told them it would
happen but so many were blind to the surpassing glory of God in Christ Jesus.
Goats and bulls could not make anyone right with God. It was only the blood of
Jesus.
Feasts and
festivals were not essential to salvation. They might be a wonderful response
to the love of God that we know in Christ Jesus, but they can’t make you right
with God.
The people
were charged with putting all of their hope in Jesus. It seemed like everything else was changing.
The people needed a constant. It was and
is Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
Jesus is our
constant as well. Look at our world. Values are changing. A godless society is
thriving. Commitment is a word without meaning in our century. We need a constant.
Beginning to
end, alpha to omega, Jesus is our constant.
It’s hard to
hit a moving target. We have our eyes fixed on Jesus and the only moving he is
doing is toward us. He is our constant.
When the
world says there is no god or to be your own god, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
He is our constant.
When the
world comes up with a pill to kill a baby and you can buy it as an OTC drug, we
need a constant. We need Jesus in our sights and we need to take his yoke.
When the
world sells you its godless model across every form of media, you need
someplace to direct your attention. You need a positive alternative to the
world’s junk. You need to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
When the
world says one religion is as good as another, that whole apathy and
ambivalence thing again, you need truth. You have faith, not religion but the
world is lumping what God has to say in with what Oprah has to say and giving
them equal standing. You need a constant in the universe. You need to keep your
eyes fixed on Jesus. He is our constant!
Salvation is
the gift
of God. Discipleship is our work and taking
his yoke and learning from him are our daily tasks.
Putting his words
into practice is how we bring glory to God, but you won’t hit the target if
you don’t know where to aim.
I was
driving through Houston a few years ago and tried the Sam Houston Tollway. My
cousin knew that I was going through town so she called me when she saw a news
report that there was a guy on the tollway going the wrong way.
I laughed
when she called and told me about the guy going the wrong way. I said, “One
guy, right, there’s hundreds of them!”
OBTW—those people
were rude and honking their horns as a dozen at a time would swerve to avoid me
at the last minute, most giving me digital signals as they passed.
How do we
keep from going the wrong way? Eyes fixed on Jesus. His model, his ways, his
words are what we need to target as our objectives.
So, let’s
wrap up this chapter and this book with these two very familiar scriptures.
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author
and Finisher of our Faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
Eyes fixed
on Jesus. He is our constant in a world without constants.
Amen.
Read Hebrews 13
We made it. We have read and studied
and tried to put words into practice for 13 weeks. Now, we come to the author’s
concluding remarks. Within them are these words that many know so well.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
We remember that one but there is a
bunch of other counsel set astride of this familiar verse. I will address them in a Kiplinger style.
Love one another and don’t stop.
Show hospitality to strangers.
Remember and empathize with those in
prison.
Honor your marriage.
Don’t get sucked into loving money. I
remember Zig Ziglar saying something along the lines of money isn’t everything,
but life is easier with it than without it. He also said that money can’t buy
you happiness but everyone wants to find out for themselves.
Do you remember what we have already
learned in the area of money?
Is money the root
of all evil? No.
Is the love of money the root of all
evil? No.
Is the love of money the root of all
sorts of evil? Yes. If it were the only
source of evil, eliminating money might do some real good. Focusing on not
loving money will reap benefits but won’t eliminate all the evil that we
encounter.
So, the counsel is clear. Don’t get
caught in the money-loving trap. God knows what you need.
Know that the Lord will
not leave or forsake
you.
Know that the Lord does help
us and we are not
to be afraid.
Remember that other people can only kill
your body. The Lord has your spirit secured with him forever. OBTW, we get
a new
body. Who can say, Bonus?!?
Consider those leaders who shared
their faith with you. Pick
a good model or two from among them as practical examples of living our
faith and putting the words of our Master into practice.
Watch out for strange teachings.
They are out there and beckon you to
abandon grace and embrace ceremony. God is calling you to him. Don’t
get off course.
Back in the day, these might have been
some Jesus Plus teachings. You can have your salvation in Jesus but you must attend
75% of the festivals and make a couple of goat offerings to make you complete.
Today we get: Go with your
feelings. Stay in your comfort zone. It is all about you.
The only sacrifice required for our
right standing with God was made in
the blood of Jesus. That was tough to swallow long ago but today we don’t
care much where our salvation comes from as long as we can continue sinning.
That’s what much of the modern church
is selling. You don’t need to change. The Bible needs to catch up with modern times
We have already been told if you reject Jesus, you have no place to go..
Remember that the consummation
of all life, death, our history, our victories and our miscues, and the
love of God the Father comes together in the person of Jesus.
In response to the great love we know
in Christ Jesus, let us continually make a sacrifice, an offering of praise. We
are thankful people. We are grateful people. We proclaim the Lord’s goodness.
We proclaim his salvation.
Know that there is more to come,
including Zion, the Holy City.
We profess that Jesus is Lord!
Don’t forget to do
the good deeds that God has set aside for you. Do them without the burden
of wondering if you are going to heaven or hell.
In our right
standing, we can do good not hoping that it gets us in right standing with
God or gets us to heaven, but in response to the great love of God that comes
through Christ Jesus. We can finally do what we were made to do.
Again, we see instruction to have
confidence in our leaders. We should submit to their authority. It should be a
pleasure to lead us, so much so that serving as a leader is not a burden but a
blessing.
The letter wraps up with a request for
prayer for the author and his fellow believers who were surely spreading the
word of God to Europe. The letter appears to have come from Rome, but we can’t
say with certainty.
If I had to venture a guess—I don’t
but I will—then I would say that the letter was written by one or more of
Paul’s traveling companions. Similar syntax—which is not a tariff on
transgression—suggests Paul or Luke, but again we can only guess.
As we noted in the beginning, this
book made it into our canonized Bibles. Whether we know the author or where it
was written does not interfere with the fact that this book written mainly to
the Hebrew people was included in the Bible we have today because that’s
exactly where God wanted it.
The author includes a blessing to his
readers as he wraps up this epistle. And that brings us to the end of this
journey, but I am not quite ready to relinquish my narrative on this chapter.
As we consider the directions packed
into this final chapter, let’s consider some collateral information with one of
these directives. Show hospitality to
strangers. This was part of the Hebrew culture that even preceded the law.
Look at the syntax that we see in our
translations. It says do not forget to show hospitality. That means that
the readers already knew to do this. The author just reminds them not to let
this practice slip away.
Do you remember reading about when God
destroyed Sodom? We think of Lot’s wife turning back and turning into a
pillar of salt, but do we know why God destroyed Sodom?
Their sin was grave. It was ugly. What
was it?
Most would say it was the homosexual practices,
and that’s surely among the things that God despised, but was there more?
Consider the experience of the visiting
angels. Where was the hospitality among the townspeople? They were not
hospitable. They were hostile to strangers.
Among the sins that today many think
are no longer sins or think that this sin is the Mother of All Sins was
the absence of hospitality.
Lot knew what God expected. He took in
the strangers—the angels. The culture of the town rebelled against God in all
areas, including hospitality.
Hebrews reminds us that we are to take in strangers
and that some of our guests may be angels. We may not know if they are angels
or not. Sometimes we may, but the counsel to continue this traditional practice
comes with this addendum.
It should not surprise us. Consider
the words of Jesus as he told the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell
you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of
mine, you did for me.’
When we help someone who is struggling
in this world, Jesus tells us that it is the same as doing it for him. When we
take in a stranger, it’s the same as doing it for Jesus, and it could be one of
his angels as well.
As we conclude, remember:
God loves us and saves us.
It’s all about Jesus.
Jesus is greater than anything or any
instruction that you have received so far.
So, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Get rid of the junk in your life that
leads you away from him.
Take his yoke.
Learn from him.
Receive his rest.
Receive his peace.
Put his words into practice.
We will be doing our good works—not
for salvation—but for Jesus himself.
Sometimes when we practice
hospitality, we might entertain—let’s say host—an angel or two along the way.
Amen.
By Danny Rush
Read
Hebrews 5
As you know, Hebrews, being a New
Testament book, was written after the life, crucifixion, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. What we’re getting here in this first section of chapter 5 should
be to us a great joy in realizing that we don’t have the required works to get
to atonement that people did in the Old Testament. Our great high priest, Jesus
Christ, fulfilled the law and has made the final atoning sacrifice by which we
are given salvation. Through Jesus, we have a direct relationship with our
heavenly Father.
The writer of Hebrews starts chapter 5
in verse 1 by saying “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed
on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and
sacrifices for sins;”. There’s an important distinction being made here in that
this high priest is a MAN, an EARTHLY being. Contrast this with what we covered
last week in our study of chapter
4 in that “WE have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God”. That’s chapter
4 verse 14.
Also of note is that an earthly high
priest is TAKEN from among men and APPOINTED on behalf of men in things
pertaining to God. The position of high priest wasn’t one that just any man could
hold. He had to be of the line of Aaron, or, TAKEN from the line of Aaron, as
it was ORDAINED by God, or, APPOINTED by God, and once in the position there
were strict guidelines to adhere to.
Just to mention a few…Leviticus
21:10-12 says, “The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the
anointing oil poured on his head (remember just a few weeks back in Hebrews
1:9 when God says of Jesus, “You have loved righteousness and hated
lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness
above Your companions.”) There’s some interesting writing by Charles Spurgeon from
way back in 1876 on this topic noting that the use of the term “anointed with oil”
is likened to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on someone.
With that in mind, let’s start over
with these few verses from Leviticus, “The high priest, the one among his
brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head (was given the holy
spirit), and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let
his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes. He must not enter a place where
there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or
mother, nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it, because he has been
DEDICATED by the ANOINTING OIL (given the Holy Spirit) OF HIS GOD. I am the
LORD”, God says. Think of these cautions against defilement as being similar to
keeping your sacrificial lamb spotless and without defect.
A defective lamb would not be an acceptable
atonement, just as a defiled high priest would not be acceptable to come before
God. The penalty for doing so would be death. As you may know from Jewish
tradition, they would tie a rope to the high priest so that if he were struck down,
they could pull him out of that most holy part of the temple, the Holy of
Holies. Being that they themselves couldn’t enter or they’d be struck down
also.
Leviticus
21:16-17 goes on to say, “The LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron: ‘For the
generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to
offer the food of his God”.
So, let’s talk about the first high
priest…
God himself told Moses to appoint
Aaron (his brother) as the first high priest. This special role was to act as
mediator between the people and God. Once a year, the high priest entered the
Holy of Holies to offer gifts and sacrifices for sin. You see, this was where
the Ark of the Covenant was kept. And in the Ark of the Covenant was the inscribed
law, given to Moses directly from God the father. What better place to honor
God and make atonement for sin?
Entering the sanctuary, the high
priest took with him the blood of sacrificial lambs, to atone for the sins of
the people. This included himself as all MEN are fallible. For the ceremony, he
wore holy vestments that matched the materials that decorated the Holy of
Holies. I’ll let you look into Leviticus
16:1-34 for more description on this.
Although Scripture describes Aaron as
a holy man, he did have flaws. For example, he led the Israelites in
worshipping a golden calf instead of God. We see this in Exodus 32 when the Israelites,
feeling Moses was away for too long while he was up on the mountain talking
with God, asked Aaron to make them a new god. He took their golden jewelry and
made a golden calf for them. The golden calf was an idol that the people
worshiped instead of the one true God. This was just shortly after they all
entered into a covenant with God that they would keep His commandments, be his
people, "His holy representatives to the other nations of the earth”, and
He would be their God.
I bring this up because of verses 2-3
of Hebrews
5 which says of the earthly high priest, “he can deal gently with the
ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and
because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people,
so also for himself.”
Aaron, had a moment of weakness in
succumbing to the wants of the people in making them an idol to worship. It was
moments of weakness such as this that disallowed him from being able to enter
the promised land. And along with Aaron, that whole generation of Gods own
people were disallowed from entering the promised land because of their disobedience
and unbelief. Hence the 40 years they wondered in the wilderness, giving time
for every one of that generation to perish, leaving their children to inherit
Gods promise, His rest. (11-day trip)
Man, on his own, is weak when faced
with temptation. This is no different even for a high priest. A human priest was
faced with all the same temptations and trials that any other man is faced with
and is therefore able to sympathize with human weaknesses. But this is exactly
why Jesus had to come as a man, to be tempted with all the things we’re tempted
with, to face all the trials we face. And to be an example for us, yes, but
even more than that, to be a GREAT HIGH PRIEST for us that we recognize can
fully sympathize with our weakness.
Therefore, we cannot say that our great
high priest doesn’t really understand what we’re going through. He’s lived this
life. We can’t say he doesn’t know just how hard it is to live on this earth. He
lived here. We can’t say he doesn’t know how hard it is to get by on what
little we have. He lived a life of poverty. And we cannot say our punishments for
disobedience seem unfair when we’re not living by Him as we should. He took our
just punishment upon himself and DIED for our sins WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS.
JESUS IS OUR PERFECT HIGH PRIEST. He
is Gods own son and “a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek”. What
does this mean, a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek? Melchizedek, you
should remember, is the priest king that met Abraham and blessed him while he
was returning from his victory over four mighty kings armies using only a
relatively small group of choice men. This victory was in saving his nephew Lot
and all that were taken captive with him. Melchizedek’s name is literally
translated King of Righteousness.
He is thought to have lived a prefect
life and is an architype of Christ. Depending on how far you might want to go
in your research of Melchizedek, some will say he may have been and earlier
incarnation of Christ, citing that this meeting between Melchizedek and Abraham
is what Jesus was talking about in John
8:56 when Jesus says, “Your
father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day, and he saw it and
rejoiced”. I’ll leave it to you to investigate it. That rabbit hole gets
deep.
Regardless of who he was, or could
have been, there’s something key here that we need to recognize. Melchizedek
was NOT of the line of Aaron. In fact, he came generations before there was a
line of Aaron. His priesthood predated Aaron, and to add to that, he was the
King of Salem, later known as Jerusalem. By now, I imagine you are seeing as I
am that Melchizedek was at least a picture of what Christ was to be, a priest
and King.
So now for the perfect high priest…
We have a perfect high priest in
Christ that has not only lived as a man, and so can sympathize with our
weakness, but looking back at chapter
4 verse 14, “one who has passed through the heavens”.
Hebrews
5:7 goes on to say, “In the days
of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud
crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and
He was heard because of His piety.” Jesus was not only tempted
as we are, but He also suffered as we do. Even more to the point of surpassing
any suffering we may experience as he died to take away our sin. Through his
suffering, Jesus cried loudly, his cheeks likely wet with tears, and he offered
prayers and supplication. But who were His prayers for? Maybe for Himself to be
saved from His suffering? Well, yes, He was quite grieved knowing the pain and
sorrow He faced, but most often His prayers were for the people of that time,
and for all of us today.
What was one of Jesus’s last prayers
as he hung on the cross, suffering and dying so that we may have new life? He
prayed “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He could have
easily saved himself, being the son of God, but as verse 8 says “Although He
was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” Jesus knew
full well what his time on this earth was for and why he was to endure his
suffering and learn obedience. Ultimately, it was for our salvation.
Would we, being human, and fickle as
we are, have faith to believe in Jesus as we do now if it weren’t for the life
we know Jesus to have lived, knowing now that he was fully man, and is fully
God? Maybe we can’t answer that given what we know now, but this is exactly
what the Hebrew people at the time of this writing were wrestling with. What
the writer is trying to convey to them here is that we DO have a great high
priest who HAS fulfilled everything they spent their lives learning. Jesus
fulfilled all their customs and ways of life that they were TRYING to live out,
albeit not with great success.
I love this verse 9, it says “And
having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of
eternal salvation.” JESUS, IS, the source of our eternal salvation. How do we
get to the father? How do we get to his rest like we talked about last week?
How do we get to OUR promised land, our inheritance? ONLY through Jesus. What
does Jesus say in John 14:6? “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one
comes to the Father but through Me.” JESUS is the source of our salvation.
We cannot live by following examples
of disobedience and unbelief. Over the last couple of weeks, the writer is
using this example of disobedience and unbelief by God's own chosen people to
make a point to the Hebrew people of his day and is valid for us today. Even
though the chosen people who witnessed God's plagues on Pharaoh, were saved from
Egypt, witnessed a guiding pillar of smoke by day and fire by night, witnessed
the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh's army, witnessed food
and water seemingly appear from nowhere, they still chose to worship a golden
calf and God cursed them because of it.
Even in knowing this history very
well, some of the Hebrew people of this day are found to be in disobedience just
the same. For the many signs and wonders that Jesus performed, and the
prophecies he fulfilled, they couldn’t wrap their heads around him being the Messiah
they had been waiting for. They were having trouble letting go of their
traditions which told them that their works are what would qualify them to
enter God's rest. They didn’t believe that Jesus was the fulfillment of all
those things and that God’s grace, and having faith in Him is what would bring
them to salvation. As in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast.”
We may not have personally witnessed
Jesus’s many miracles in our day, but we have this book of the past, which has
been proven true time and again, which still holds true for us today, and which
promises us the result of our salvation in the future. STAY in the word of God,
ENCOURAGE others to do the same, and BELIEVE that our PERFECT HIGH PRIEST
continues to offer salvation to all who believe.
Amen.
By Danny Rush
Read Hebrews 5
We’re going
to talk more in the second service about Jesus as our perfect high priest, our
priest and king. But I want to talk this morning about the latter part of
Hebrews 5, verses 9-14.
Verse 9
says, “And having been made perfect, He became to all those
who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” Let’s stop there for a
moment. What are we getting here, what are we to understand from “having been
made perfect”? Wasn’t Jesus just perfect from the beginning? How can something
perfect be made perfect? It’s easy for us to look back now and say Jesus was
perfect because we see his complete life, but that’s the distinction. We see
His COMPLETE life, His full life to the end.
To be able
to say Jesus LIVED a perfect life (past tense), or was MADE perfect, means His
life had to come to an end. It had to be completed. And that’s what we’re
getting here. Jesus was “made perfect” by the COMPLETION of his life. That
brings to mind Jesus’s final words as he hung on the cross, He said, “It is
finished”.
What was
finished? Jesus’s work, which is our redemption, the salvation given to each of
us. The text says that THROUGH HIS DEATH “He BECAME to ALL those who OBEY Him
the SOURCE of ETERNAL salvation”. Do you obey Him? Do I? I sure try, though I confess
I sometimes fail. I’m only human. How do we obey Him? We obey Him by keeping
his command for us, right? And what is that?
Let’s look back
to Mark
12:28-31
This is a
bit of a paraphrase, but the bible says one of the scribes came to Jesus and
asked which is the first commandment of all, and Jesus said, “you shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, ‘You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
John
13:34-35 would put it this way, “A new commandment I give to you, that you
love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By
this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another.”
Our study
here of Hebrews links obedience to belief. That seems to make sense. If we truly
believe, we’re going to WANT to be obedient. We’re going to find a sense of joy
and satisfaction in being obedient. The flipside of that is if we find
ourselves being disobedient, we’re likely to find sadness and disappointment in
ourselves until we confess our wrongdoings to God. To right the ship as it
were.
Remember in chapter
3, starting back in verse
12 the text says, “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you
an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage
one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none
of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become
partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until
the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your
hearts, as when they provoked Me.” For who provoked Him when they had heard?
Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was
He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell
in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest,
but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter
because of unbelief.”
Here we see
the sin of unbelief. Not believing in Jesus, our redeemer, our savior, is
disobedience to God. When we believe, we give reverence to Christ. We
acknowledge the ultimate price he paid in sacrificing Himself to redeem us from
our sin. By the blood of this perfect spotless lamb, we have salvation.
This is, I
think, in effect, is the teaching the writer is referring to starting in chapter
5 verse 11. He says, “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to
explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” Well, the “him” here is
referring to Melchizedek, who I’ll talk a bit about in the next service, but
what I want to highlight here in this verse is that the writer says there’s
much to say that’s hard to explain since you’ve become DULL of HEARING. WOW,
that must have been hard to stomach by a Hebrew reading this letter who would
have spent their whole life learning about God.
But we know how
it is, we hear something time and again, and eventually is just becomes this repetitious
thing that we stop putting much thought into. We become COMPLACENT in our
thoughts. Complacent Christianity could, and just might be, a whole other
sermon. But realize that we may find ourselves in this in this trap. We take
for granted this marvelous book we have, this word of God, this story of our
redemption. We have grown up with the stories of the bible and likely know them
well but how much thought do we put into them?
Though I
think the memory verses we learn here month to month and are a great way to
learn scriptures; are we simply committing them to memory to be able to repeat
them, or are we really giving them some thought? Are we taking the time to look
them up, to learn the context in which they’re used. Are we then taking what
we’ve learned and sharing that full understanding with others?
The writer
here continues in verse 12 by saying, “For though by this time you ought to be
teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary
principles of the oracles of God (meaning the truth, or word, of God), and you
have come to need milk and not solid food.” Let’s pause there again.
As disciples
of Christ, we are all to learn of His purpose, which is our redemption, and in
turn share that marvelous truth with others. The Hebrew people of this time,
knowing full well the life of Christ, should have come to a full understanding,
a revelation if you will, that Christ had fulfilled the Law and prophecies spoken
of Him in the Old Testament; that He lived a perfect life, was crucified, died,
and resurrected ALL for the purpose of their, and our, redemption.
The Hebrew
people seemed to have forgotten the promise God made to Abraham that through
him a SEED would come by which ALL MANKIND would receive the Spirit through
faith, through belief in the Redeemer. Salvation would not come through the law
or by works, but through faith. And salvation would not be for the Hebrew only,
but all mankind. Paul said it well in Ephesians.
Let’s look
at Ephesians
2
[And you (talking
about gentiles, which would be us today) were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the
sons of disobedience (this is referring to Satan working in the unredeemed man).
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath,
even as the rest (we’re all born into sin).
But God,
being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in our transgressions (even when we were sinners), made us
alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up
with Him (redeemed us), and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED
THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would
walk in them.
Therefore,
remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh (this is unredeemed man
living by the ways of the world), who are called “Uncircumcision” by the
so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands
(referencing the Jewish religious leaders who were of the mindset that they
were saving people by the physical act of circumcision), remember that you (again,
the gentile) were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world.
But now in
Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood
of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one (Jew and
Gentile) and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His
flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so
that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing
peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by
it having put to death the enmity (the Jew’s hostile opposition to the Gentile
having salvation). And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and
peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one
Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you
are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself
being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing
into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into
a dwelling of God in the Spirit.]
The teaching,
that Christ created all, fulfilled all, and that salvation would come only
through His redeeming sacrifice, not by works, and to all people, should have
been the solid food that the Hebrew people were chewing on. They should not, by
this time, have been still trying to survive on the “milk” that was the law. The
law mind you, was given well after God made the promise to Abraham that a
savior would come from his line. It was given because of a disobedient people
and was meant to be a guide to them until their ultimate shepherd arrived,
their perfect high priest. It was never meant to replace God’s promise of the
redeemer, Christ Jesus.
Referring to
chapter 5 verse 13, how do we get from a spiritual diet of milk, as if an
infant, and move to a diet of solid food? I’ll leave you with these things to
think about.
Study the
Word daily.
Meditate on
what you learn.
Apply what
you learn to your life.
And teach
what you have learned to others.
If you will
do this, you’ll find that not only will you have matured in your relationship
to God, but you have also helped others to mature in theirs. And the greatest
benefit of this is the glory given to God by the furtherance of His kingdom.
Let’s Pray
Read Hebrews 12
Here we go!
You are God.
My trust is in you.
Show me your ways.
Teach me your paths.
We have been
memorizing Psalm
25 verse by verse over the past few months. These thoughts should be
familiar. What thoughts?
Teach me.
Show me.
What now?
Keep your
eyes fixed on Jesus and get rid of your junk. Cast off anything that encumbers
you.
Move
forward. Seek
God and draw
near to him.
OK. But what
is it that encumbers us? Let’s give it a shot.
· Anxiety and Worry. We are told not to be anxious
and not to worry, but we do it anyway. How effective can we be if we are
worried so much? Bad stuff could happen, but if it does, let’s just live
through it once. Don’t worry about it before it happens and don’t drag your
miscues around with you. Confess and get back in your race unencumbered by
worry.
· Forgiveness. Maybe you think someone wronged you
or maybe you wronged somebody, but in either case, we must forgive. We should
forgive the person who wronged us and we should have a conversation with the people
whom we have injured seeking their forgiveness.
We can’t be a body at rest—the whole inertia thing—we must keep moving
forward in this area of forgiveness.
· Conflict. This is often rooted in insisting
on our own way. We want to do things God’s way but sometimes we presume our
way to be God’s way, and often it just isn’t so. For the last half of the last
century, I proffer that most Americans thought they were Christians even though
they didn’t read their Bibles much. They just identify as Christian. God does
not need to adjust his will to ours. He is the constant, the steadfast, our
rock. We are told that as much as it is possible, try to get along with others.
We don’t sacrifice our beliefs if our beliefs truly come from God, but we need
to make sure that’s the case. We can live with and love and work together with
people who don’t believe or think like we do, but how we think needs to be
governed by what God says and not our emotions and comfort zones. Those are
just a new paganism for our modern times.
I catch a little flak—mostly in fun—for challenging us to read our
Bibles every day. The question is, do you consider reading your Bible and
learning God’s ways as a burden or a blessing?
· Comfort. There is nothing wrong with a
little comfort, but when our comfort keeps us from doing what we are called to
do, it is weighing us down. It encumbers us.
· Doubt. Yes, Christians deal with doubt. We
can what if ourselves into a dysfunctional state. Believe. Do not doubt.
Doubt weighs you down. Doubt creates anxiety and then we are just feeding this confluence
of things that weigh us down.
· Coveting. Sometimes, we are weighed down by
our desire for something in this world. That new fishing boat, new car, new
job, new shirt, those really old-looking ripped-out jeans—which back in the day
didn’t come that way. You had to earn your own rips and tears. Maybe we covet
recognition, adoration, or applause. If we desire something—anything—more than
we seek and desire God, that’s coveting and it is not healthy. It encumbers us.
· Control. What about control? Do we try to control everything? If we do, we
are encumbered, burdened by that desire.
We can’t control much in this world. You might have thought that I was
out of Marine Corps examples, but here’s one more. Back in the day, when issuing
combat or operational orders, the final section of the order is titled: Command and Control. For as much as many well-educated Marine
officers poured into these orders to make sure they were as thorough as
possible in the time available, all the senior officers could do was chuckle
and bite our lips when we got to Command and Control. One thing learned over the
course of many exercises is that we just don’t control much of anything.
Despite the signals and phase lines, boundaries and registered targets, timing,
and other factors prescribed by the order, most of us just laughed to ourselves
as we set loose armed Marines on the task before them, knowing we could get
blown up, they could destroy the wrong target, or total chaos might ensue. If
you want to control everything, you are encumbered by that desire.
· Fear. Let’s not leave out fear. Sometimes
we fear failure. Sometimes we even fear success. If fear is a substantial part
of your life and your decision-making skills, then fear encumbers you and you
need to kick fear to the curb.
· More. There are more, but we will leave
those for your personal exploration and examination.
Long ago and
far away, that is in the mid-1980s—I was at Amphibious Warfare School. It’s a
school for captains and trains you to command or serve in a staff position in
battalions and regiments. As a part of this 3-year school packed into 9 months,
we each had to write a paper, something like a thesis for a master's degree.
Mine was on
the mobility of the individual Marine. What I learned was that through the
centuries, combat weapons have become more lethal. Vehicles can move faster. Communications
become more capable and more complicated. Protective equipment got better, at
least in some ways.
But the
mobility of the man on the ground—the grunt—just got heavier. I knew this from
personal experience, but I also did the research. The average load of the
infantryman was just over 100 pounds. It was more if you needed clothing and
equipment for extreme cold or for chemical and biological warfare.
Maybe 100
pounds doesn’t sound like too much if you are about 200 pounds and in good
shape, but I will tell you that 100 pounds gets heavy quickly for just about
everyone. Now, think of a Marine who is
only 120 or 130 pounds carrying this load.
Visualize a
Marine who weighs 125 pounds with 115 pounds on his back. That’s encumbered.
And then, we
add ammunition. That’s heavy.
That’s
encumbered. That’s weighed down. And all that modern technology could do was try
to distribute the load better. Cartridge belts, packs, and flak vests all
became integrated to help spread the load, but the load was still carried by
one person.
That’s still
encumbered.
Marines will
do the pack mule thing again and again, but when it’s time to fight, they have
to shed the gear. They can’t be encumbered.
They often
shed everything that is not needed for the fight at hand. They can round it up
later.
We need to
shed some gear too. Anything that encumbers us as we navigate this world trying
to put the words of our Master into practice has got to go.
Worry,
anxiety, conflict, excess comfort, doubt, coveting, control, fear, and more
weigh us down.
I keep small
weights in my office. At my age, I need a little something to keep muscle tone.
I’m not hauling hay and having to buck bales up onto a trailer. I’m not scaling
cliff faces. I’m not going on 25-mile hikes with a full load.
But I do
need to do something to keep a little muscle tone, so I have some little weights.
My grandkids
think they are huge. They can barely move them, but they continue to try. That’s
our nature. We try to carry the load all by ourselves.
Sometimes we
need help with our loads and sometimes we need to get rid of a whole bunch of
what we are carrying with us. Worry,
anxiety, conflict, excess comfort, doubt, coveting, and more weigh us down.
We have to
get rid of the junk if we are going to grow in God’s grace.
So here is
what you take with you for this week.
The psalmist
said show me your ways and teach me your path. God has done that. Now we must
put his words into practice.
In terms of
what we read this week, that means:
Eyes fixed on Jesus.
Cast off anything that is weighing us
down.
Keep your
eyes fixed on Jesus and get rid of your junk.
Amen.
Read Hebrews 12
And so we come to a chapter that
begins with the word therefore. We have talked about for and therefore before.
I’m getting my alliteration points in early today. Both connect paragraphs,
pages, or thoughts.
So, what’s being connected to chapter
12?
That’s an easy one. Chapters 1-11 are
what is being linked to the current chapter.
So far, we have seen a lot of explanations, mainly targeted at those
anchored in tradition and in the Law that came via Moses.
It was written to those comfortable in
religious practices long ago. Such counsel is just as applicable to us, though
our comfort zones are seldom rooted in the law.
Now we see a call to application. We have moved from explanation to application. We are supposed to put what God has
taught us and is teaching us into
practice. Such as?
Throw off, cast off, get rid of
anything that hinders tops the list. What hinders?
Do you remember, God’s way and
everything else?” What hinders is
anything and everything that is calling us to the everything else.
That’s a lot. The world is coming at
us from so many directions all the time. How can we cast of everything that is
trying to lead us the wrong way? One way is to let most of it roll off.
Bad thoughts? Take them
captive. Make them obedient to the mind of Christ that is within you. If
they don’t get a
foothold, they don’t have anything else to say.
Fight the battle of sinful thinking—which
can lead to sinful living—at the borders of our minds. My grunt brethren who served
in the Vietnam era had a phrase that nobody wanted to hear. What?
They are in the wire!
The enemy had gotten inside the defensive
perimeter. It’s a whole different ball game when the enemy is mixed in with
friendlies opposed to we are here and they are there and we will stop them
before they get from there to hear.
How do we keep from fighting the enemy
in the wire? The world is coming at us
from so many directions. How do we stay the course of faith?
How?
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is
the Author and Finisher of our Faith. He is the Pioneer and Perfecter of our
faith.
Jesus is the Alpha
and the
Omega of all that we know and that includes our faith. We have each been given
a measure of faith. If we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we strengthen and
grow our faith.
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and
Finisher of our faith.
OK, then what?
Run your race of faith with perseverance.
Stay the course. Keep moving forward.
Endure hardship. Treat it as discipline. Treat it as discipline from the
Lord.
When we think of discipline, we often
think of punishment,
and the two are frequently paired with other like terms that deal with
consequences for actions.
But here, think of discipline as
training in righteousness. Think of it as God giving correction as we put his
words into practice. Another term for what God is doing is coaching. Think of
it as part of the application phase of our learning to be his disciples—of taking
his yoke.
Long ago and far away, I learned the
basics of instruction. It was a simple format that has surely been revised a
thousand times with fancy terms, but once upon a time this was the model for
instruction: LDA.
It was lecture, discussion, and
application.
Understand that God knows what you are
disposed to do, what you will do, and the reward or consequence in store for
you and your choices. Knowing this, God may begin the discipline process before
we even know what is going on.
Too often we wonder why this happened
to us. The author here tells us to take our hardships and trials and treat them
as discipline from God.
Understand that some of our trials are
because we shot ourselves in the foot. It hurts. There are consequences. We
shouldn’t do that again.
Too often, not only do we shoot
ourselves in the foot, we also admire our marksmanship. Some even reload.
But here is how I understand this
instruction. Take your trials and hardships—even the self-inflicted ones—and treat
them as training in right standing with God. Receive them as discipline from
the Lord, even though a simple root cause analysis might reveal that we shot
ourselves in the foot.
Listen once more to verse 11.
No discipline seems pleasant at the
time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness
and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Over the past several decades, the
world has realized some of this mindset and tried to frame it for general use.
It’s not what happens to you, it’s how
you respond to it. This trend in thinking goes back 75 years to Viktor Frankl. So,
is your current trial just grist for the mill in your journey of faith or is it
truly debilitating?
Are our trials part of our training in
righteousness or do they encumber us as we seek to follow Jesus?
We are reminded of this fact. God
disciplines those whom he loves.
God loves
us.
God has good
plans for us.
God expects us to expect some training
along the way. That training might just involve some hardship or trials.
Consider them grist for the mill. All of our experience goes into the
process of our refinement.
We are being refined.
We are being perfected. We are growing and we continue to grow whenever we step
forward in faith.
We are refined so that one day, we may
live in the holy city that is Zion. We are refined so that we too will be in
the presence of God as are multitudes of angels.
We are warned again to pay
attention. If you did not listen to Jesus while he walked the earth, you
had better listen now that he is at the right hand of the Father in heaven.
Let’s go back to the very beginning of
this chapter and the premise it lays. Since we are surrounded by such a
great cloud of witnesses…
What witnesses? The pillars of faith mentioned in Chapter
11 are surely among them, but the angels in heaven also are witnesses to our
response to God’s love.
What is of the earth is temporary. It
is shakable, as the author described it. But the Kingdom of God cannot be
shaken. It cannot be disturbed. Nobody is in the wire in heaven. God’s got it
all covered.
Therefore, since we are receiving a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God
acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
We have so many witnesses that the
word of God is true. These witnesses know that God rewards our faithfulness.
These witnesses want us to come join them.
What are we to do? We already know
most of this, but let’s make sure we don’t leave out what we just studied. What are we to do?
Believe
in the one true God and his Son, and while you are at it, include the Spirit of
God that lives within you. Believe.
Profess
that Jesus is Lord. Believe with all
that you are that God raised him from the dead.
Know that God
is love.
Know that God
loves you.
Know that we are called to love
one another.
Be God’s love. Be known
by your love as a disciple of Christ Jesus.
Be the light
of the world and the salt of the earth.
Be a cheerful
giver.
Be an ambassador
from Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Be a letter
from Christ. Connect the disconnected with the love of God and the word of
God.
Fulfill
your commission. Take the good news to the world, at least that part where you
are connected. Perhaps, God may send you far away. He might just send you across
the street.
Take
the yoke of our Master, learn from him, and put his words into practice.
Put his words
into practice.
I know those. I do know those!
Yes, I am in familiar territory with
all of those. I know all of these but still struggle. There is no mystery as to
what I should be doing in response to the great love of God that we know in
Christ Jesus. I’m growing.
We grow in the grace of God. Our
hearts and minds—hopefully not our waistlines—are growing as we seek
God and his kingdom and his righteousness before all things. We are growing
in God’s grace.
For the next few weeks or months or
however long, if I ask you, “How are you?”
Please answer with “Growing.” We will do this in our warm-ups from time
to time.
We are growing.
Now let’s add a couple of items from
Hebrews 12. Know that we are not in this alone. God
is for us and with us and he brought a whole cloud of witnesses. What are
we adding to our growth list?
We are to keep our eyes fixed on
Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith.
We are to cast off, throw off, or just
get rid of everything that is getting in the way of living out our faith in response
to the great love of God.
Do you remember there
is God’s way and there is everything else?
Live God’s way—eyes fixed on Jesus—and
cast off everything else. We know the concept. It’s time to go from concept to
practice.
Eyes fixed on Jesus.
Cast off everything that’s getting in
the way.
Amen.
