42) Pleasing Service and Sacrifice to God
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. 4 Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. 5 Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you or abandon you. 6 Therefore, we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? 7 Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.
If someone were to come up to me and ask “Pastor Kyle after 42 weeks of teaching and study on the book of Hebrews, how would you summarize it?” I would have to very simply have to say two words “By Faith”.
Not only do we have the obvious chapter 11 faith chapter but the author has richly developed the object of our faith, Jesus, and the reward for our faith. We went into detail last week about the reward.
Hebrews along with other books of the new testament give us the appropriate way to look to the scriptures. The first 10 chapters are primarily doctrine. They teach truth about God and man but there is very little practical application.
Chapter 11 and 12 are general exhortation of duty and position. They call and encourage the church as a whole. The author continually said “let us”.
Let us draw near, Let us be bold. Let us run the race
He continued to call them to live in the reality of their faith hear on earth.
1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.
That even though we are citizens of heaven, and will enter God’s presence, with all of the angles and other believers in worship, we are still hear in this world. We are no longer a slave to sin but we are still tempted to follow the fleshly and selfish pleasures that this world calls out to us.
He ended the general encouragement and exhortation with:
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Because all of what God accomplished through the predetermined plan of the sacrifice of Jesus which was the perfect will of God, because of this we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. It is indestructible.
And he says “Let us be thankful, By it we may serve God acceptably, serve God with reference and awe.
The word used for acceptably means “pleasing”. So that we may serve God in a way that pleases him. It is the same word that is used in chapter 11
6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. This is why we spend so much time focusing on Jesus as he is the pioneer or author of our faith. It is my hope that every person here lives out their lives in a way that is pleasing to God. For the the stakes are high, the salvation of a person is what is on the table for the person who does not have faith. For it is impossible to please God without faith. And the rewards are great. The salvation from the consuming fire of God. To be forgiven, to have sins, wiped away, to stand in the presence of God cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
And for those that are saved by faith, we are to live lives that are pleasing to him. To stay on the narrow path, to shine so that others see the Lord.
I think most people that attend a church service on Sunday morning would respond “Yes” to the question “Do you want to live a life that is pleasing to God?” I would be surprised if I walk into a church and asked that question would respond with “Nah, It want to live in a way that displeases God. wake up every day and meditate on how I can be more displeasing to God”
Now in today's world I might be surprised what I find, and I also understand that not every group that claims to be Christian are actually people who have been saved by faith. But in general, I think most believers want to please God.
But do our lives actually please him. That is the next question. What is pleasing service? How do I know if what I am doing is pleasing? We can do a lot in the name of God and in the name of Jesus and it does not please God.
And this is the exact question that God answers in chapter 13. We are to live lives in the light of the Gospel of Jesus and the reality of our faith and in doings so we please God.
Chapter 13 is titled in various ways, such as Christian behavior, Christian Ethics, moral instruction or spiritual sacrifices. All of these are correct but what the author focus in on is the pleasing, service and sacrifices that come from our faith.
For the next couple of weeks we will see practical instruction of a life lived in ways that are pleasing to God. These are the pleasing sacrifices of the new covenant.
15 Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
Do not neglect to do what is good and to share.
Brotherly Love
Brotherly Love
1 Let brotherly love continue.
It is very important that chapter 13 is set into the framework of the rest of the book. The author does not go into great detail with each of these practical acts of service and that is because of the teaching in the last 12 chapters. Let brotherly love continue.
Four simple to understand words. Four words that can very easily lead to false teachings and false doctrines. If we don’t ask any questions when we come to the scripture we will find ourselves like many others defining these word with our own definition definitions and ideas.
We should be asking God, via the bible, what he means by “Brotherly love”.
He states that this love should continue. The means it started somewhere before. This is not a new concept for them. He is not calling them to start to love but to continue to love. We see this love pointed to back in chapter 6.
10 For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints—and by continuing to serve them.
The Christian believers that he is writing too have previously and are exhibiting this brotherly love. That God will not forget the love that they demonstrated for God’s name by Serving the saint. and by continuing to serve them.
Love is definitely integral to the entire bible. Depending on your translation you will have the work love in it around 500 to 700 times.
Love is the first fruit of the spirit.
We know for God so loved the world that he send his one and only son.
Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, 5 is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. 6 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. 13 Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.
It is the verb of the greatest commandments
37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
We know from John that God is Love.
We know that we are to extend love all the way to our enemies.
We Love because he first loved us.
The list can go on and on, But I want to stay very close to the point that the author of Hebrews is making. When he says “Let brotherly love continue.”
He uses the Greek word Philadelphia. Of the seven Greek words used for love. The most common one that we are used to is the agape love. The love that comes from the one who is loving. It is not based on the character or qualities of the object of love. Philadelphia is a compound word of two words the first means friend and the second means brother. Together they mean the affectionate and caring love that is between brothers. The word for brothers at the root means from the same womb and is used many many times to describe fellow believers.
Philadelphia is only used 6 times in the bible.
Paul uses it to describes this love as honoring others.
10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another.
Peter teaches about this type of love
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly, 23 because you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.
It is a constant love from a pure heart because a believer has been born again. through the living and enduring word. And Paul gives us more specifics.
9 About brotherly love: You don’t need me to write you because you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. 10 In fact, you are doing this toward all the brothers and sisters in the entire region of Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers and sisters, to do this even more, 11 to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 so that you may behave properly in the presence of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.
And again Peter tells us the progression of growth in brotherly love.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, 6 knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, 7 godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
The typical use of this word is always between believers. It is the love that that is demonstrated between brothers and sister in Christ. We are adopted as God children at the moment of salvation. All other differences are secondary.
28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
This is the unifying fact among the church. That we are one in Christ and because of that we are to love with the affection of the family. The church is not an organization, or a club. It is not a self help station. The church is a family of faith.
And like any family there are challenges and disagreements. There are mistakes and missteps. But the family is to overcome them and resolve those. Why? well because they are family and that we love each other.
And even thought we are to love from God to our enemies we are to prioritize the family of faith.
10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.
This idea is contrary to the voices of the world today. The voices today proclaim. Love is love, Love is primary. If you prioritize the family of believers then you are not a true Christian.
1 Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, 2 and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
We are to live and walk in love. This is Agape love. this is the love that is dependent only on the love of the one demonstrating love. It says we are to walk in love as Christ also loved us. He loved us based on his character and his pure heart.
And as born again believers we are to love not because of our character but still because of his character and the work of the Holy spirit in our lives as it produces the spiritual fruit of love.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
But brotherly love is a deeper love. It is a love between two members of a family. It is relational and affecting for each other.
The family of faith that the author is addressing has and is showing this type of love among the brothers and sisters, the saints of the church and he calls them to continue as this is the first spiritual sacrifice that he lists.
We can agape love anyone but we must cultivate Philadelphia love. This type of love can only be nurtured in a community that spends time together. A community that strives for peace. That works through life together in the ups and downs for the long haul. This love is an active love
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another, 12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. 16 This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth. 19 This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20 whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows all things. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. 23 Now this is his command: that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps his commands remains in him, and he in him. And the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he has given us.
We could go on for the rest of our lives looking at the depth of the truth of God’s love and how it manifests itself in the believer but we must move to the second spiritual sacrifice. That is hospitality.
Care and Generosity
Care and Generosity
2 Don’t neglect to show hospitality, for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.
Your translation may say hospitality towards strangers. The Greek text does not have the word strangers in it. The word by definition means to be kind or to treat guests and strangers cordially and generously.
It seems like the some translations are adding strangers explicitly to help the reader understand the meaning behind the text.
Today we have the hospitality industry that serves those that travel from one place to another. That takes in the strangers and guest that are new or traveling through town.
But in biblical times this was not the case. There were some inns but not remotely comparable to what we have today in terms of volume. They were also place of ill repute and were very expensive. So travelers relied heavily on the generosity and care of strangers in town. It was considered a virtue to be hospitable to the those who opened their homes to strangers.
He tells them in the second part of verse to that
Hebrews 13:2 (CSB)
2 .... for by doing this some have welcomed angels as guests without knowing it.
This wasn’t a motivation for opening a home but a reference to Jewish history as we see in Genesis
1 The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. 2 He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them, bowed to the ground, 3 and said, “My lord, if I have found favor with you, please do not go on past your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. 5 I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.” “Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.” 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.” 7 Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it. 8 Then Abraham took curds and milk, as well as the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree. 9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he answered.
This is what hospitality looks like. Abraham did not know these men but you see a complete opposite of our world today. We live in neighborhoods of strangers. We drive by them every day. We go to work with them and there is little to know desire to go out to know them. Let alone the strangers passing through from one place to another. Our culture definitely does not exhibit even to faintest shadow of this type of virtue.
The author is calling them to see though who come into the community and to be hospitable to them. There may be a question of whether this still applies to us today. I believe that it does. The focus in the biblical times was to take in those who did not have what we have today. They didn’t roll into town with a digital account and just go down to the local fast food joint, get dinner, and stop at a hotel. Most today do not have the same needs.
But there are still times that these needs come up. We experienced them during the gray fire and elk fire last year. People were in need of a home and many welcomed them in until things could get situated.
I have some friends that had complications with the birth of their twins and their children were at sacred heart. They did not have the means to stay in town so they had to stay in Deer Park. There are opportunities all around us that come up that people are in need of a place to stay and just don’t have the means or resources to stay at a hotel.
We also have strangers among us all of the time. After nearly 20 years of attending here I cannot count the number of people who have walked into these doors not knowing a single person. They may not be in need of a place to stay but kindness and generosity can still be shown.
I still remember the hospitality that was shown when We attended here for the first time. I remember the Cripps and specifically Jodie that took us out to lunch just to be kind. And others that showed us care.
To see strangers, those that come from outside of our community, and to care for them is one of the spiritual sacrifices.
The third one we come to is Sympathy of those who have been taken from the community.
Sympathy
Sympathy
3 Remember those in prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.
We know from Earlier in Hebrews that there were fellow believers being arrested and put in prison. They were being taken from the community.
34 For you sympathized with the prisoners and accepted with joy the confiscation of your possessions, because you know that you yourselves have a better and enduring possession.
The correct response to those that have been put in jail for their faith is sympathy. To remember and care for those who have been removed from the corporate gathering of the saints. In bible times believers would give just about anything to free a brother from prison.
The believers were sympathize with fellow Christians that had been arrested and those that are being mistreated and tortured. They were to remember them as though they were in prison as well or as if they were receiving the cruel punishment themselves. Of the 195 countries in the world 46, nearly 25%, have anti conversion laws with 33 having laws specifically prohibiting the attempt to convert someone to your faith.
In the united states we currently do not have many Christians that are in prison or being because of their faith. But I do think this can extend out into a more general context. The heart hear is sympathy for those who have been taken from the community of believers.
Like the hospitality that has changed in the last 2000 years there are other changes as well. With the development of senior care facilities and communities, many seniors find themselves separated from the community of believers.
As the church has fallen away from biblical community and biblical authority, it continues to drift away from the community that we see in the new testament.
41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
As the church drifts away from the truth of God’s word so goes with it the things that make the church the body of Christ. The american church has become unaware of the individualism that is so prevalent in the minds of Americans. The community that is being discussed in scripture is not individualistic, it is a place that experiences live together, worship together, faith together, meals together, and praise to God together. It said they devoted themselves to the meeting together.
Honor the Marriage
Honor the Marriage
4 Marriage is to be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, because God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Inside the church, the family of faith, marriage is to be honored by all. In the beginning when God had made man and women, Adam and Eve, God instituted marriage.
24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.
Before the first sin had been commited, in the presence of God there was husband and wife. Marriage is to be held to the honor that God has placed it. Even after the fall of man God has chosen for marriage to be a symbol and type of the relationship between Christ and the Church. The bridegroom and the bride.
7 Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself.
When ever we speak of marriage we should always turn to Ephesians.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, 23 because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. 27 He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. 28 In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 since we are members of his body. 31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32 This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.
There is a special honor for the marriage. The Jews that this book was written to would have known this. They would have been familiar. With the scriptures in Genesis of the creation of marriage, the Proverbs that are full of the wisdom towards marriage, the examples of the consequences that come from dishonoring marriage Like Abraham and Hagar or David and Bathsheba and others. There were laws pertaining to what was appropriate for marriage.
But like the Gentiles we find ourselves in a different situation.
Since the beginning there has been attack on marriage. That attack continues to grow and grow and in our country most grow up without any awareness that marriage is anything other than a legal partnership before the state. There are few biblical examples in our lives to follow and to see what this looks like.
The mass majority of believers find themselves when they hear the scriptures find themselves well outside of what God’s desire is for marriage. The constant bombardment of media, entertainment, social media, and advice from friends and family all foster a culture that find themselves out of line with God’s will. I would be confident to say that no one here has not found themselves convicted by the scriptures in this area.
This is where we must hear the author of Hebrews and turn from the sins that we have committed intentionally and unintentionally. And stand firm in our position as saved sinners, washed clean by his blood. Like David, there are consequences that happen do to our actions in the past but that does not prevent us from living as Paul states
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
The future
No matter where we find ourselves today, we are not bound to continue forward down the same path. We can still hold marriage in high honor. We can strive to align our marriages to God’s will as far as we can. Sometimes the other person is not willing, but each of us must always do our part.
As a church, a family of faith we can sit in a culture that has no regard for the sanctity of marriage be different. Be Holy. That will start with looking to the next generation.
Marriage counseling in the church typically one of the last items on the list before marriage. This is how I have always known it to be. But I think this is something we must change and in reality it is a sign of a weakness in the church.
The reality is that marriage training starts the day a child is born. They will grow up watching you. You will be their primary example and baseline of what God wants for marriage. You stand before the children God has put in your care and show them by your example what you believe is what God want in marriage.
As they grow, I believe marriage counselling or training starts in the home with fathers. Marriage counselling. Actually God’s will for marriage should be taught to children before they ever even have a thought about dating. Why have we been lead astray to abdicate this to the world or to Pastors.
Your children are in your care. If you don’t teach them the world will.
I have come to believe that a child is under the leadership and responsibility of the parents, specifically the father until they are married to another. It is at the point of marriage that a child leaves the leadership of the parents.
24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.
We see this in bible times of adult children in the home until they are married. We might think that times have changed. But I think it would be wise of us to consider the risk of removing our responsibility of leadership before we are supposed to.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We have looked at the first 4 areas of service that we are to give the Lord based on the reality of his saving work in our lives. We will continue to see more of these over the next couple of weeks. We must also remember that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that produces these in our lives.
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
4 As you come to him, a living stone—rejected by people but chosen and honored by God—5 you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.