Heb 13:7-16 Being Prepared
Notes
Transcript
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
While you may not have this specific concern, you likely have other concerns that you are preparing for. This could be a car accident or a house fire or even simply getting sick this week. There is nothing wrong with preparing for a disaster or a bad scenario. The author of Hebrews is addressing a local church that was facing a difficult time and, in a few years, they were going to face severe persecution where many of them lost their lives because of the name of Jesus.
The author of Hebrews comes to the end of his letter by giving them some final instructions here from v7-16 in order for the church to be prepared for the rough times ahead of them.
The author of Hebrews has given us an amazing view of God in chapter 12 culminating with the statement that our God is a consuming fire, our God is the God of both mountains, Mt Sinai with the terrifying display of God’s holiness and Mt Zion with the amazing display of God’s love and compassion. Then the author moved quickly from theory to practice, from love of God to love one another, then a couple of weeks ago when we studied the previous verses, we saw that we must pay close attention to how we live so that we live in purity and free from the love of money.
In these verses today the author of Hebrews gives us four crucial sets of instructions to help us navigate safely through the inevitable rough paths of this life headed our way. Starting with v7.
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
1. Remember and imitate v7
Now, why did I go on talking about godly men who influenced me and taught me God’s Word? Because that is exactly what this verse commands us to do, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
We are to remember those godly men and women who were Christ’s presence in our lives, who led us in the right way to consider the outcome of their lives and humbly imitate their faith.
Furthermore, we have such a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us who are in God’s presence now, there are so many godly Christians and martyrs about whom we can read and be encouraged and emboldened to live a life that honors and pleases God, through the storms that might come our way.
This is consistent with the purpose of chapter 13, which is to strengthen the little first-century church so it will ride out the coming storms of persecution. We will do well and finish the race well if we remember the godly leaders we’ve had the pleasure of following and learning under. It is the leaders for whom we see their way of life and the right outcome of their choices for whom we should attempt to imitate their faith.
One of the ways that we will be prepared for the future is by remembering, considering, and imitating the virtues of the faithful Christians who have gone before us.
However, all godly saints are not completely perfect and are not always available for us to seek counsel. But, we have someone much greater, Jesus. Jesus Christ is always available, for as the author adds in what is perhaps the most famous verse in Hebrews, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (v. 8).
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
2. Remember and imitate Jesus v8
None of our heroes of the faith compare to Jesus. The greatest ones are great because of their likeness to Jesus. Faithful godly leaders are good because they point to the greatest One we should remember and imitate.
What a contrast between Jesus and all humans. We all come to existence at conception, and then throughout our lives we are constantly changing. A sweet newborn and a little child grow so fast and change so fast, if you don’t see them for a year you can hardly believe how much they have changed. Then throughout the years, we keep changing and before you know it you need a knee replacement. There is a point in time when all of us change so much that we literally need a new body and this body just wears out like an old garment.
But it is not only our physical bodies that change throughout the years. Our personalities never stop changing. Our relationships change as well.
To meet someone twenty years ago is to meet another person. Forests rise and stand for a millennium—and fade into deserts. Rivers cut canyons and disappear.
In this life, it seems that the only thing sure is change! We humans appear for a little while to laugh and weep and work and play, and then we are gone. This is a gloomy thought. That is the heart of the book of Ecclesiastes, vanity and striving after the wind. All human beings long for something solid, something completely stable.
But the great truth is this, God does not change, and neither does the Holy Spirit or the Son, Jesus Christ. In fact, the very same Old Testament Scriptures and wording that describe God the Father’s immutableness are applied directly to Christ (cf. Psalm 102:27 and Hebrews 1:12; Isaiah 48:12 and Revelation 1:17). This means that though the Savior has ascended into Heaven and dwells in that splendor, he is the same! He is the same in his wrath and his love and mercy and compassion and tenderness as he was here on earth. YesterdayJesus “offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death” (5:7). Today he is a high priest before the Father who is able to sympathize with our weakness because he “has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (4:15). And forever this same Jesus “always lives to intercede for” us (7:25). Our priest is the same yesterday as he will be for eternity?. He is eternally the same. We need not fear opinion changes or mood swings in Jesus! His character will never change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
No matter what lies ahead in this always-changing world with its drifting continents and fading sun—no matter what the future may bring, or what might be lurking in the woods (or in the change of centuries? Or the next epidemic? or the next government leader), we must sustain ourselves with this focus—remembering and keeping our focus on Jesus Christ, our eternal, unchangeable, amazing Savior, Friend, Redeemer, God. If we keep our focus on Jesus there is no need to fear the future. We will be truly prepared for the unexpected if our focus is on the One Who never changes and will never change. Who holds the future and the whole world in His hands.
There is so much just here in v8 and how much we benefit from keeping our focus on Jesus, but the author of Hebrews goes on in v9-14 to give specific instructions to the first readers of this letter.
The threat the first-century church was facing was not only the imminent threat of persecution but they also were assaulted by a strange teaching that combined esoteric eating practices with their Christian faith. No one knows exactly what the practices were, though we do know that some held that their special diet would make them better Christians.
9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
3. Don’t be carried away by anything but Jesus v 9-14
After telling us to remember and imitate Jesus, keeping our focus on Jesus the author gives us these verses which to us (especially at first) seem kind of pointless. Really, why did he have to talk about this whole ordeal of food? We might think that they would have known better.
We must remember that the readers of this letter were former Jews, who grew up learning and following the Old Testament law with all the distinctions between clean and unclean foods that one should eat. That if you eat certain foods you become defiled. Now, they have been following Jesus and there hasn’t been any teaching about food. There were some that came teaching some new things they never heard about how to be a better Christian by following some rules. That seemed to make sense and resonate with them.
Thus, in the midst of the chaos it was easy for them to be deceived and be carried away by following certain new rules that likely were somehow connected to the old ways they were familiar with. It is unlikely that we will be deceived by similar diet regulations, however, when trouble comes it is so easy to be carried away by two extremes.
When trouble comes it is so easy to be carried away by two extremes. One is to overly think and prepare for the worst to the point of consuming your thinking and your energy. The other extreme is just be overwhelmed by it all and relying only on our own abilities and strength in trying to survive or deal with a situation.
Our spiritual growth through difficult times does not come through a special diet or by how we prepare for it. It is only by grace, by relying on and staying close to the source of life and mercy and grace, that is Jesus. He is the vine we are the branches, we will survive and grow if we are connected and close to Jesus, to His grace.
Grace is like the Earth’s water system it comes down. Just as the waters of Niagara roll over the falls and flow down a path to make a river below, the river keeps going down reaching and filling more and more lower areas bringing life and growth. Grace is the same way it comes down and reaches deeper and deeper into the heart, bringing life and blessing to the deepest and darkest part of our hearts.
Thus, we must not be carried away by any distractions, but we must go to Jesus. The author compares the amazing access we have to God through Jesus who is far better and greater than the Old Testament tabernacle.
We have the privilege and honor to have Jesus so we must not lose sight of Him. We must not get mixed up with strange teachings such as those leading to spiritual diets or anything that will distract us from Jesus. Our spiritual food is Christ himself, His body, His blood is what gives us life, not just life but eternal life.
Then in v11 and 12 the author continues making the connection with the Old Testament saying that the sacrifices offered on the Jewish great Day of Atonement were a prophetic type for the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). On the Day of Atonement a bull was slain to atone for the sins of the priest and his family, and a lamb likewise was sacrificed for the sins of the rest of the people. The blood of these sacrifices was taken into the Holy of Holies, but both of the carcasses were taken outside the camp and burned up (Leviticus 16:27). Therefore, those under the old sacrificial system could not partake of this great offering as a meal.
But Jesus, the ultimate atoning lamb, was sacrificed outside the camp—outside Jerusalem’s walls, on Golgotha—as an offering to God. This means two great things: 1) All those who remained committed to the old Jewish system were excluded from the benefit of partaking in Christ’s atoning death. And, 2) Jesus’ death outside the camp means that he is accessible to anyone in the world who will come to him. Jesus planted his cross in the world so all the world could have access. And there he remains permanently available!
Thus there is only one thing for us to do as the author of Hebrews exhorts us in v13,14
13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
The cities of the earth—all earthly institutions—will fall apart. Only the heavenly Zion will remain. Therefore, we must not be carried away, but we must go to Jesus, flee to him outside the camp, and willfully embrace his “disgrace,” for such an act is worth doing a million times a year!
Thus Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever,” becomes our constant meal—our food, our drink, our life—and we will receive from him grace upon grace upon grace. And because he is outside the camp, he will always be accessible. In fact, he is with us, in us, and coming to us! If we have Jesus we do not need any special food or any special practice or rule or regulation. It is through Him that we have access and the true food that we need, Jesus’ body and blood.
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
4. Worship and Work v 15,16
We must remember and imitate godly leaders; we must remember and imitate Christ. We must not be carried away by anything but Jesus and we must worship and work.
First we must make worship the first priority of living as v15 says: Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name We all need to be like Mary—at Jesus’ feet looking up so that our eyes are truly on Him. She worshiped him “in spirit” (John 4:23, 24) because she knew that Jesus was more valuable than anything else in creation. She valued him so much that in a moment when she had an opportunity she ran to grab her treasure, the alabaster flask and she poured her wealth on Jesus. It was such an extreme “waste” of money that the disciples scolded her. But, Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me”.
Here in v15 it is very specific about what we should do. It is a sacrifice—“a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.” He wants us to say it. He wants to hear us verbally praise him. Like the song, we are going to sing for the closing song which says:
My Jesus I love Thee I know Thou art mine
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign
My gracious Redeemer my Savior art Thou
If ever I loved Thee my Jesus 'tis now
However, what we confess with our lips should match what our hands do. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. We must worship Jesus like Mary and we must work hard like Martha for our text says in v 16 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
True worship always involves giving ourselves in the service of Christ and others. We may participate in an amazing time of worship and prayer,
Singing with all our hearts the best worship songs and pray with heartfelt prayers and listen attentively to the Word of God. But, if we do not do good to others and share what we have, none of it gives pleasure to God. However, what honors and pleases God is true worship combined with a life of service to others and God. This comes back full circle with how the author started this section … by remembering and imitating godly leaders. Godly leaders who honored God with their lips, giving worship and praise by what they said and what they did …
We have seen that in rough or difficult times we are to
• First, remember and imitate godly leaders, remembering their faith, and imitating their lives
• Second, remember and imitate our Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday and today and forever.
· Third, not be carried away by distractions and false teaching, but instead go to Jesus, by being connected to the vine, receiving the nourishment that we need from His grace.
• Fourth, keep a lifestyle where our actions match our words of worship and love to Jesus. Join me in allow this praise and worship with our lips with our closing song.